AT&T Wireless and Cingular have announced an agreement to share Multimedia Messaging Services between the carriers' systems.
Two leading wireless carriers, AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless, announced the first agreement to offer intercarrier Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). Starting today, Cingular and AT&TWireless customers can share multimedia messages with each other from their wireless phones.
As a result of this agreement, AT&T Wireless and Cingular customers can now send and receive messages that include text, photos, animated graphics, voice messages, music, and video clips with each other using the MMS feature of their phones — quickly and conveniently. Integrated camera phones with MMS allow customers to capture unexpected moments and share them instantly with another compatible mobile phone or any email address.
With the growing popularity of camera phones and MMS-capable devices, the companies believe that this move will mark the beginning of a much broader industry trend. Both companies cite cross-carrier text messaging as a major reason for the explosive growth in text messaging over the past two years, and they view cross-carrier MMS as an essential element for widespread adoption of this service as well.
“It is vital to Cingular to allow our customers to share multimedia messages with as many other wireless customers as possible. Offering intercarrier MMS with AT&T Wireless is an important first step in moving towards industry-wide intercarrier MMS,” said Matt Kaiser, Director of Multimedia Messaging, Cingular Wireless.
“Today’s announcement builds on our legacy of innovation in messaging services,” said Glenice Maclellan, vice president of messaging services at AT&T Wireless. “In late 2001, AT&T Wireless was the first to introduce cross-carrier text messaging, and the following summer, we introduced the first MMS-capable camera phone in the US. Our launch with Cingular is the first critical step towards enabling our customers to share their pictures and MMS messages with friends and family — regardless of carrier.”
