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MMS, called "the next 'killer app'" by O2 CEO Peter Erskine, is touted as the next generation of messaging over mobile phones as it allows consumers to send content such as birthday cards, animated cartoons and multi-media presentations to other MMS enabled phones or to e-mail accounts. As bandwidth increases, users will also be able to forward audio and video clips.
These advanced SMS services will be launched across all of O2's networks (Ireland, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands) this autumn. Moreover, the firm said that it expects MMS messages to cost pay-as-you-go users around EUR0.47 (STG0.30) per message, more than double what the firm charges for SMS messages. There is also a tariff plan whereby contract customers will have a certain number of monthly MMS messages allotted to them, and will pay for each message beyond that limit.
Content to compose MMS messages will be available through O2's Web portal and the firm plans to launch a range of multimedia text alerts for customers covering sport, entertainment, gossip, news, travel and weather. Many of these value-added services will be provided by O2 content partners such as Arsenal and Bayer Leverkusen football clubs, Hallmark, Ringtones Online and Warner Bros.
"We are not going to be the first to market, we are going to be the best to market," Erskine said at a press conference for the launch of the new services to the company's 17.5 million customers.
O2 also said it expects that "the appeal of MMS services and devices will drive the uptake of GPRS medium-speed mobile data connections," which would mean important new revenue streams for operators and content providers. Thusfar, the take up of 2.5G (GPRS) has been generally disappointing in Europe for most mobile operators.
Nokia will be O2's preferred technology partner for the launch of the service, under the terms of a letter of intent signed by the two companies. As such, most of O2's approved MMS enabled phones are Nokia devices, including the Nokia 3510, 7650 and 6610. The Ericsson T68i and the Sharp GX-1 will also be available for customers.
The company has not said what pricing will be for the handsets but expects costs will be between EUR235 and EUR345, depending on sophistication and model.
In another announcement, O2 published trial prices for its third generation (3G) service on the Isle of Man, giving users in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Ireland some idea of how much they can expect to pay for UMTS services.
Four new tariffs have been launched, all of which are aimed at corporations, small and medium-sized companies and consumers who use the Net frequently. The initial prices are set to gauge "what customers want and how much they are willing to pay for the various services," said Mark Briers, director of 3G at mmO2.
Typically, a residential customer wishing to surf the Web, download music, play games, send and retrieve multimedia e-mails from a 3G handset or device will be charged around STG1.40 per day, or STG44 per month.
Business customers can expect to pay just over STG80 per month and small and medium companies between STG60 and STG70. Customers who only access Manx Telecom's 3G WAP Portal, called Prontonet, are likely to spend around STG9 per month.
The most basic option will allot 1MB of data to users per month and the most expensive option allots 100MB. Charges for use beyond those limits range from STG0.50 to STG2 per MB.
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