Sonofon, the second largest operator in Denmark, announced that it has launched Multimedia Messaging Services in Denmark through a turnkey solution delivered by End2End, the leading Mobile Application Infrastructure Provider in Europe and Openwave Systems, the leading independent provider of open software products and services for the mobile communications industry. The turnkey MMS solution is based on Openwave's Multimedia Messaging Service Center (MMSC) relay, message store and directory and is delivered as a turnkey managed service by End2End.
Sonofon's customers have been able to send photo messages as well as create and distribute other multimedia messages since December 20th. To do this, they can use a composer available on Sonofon's website, using pictures from personal gallery alongside MMS animations delivered by Iceland-based ZooM Hf.
To be able to send and receive multimedia messages, Sonofon's customers need a camera phone that supports multimedia messaging over a GPRS network. However, no GPRS subscription is required. The customer can get the multimedia settings required for the use of the service by sending an SMS to the number 1221 with the text MMS N for Nokia and MMS E for SonyEricsson mobile phones. The price of a multimedia message is 3 DKK (EUR 0.40) for both post paid and prepaid users, which is well below the average price level in Europe. MMS animations and other content services have premium prices.
"Multimedia messaging represents a huge step forward in mobile data services and has a significant importance to us as a mobile operator," says Ulrik Bulow, CEO of Sonofon. "We chose the turnkey solution from End2End and Openwave thanks to their unique ability to bring a feature rich solution to market quickly and with reduced risk and cost to Sonofon."
"The launch of multimedia messaging illustrates Sonofon's commitment to be a leader in the Danish mobile data market by continuously enhancing their service offering with innovative services and entertaining content," says Tage Rasmussen, CEO of End2End, "Our turnkey MMS solution delivered as managed service provides mobile operators with a very attractive business case to introducing multimedia messaging to their customers."
"Sonofon has always provided innovation and service to its customers and the Openwave team is excited to partner with Sonofon and End2End to bring multimedia messaging services to the Danish market," says Alex Hawker, Vice President and General Manager of Openwave. "The advanced messaging infrastructure that Openwave delivered for Sonofon is based on our people's mobile IQ gained from working in the Japanese multimedia messaging market for over the last two years. Its foundation is based on the same infrastructure that currently supports over 8 million active photo messaging users in Japan."
Sonofon and End2End will continue their close partnership to expand the MMS service and content offering over the coming months.
