re: "The Buck" on the "Common MMS Vision"
"Leading companies in telecommunications agree that Multimedia Messaging Service will build on the success of SMS services"
Also clipped below are Septembers articles on Comverse, Ericsson, and Europolitan Vodafone MMS Teaming and Logica Demo in Rome.
>> CMG, Comverse, Ericsson, Logica, Motorola, Nokia, Siemens Unveil Common MMS Vision
From Simon Buckingham
Mobile Streams
18 June 2001
"Leading companies in telecommunications agree that Multimedia Messaging Service will build on the success of SMS services"
In a unique initiative CMG, Comverse, Ericsson, Logica, Motorola, Nokia and Siemens unveil a common vision for Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). The objective is to raise overall awareness of MMS and to ensure consistent market development into an open global market.
MMS is driven by active individuals creating content and sharing experiences through multiform communication that combines new forms of rich content, such as audio and video clips, photographs and images with text messaging. MMS adds new functionality and new content types in small steps that consumers will readily understand and enjoy. This will lead to rapid adoption and penetration of the service.
Each of the companies believes MMS will be a key mass-market service for mobile operators, content providers, application developers and advertisers alike. Owing to the rapid uptake of messaging services by various market segments, the concept of MMS is appealing for all users. In addition to MMS being a key person to person service, it is also a bearer for media content and other applications.
SMS services have been the fastest growing mobile data services with notable impact to operator`s revenue and profit. According to the GSM Association, the worldwide SMS traffic amounted to 15 billion messages in December 2000. MMS will offer a natural and successful evolution of the SMS business model, generating new revenue streams from existing customer base and attracting new customers. Messaging in the form of MMS will lead the way to profit in 2.5/3G just like SMS has done in 2G.
MMS is a 3GPP and WAP Forum standardised service that can interoperate with existing mobile SMS devices and other messaging applications. MMS can be seamlessly integrated into existing services and brought directly to a large customer base. By planning the MMS implementation today, the early movers will be well positioned to take advantage of 2.5/3G technologies and applications." <<
>> Europolitan Vodafone Of Sweden And Comverse Team Up To Conduct A Joint Trial Of Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)
Dion Price
Mobile Streams
5 September 2001
Comverse, the world's leading supplier of software and systems enabling network-based multimedia enhanced communications services, and Europolitan Vodafone, the innovative Swedish mobile operator, today announced a joint trial of the Comverse MMS solution over Europolitan's 2.5/GPRS network.
During the first phase of the project that began in late June an internal technical trial is being conducted with Europolitan Vodafone employees. The participants are equipped with either a WAP-enabled handset or a PDA to send and receive multimedia messages combining pictures and text, as well notification of new messages. The second phase of this project, which will commence in November, will focus on Europolitan Vodafone customers, specifically the youth and young professionals.
"We chose Comverse as our MMS trial partner due to its leadership position in the emerging MMS market," said Mikael Kluge, Director of Mobile Internet of Europolitan Vodafone. "We are pleased thus far with the results of our joint MMS trial. In the long run, we envision multimedia messaging becoming a highly popular mass market application, especially with the wide-scale deployment of our GPRS and UMTS next-generation networks."
"We are very excited to have teamed up with Europolitan Vodafone on this pioneering MMS project," said Micha Ben-Assa, Vice-President Europe of Comverse. "We believe MMS will help innovative mobile operators such as Europolitan Vodafone generate substantial new revenues and deploy services in their next-generation network infrastructure. Building on the proven SMS model, multimedia messaging adds new capabilities - such as audio, video and pictures that enrich the user experience and drive usage."
Ericsson, the leading Swedish manufacturer of mobile phones, will participate in the trial and supply their new MMS enabled handset, the T68 for some of the trial participants. The T68 is Ericsson's first mobile phone with color display, MMS, and digital imaging and audio capabilities. This very small, powerful and sleek mobile phone, with a completely new look and feel, is developed for GSM 900/1800/1900 to work on GPRS networks. <<
Also Logica's September demo in Rome in mid-September ...
>> Logica Demos MMS Over Gprs In Rome
Dion Price
Mobile Streams
18 September 2001
Logica presents the world's first live multimedia demonstration over a GPRS network, at the Mobile Multimedia Messaging Conference in Rome, today.
Multimedia Messaging (MMS) allows mobile devices to send and receive a range of messages such as animated graphics, pictures, and streaming video and audio.
Today's demonstration took place at the Mobile Multimedia Messaging conference in Rome and is based on Logica's Multimedia Messaging Service Centre (MMSC). It highlighted the ability of Logica's MMSC to manage rich media messages, and to adapt this content depending on the recipient's device capabilities and preferences.
"Our demonstration has proven that operators can offer compelling multimedia messaging today in a GPRS environment. It will be critical for operators to offer these services as soon as possible in order to build on the success of SMS and drive up their revenues," commented Gerry McKenna, Chief Operating Officer at Logica Mobile Networks.
"As the market leader in Mobile Messaging we constantly seek to innovate and we see multimedia messaging as the key for bringing new-generation services to subscribers," McKenna added.
Logica is now installing trial versions of its Multimedia Messaging Service Centre on GPRS and UMTS networks.
- Eric - |
