U.S. Cellular, Verizon interoperate on MMS

Mobile Internet, The,  April, 2005  

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U.S. Cellular is jumping on the MMS interoperability bandwagon. The company has achieved MMS interoperability with Verizon Wireless, which means that U.S. Cellular subscribers with cameraphones can now exchange pictures and other types of multimedia messages with Verizon Wireless subscribers.

Prior to having MMS interoperability, customers could only send photos from the handset to an e-mail address or from handset to handset, but only among same-carrier subscribers. The Tier 2 operator also expects to soon achieve interoperability with Cingular Wireless.

According to Jay Ellison, U.S. Cellular's executive vice president and COO, the carrier will begin to market its MMS capabilities to subscribers once it achieves interoperability with a few more large operators.

The company is in the process of outfitting its sales associates and some of its customer service representatives with MMS-capable devices so that they can be trained and educated on the service.

"When we launch something, we are not usually first, but with our customer satisfaction strategy, we make sure we have the backend support before we do it," Ellison says.

U.S. Cellular is the first Tier 2 operator to announce MMS interoperability with another carrier, and the company is expecting its MMS traffic to increase as consumers become aware of the interoperability.

Ellison expects MMS traffic to mimic SMS traffic, which increased substantially once carriers achieved interoperability.

Verizon and Cingular's MMS systems have been interoperable for the past couple of months, even though the two operators haven't proactively marketed the capability to customers. Jim Straight, staff vice president, wireless data and multimedia services at Verizon Wireless, said last month there already had been an upsurge in MMS traffic.

Mobile 365, formerly InphoMatch, is providing the MMS exchange for Verizon and U.S. Cellular. The company also handles the MMS interoperability for Verizon and Cingular, making interoperability between the three operators fairly easy to accomplish.

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