OSLO, Norway-Multimedia messaging service (MMS) competition is already warming up in Norway, with Telenor Mobile announcing it will charge only 68 U.S. cents for each MMS message sent, about 50 percent less than its original plan. The Norwegian operator had previously announced that it would charge a flat fee of $1.21 per picture message sent.
MMS messages on the operator’s network are free through the end of October, when the new per-message pricing will begin. Telenor said the pricing plan would make it easier to send and receive multimedia messages across the different networks in Norway and abroad.
The cost is about five times as much as for a text message. The price applies to messages within a volume limit that can be sent and received via all mobile handsets currently available. Receiving messages is free.
“Text messaging is a huge success in Norway,” said Esben Tuman Johnsen, assistant head of information for the operator. “One reason for this is the simple pricing scheme which gives customers s clear picture of how they pay for the service. We therefore decided to adopt the same principle for multimedia messaging.”
Some European operators are charging for MMS based on message size, but the majority offer per-message fees.
