fastmobile announced this week that its fastchat service is now available on the Nokia N-Gage. As well as connecting you to various IM services (and allowing you to send photos from your phone), fastchat supports VOIP chat (aka push to talk).

Press Release:
CHICAGO, Oct. 20 -- Attention N-Gage owners -- sharing gaming tips, challenging a friend or just talking trash with your rivals just got kicked into overdrive with the release of fastchat for the N-Gage.

Already available for handsets such as the Nokia 3650 and SonyEricsson P800, fastchat is the downloadable software application that brings walkie talkie capabilities (on a world-wide basis) to standard Symbian-based mobile phones.

But unlike all other push-to-talk services or applications, fastchat reaches across mobile operator networks, mobile device types and countries to instantly connect friends, family and other communities together. Equally unique is that fastchat combines its walkie talkie function with other advanced multi-media messaging features, including photos, video, text and email into one, seamlessly integrated user interface, making advanced messaging simpler than ever.

"A key differentiator of the N-Gage is its ability to connect gamers across town and around the world to gaming communities, where they can share high scores, get playing tips and even compete against "shadows" of other gamers." explains Harry Eschel, fastmobile VP and co-founder, "fastchat complements that connectedness, where subscribers are just the push of a button way from sharing tips on game play, challenging a friend to competition or announcing a new high score to the group. And with fastchat's presence feature built into the contact list, friends can see when each other are online and ready for action."

The selection of fastchat compatible phones continues to grow this year with sleek new models from Nokia, Siemens, Samsung and Motorola, to name a few, expected to be in shops by the holidays.

fastchat is available globally today to N-Gage and other Symbian handset owners through the web site of software distributor Handango, www.handango.com; or by signing up directly at the fastchat homepage, www.fastchat.com. fastchat is also distributed through a growing number of mobile retail shops in the UK and US. In the UK, fastchat will be available at Phones4U stores across the country where it is a featured offer with the N-Gage. In the US, independent mobile retailer American Connections Limited, (ACL) is leading retail distribution -- bringing fastchat to its 1,100 points of presence across the country.

About fastmobile:
fastmobile has operations in the US, Europe and Asia delivering value added messaging services over GPRS and other 2.5G and 3G mobile networks. fastmobile's flagship service is fastchat(TM), which gives the latest off-the-shelf mobile phones the power of push-to-talk instant voice communications. fastchat has virtually no boundaries -- it works seamlessly across 2.5G and 3G networks connecting subscribers nearly anywhere in the world. The company is backed by private investment and venture capital from US companies Leo Capital Holdings, BlueStar Ventures and Red Barn Investments. You may also visit fastmobile's Web Site at http://www.fastmobile.com.