The Open Mobile Alliance industry standards group announced a major new specifications release aimed at breaking down the barriers between GSM and CDMA carriers. The specifications center around picture messaging and multimedia messaging services, allowing GSM subscribers to send MMS messages to CDMA users.
“The Open Mobile Alliance focuses the power of its collective membership and collaborates with other industry organizations to further accelerate interoperability,” said Jari Alvinen, OMA’s chairman of the board. “The OMA’s commitment to accelerate the movement towards interoperability of MMS as well as its interworking with other messaging systems will help ensure a uniform, consistent and seamless user experience for messaging.”
The OMA said its new Multimedia Messaging Service version 1.2 enabler release will ensure interoperability among most major messaging systems, including MMS and e-mail services. The specifications define a minimum set of requirements and conformance for interoperable MMS applications, MMS-capable handsets and servers, and content provisioning.
The OMA said it worked with the GSM Association, the CDMA Development Group and the 3GPP and 3GPP2 standards organizations to create the specification. The move comes after pledges from the various groups to work together on MMS interoperability. OMA said it will hold a “test fest” later this month to ensure the finalization of the MMS version 1.1 specification.
The move is especially notable for the U.S. market, where CDMA and GSM carriers sit side by side. Although picture messaging has been available from most carriers for almost a year in the United States, the systems are not currently interoperable. Conversely, in GSM-dominated Europe, most carriers have signed MMS interoperability agreements.
