PETALUMA, Calif.-PixToPix Inc., an Internet-based picture-messaging service, announced it is shutting down its free interoperability service. The service allowed users to send camera-phone pictures to subscribers of rival carriers.
Although questions to the company went unanswered, the shutdown is likely due to interoperability agreements among most of the nation’s carriers. During the past several months, Cingular Wireless L.L.C., T-Mobile USA Inc., Sprint Corp. and others have signed agreements to allow their subscribers to send picture messages to subscribers of other carriers. Prior to such agreements, camera-phone users could send their images only to e-mail addresses and subscribers of their same carriers.
PixToPix launched two years ago to solve such interoperability issues. The company, founded by three computer aficionados, offered a free service that allowed users to send their images to subscribers of rival carriers.
When a picture message was sent to a PixToPix user, the service intercepted the message, stripped it down to the basics and then reformatted it into a message suitable for the receiver’s wireless phone and service. Last year, PixToPix claimed more than 3,000 users.
Interestingly, in its shutdown announcement, PixToPix said its service “for carrier customers will remain unaffected.” The company had previously said it was working to sell its technology to wireless carriers.
