OXFORD, United Kingdom-As many mobile operators around the world install and trial their multimedia message service (MMS) infrastructure, those that have launched services have already commenced a pricing war. Two of Europe’s biggest operators, Orange and MmO2, which launched their service a few weeks ago charging 0.66 euro (US$0.65) per MMS, have been undercut by Vodafone, which launched its service last week, with an MMS price of 0.60 euro (US$0.59).
However, MmO2 has responded to Vodafone’s offering by claiming it was the first U.K. operator to offer MMS services to both contract and prepaid customers; it can provide its customers with roaming in the Netherlands, Ireland and Germany; and by adding O2’s picture messaging service to existing tariffs, subscribers can reduce the price per message to 0.46 euro (US$0.45). Regardless, at the launch of its new Vodafone Live! service, Chief Executive Chris Gent was keen to stress that the company sees MMS as the next major revenue driver for mobile data and an introduction for users into third-generation (3G)-type services.
While all the major operators claim the target market for MMS is the present users of short message service (SMS), market researchers believe that nearly 90 percent of current SMS traffic is generated by users under 21 years old. The cell phones capable of supporting MMS are all priced at the top end of manufacturers’ product ranges. However, Ericsson and Siemens have committed to launch new, low-cost MMS phones by December or the first quarter of 2003 to better address the youth market.
