October 9, 2004
Out of focus
"Interoperability problems are at every level of MMS, from inside the cell phone networks to the board rooms where carriers negotiate roaming agreements."
Great article from Phonecontent.org on the many interoperability obstacles surrounding the sending of pictures from one wireless carrier to another.
"So far in North America, just Sprint and Bell Mobility let subscribers swap photo messages across the two carriers' networks."
"Varying vendors' MMS centers have subtle differences that gum up the complicated tasks. For instance, some MMS centers handle all the standardized audio file formats, others can't."
"For something like a simple text-only message, these kinds of nuances on the network level don't really matter," said Robin Nijor, a vice president of sales and marketing at LightSurf, which outsources MMS Center services to Sprint, Bell Mobility and other carriers. "But it causes problems for MMS."
Handset makers add to the interoperability problems by making phones like snowflakes: no two seem to be alike. Each is hard-coded with seemingly random combinations of existing digital file formats. Also, screen sizes, processing prowess and pixel paucity vary greatly.
As a result, MMS has to be tailored carefully so as not to overwhelm some phones. "There needs to be an intermediary step so the messages are tailored to what the phone can do," Nijor said. "That makes it very difficult."
Another major problem: Each carrier charges differently for the MMS services. Prices vary greatly. Some wireless message services charge for sending and receiving messages; others make receiving messages free. It makes for very complicated business dealings, Verizon's Nelson said."
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