From now on Vodafone will place Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger) on its cell phones. By clicking on the icon, Messenger can be downloaded and you can chat immediately. This is how text, speech and video integrate into one channel. Calling will soon only mean 'calling live'. Then it'll be about exchanging (live) images, speech or (live) text messages. That we only used to be able to talk has long been forgotten. Telecom operators then only have a technical role: connecting us to the visual world. social contact brands, into which Live Messenger could grow, facilitate this contact. This is a step in that direction.

• in Dutch