NEW YORK-A group of seven network infrastructure and software systems developers have joined forces in what they are calling an “initiative” to explain and promote multimedia messaging service in advance of commercial product availability starting late this year.
Participating in the alliance are CMG Wireless Data Solutions, the Comverse unit of Comverse Technology Inc., L.M. Ericsson, Logica, Motorola Inc., Nokia Corp. and the Siemens Information and Communication Mobile Group.
MMS can be considered the third generation of short message service. It will offer motion video and audio enhancements to enhanced messaging service, which is akin to the 2.5G version of SMS.
The 3GPP and WAP Forums, of which the seven MMS initiative participants are members, have developed standards for multimedia messaging service.
“EMS allows users to add life to their text messages in the form of images, melodies and animations. However, it is limited to basic text, bit-mapped images and simple sound,” the companies said in a press release issued jointly.
“With MMS, it will be possible to combine conventional text messages with richer content types, including photographs, images, voice clips and, eventually, also video clips,” Recently, many of the same companies, announced they were banding together to promote EMS. During a conference call June 19 to announce the MMS initiative, a Nokia spokesman said his company decided to skip EMS and make MMS a priority because “we have developed a smart messaging technology platform for delivery of value-added services … and we already have that technology in the hands of millions of users.”
Handset and network products to handle multimedia messaging already are undergoing many operator trials, and carriers are inquiring about MMS platforms, according to executives of the participating MMS initiative companies.
Representatives of the seven companies will give presentations at the IBC Multimedia Messaging Service conference in Rome, Sept. 17-18.
