A social network service solution based on mobile subscriber contact-books

Telecom carriers today are focused on finding ways to leverage their resources and capabilities to transform themselves into integrated service providers. Provisioning of social networking services is one of their considerations; however, the Web 2.0 social networking paradigm is not a good fit for carriers. This paper introduces a solution to address this need. The solution integrates the contacts list subscribers maintain within their cell phone contact-book with a subscriber profile maintained by the telecom carrier to provide a social network and social networking service built upon real world relationships rather than digital world relationships. It uses a built-in communication mechanism and subscriber-driven privacy management system to ensure subscriber privacy protection. It also provides an avenue for a new operator service model. In short, the solution lets carriers provide their customers with useful and reliable social networking services in a trusted and secure environment.