STOCKHOLM, Sweden—Wireless giant Ericsson continued to lead the multimedia messaging service infrastructure industry through its new deal with T-Mobile. T-Mobile will use Ericsson’s MMS center to launch services in its Hungary market and plans to roll out similar services in its German, Austrian and U.K. markets this summer.
“Messaging is predicted to be hugely popular and will play a key part in accelerating the adoption of these services in the mass market,” said Hamid Akhavan, T-Mobile’s European chief technology officer.
Ericsson’s deal with T-Mobile comes only a few months after the company announced wireless giant Vodafone Group plc will use Ericsson’s MMS infrastructure throughout its network. Ericsson said it has more than 80 MMS trial systems around the world and more than 20 commercial MMS contracts.
Ericsson’s successes contrast with the troubles at short message service giant Logica, which recently announced job cuts in its messaging division. The company has been working to break into the MMS space, but has met stiff opposition from infrastructure giants like Nokia Corp. and Ericsson, which missed out on the growth of SMS and are looking to make up for it in the MMS market.
Separately, Nokia said China Mobile Communications Co. Ltd. and Hong Kong CSL Ltd. completed an MMS roaming and interworking trial using Nokia’s phones and infrastructure.
Also, Italian operator Wind said it will use infrastructure products from Compaq Computer—now part of Hewlett-Packard—and BMD Wireless to offer SMS services.
