TIER-ONE CARRIERS IN THE FALL OF 2004 committed that they would be fully MMS-interoperable, enabling U.S. consumers to send photos, video clips and other goodies to users on any other nationwide network.
We’re still waiting.
U.S. network operators generally claim to be fully interoperable with their fellow carriers when it comes to multimedia messaging, and the nation’s two largest carriers-Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless L.L.C., which has since rebranded as AT&T Mobility-announced interoperability more than two years ago.
But like a photo-message lost in the ether, there appears to be a disconnect between what the carriers claim and real-world usage.
“Interoperability is still broken,” said Zaw Thet, CEO of 4INFO Inc., a startup that delivers local listings, news, weather and sports via SMS. “Cingular uses Nokia’s MMS technology; it doesn’t talk to Verizon,” which uses multimedia messaging services center from Motorola Inc.
So instead of receiving a picture from a friend with AT&T Mobility, a Verizon Wireless customer might receive a text message with instructions on how to access the photo using a computer or a simple note saying “file error.” Or the AT&T Mobility user might simply receive a message saying the transmission simply failed, leaving the Verizon Wireless user without any notification.
Similar hiccups occur with messages going from Verizon Wireless’s network to AT&T Mobility’s.
“When I send you an MMS message, AT&T doesn’t know if you have the correct handset” to receive the content, agreed Analisa Roberts, senior director of partner management at RealNetworks Inc.
Carriers stick to story
An AT&T Mobility representative said the company was unaware of any current interconnectivity problems, and that the system is “fully operational from a network level.” The carrier also said the fact that the two MMSCs come from different vendors “has no bearing on our ability to do interconnectivity.”
But repeated attempts to send photos between AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless handsets last week failed.
That snag may be costly. A lack of interoperability shackled the text-messaging market in the United States, analysts say, until network operators made cross-carrier text messaging possible in 2003. Uptake surged when Americans finally didn’t have to worry about which friend or colleague was on which network. Meanwhile, companies such as 4INFO are waiting to deploy multimedia mobile services until network operators ensure subscribers can send and receive messages across carriers.
Usage growing
Which is not to say that multimedia messaging is lagging. Figures from M:Metrics indicate about 36 million users-roughly 17% of U.S. mobile subscribers-sent photo messages in May. The figure marks a nearly threefold increase from the 13 million users who sent an image from their phone in March of 2005, according to the market research firm.
Much of that uptake is likely due to more attractive pricing and messaging bundles. While multimedia messages were often billed separately from-and at a higher rate than-text messages, most carriers now package the two as a single “bucket” of messages. And more subscribers are certain to send and receive multimedia messages on their phones as camera-phone quality improves and user interfaces become simplified.
But network operators must iron out the wrinkles for MMS uptake to mirror text-messaging, which has exploded in recent years, Roberts said. And it’s not just messaging dollars the carriers may be missing out on; there are also “unseen revenues” to be had, Roberts said. Margins from messaging will likely decline over the next few years-much as they have with voice-but as mobile content moves from ringtones to a host of offerings, users may want to buy images, video clips and music as a gift, sending it to friends via MMS.
Advertisers could push mobile commercials to users looking for information on specific products, or could subsidize premium MMS offerings. Also, multimedia messaging could be a driving force in viral mobile marketing, much as it has become on the Internet. Marketers are sure to look to mobile users to distribute video clips and other surreptitious advertisements to their friends.
For mobile to cash in, though, users will need to be able to send a multimedia message simply, and that it will be received by their friends-no matter which network is on the other end.
“MMS still has a lot of work to be done to be as smooth and seamless as SMS,” Roberts said. “Carriers have invested a lot in their MMS gateways; they want to get their money out of it.”
