O2 inks MMS interoperability deal with Vodafone

trap4

From ElectricNews.net -

"O2 Ireland said that it had finally inked an MMS interoperability deal with Vodafone Ireland, which should allow customers of rival telecoms to send picture messages to each another by September. O2 admitted that some technical snags meant the deal "was not a perfect arrangement," but these should be worked out by year's end. One such glitch will prevent O2 customers from sending MMS messages over 30KB in size to Vodafone Ireland customers."


Unbelievable isn't it! The average user doesn't even know what the word 'interoperability' means. As if it wasn't bad enough trying to explain to him previously that MMS doesn't yet work like SMS where you can just send it to anyone and they'll get it, now you have to explain to him that, yes, he can now send MMS to anyone, but, ..... well.... he has to make sure it's 30kb or less in size. "Excuse me? 30 kwhats? How big is that? How do I know how big my MMS is?"

Stupid, stupid, stupid :-(

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-Jim
http://mmsmemo.blogspot.com

MiCr0

afaik vodafone won't allow mms's over 30k at all

jesus_thats_gre

I can confirm that Vodafone do not allow MMS messages about 30K. MMS messages that are less that 1kb, i.e. plain text messages with up 1024 characters, are only charged at 19 cents each. MMS messages that are between 1kb and 30 kb are charged at 49 cent.

People dont realise that sending text messages over MMS is far cheaper than sending SMS messages. 160 character for 13 cents as oppossed to 1024 characters for 19 cents.

trap4

Thanks for that lads. I must admit I didn't know about that limitation. Why? Because, even though I have an MMS capable phone I don't know anyone else who does so I still haven't sent one :rolleyes:

I'm amazed to learn this though. I mean the Nokia video recording software on my phone cuts out at about 10 seconds worth of video because, I was led to believe of the 100kbish limit on MMS. So why the much lower limit from Vodafone? And doesn't that make video MMS totally useless? Or is it not supported at all?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-Jim.
http://mmsmemo.blogspot.com

jesus_thats_gre

You can send a video clip if you restrict it to 3 or so seconds. I am guesing the limit is there to prevent people send MMS messages with 10 or so attachments, this way they send 3 messages with 3 or 4 attachements each, thus more money.

sirlinux

That 30k Vodafone MMS limit is so annoying, if i take a 640x480 picture with my t68i it's always just over 30k, and the bloody thing doesnt tell you till it's tried sending the message. They didnt have that limit back at the start of MMS. It should be upped to something sensible like 50 or 100k

MiCr0

it could be the wap gateway that they are using with the MMS system. Some of the earlier one's had a limit of 30k on downloads.

jesus_thats_gre

The limit of 30 kb applied from the launch.

sirlinux

At the start of free period I could happily send an MMS with 2 or more 640x480's in it, much more than 30k, the limit came in within a week or two though.

jesus_thats_gre

Fair played, that shouldnt have happened.

Hobart

Originally posted by trap4
Thanks for that lads. I must admit I didn't know about that limitation. Why? Because, even though I have an MMS capable phone I don't know anyone else who does so I still haven't sent one :rolleyes:

You should be able to send an MMS to anybody with any phone. They will not be able to view on that phone, because it might not be MMS compatible, but they should get a link on the phone that will allow them to view it in either e-mail or a web browser.

The interoberability is mostly to the transcoders (for image translation per mobile unit) and billing systems the operators need in order to be able to properly charge for an MMS. The limitation on the 30k is mostly down to the wap gateways the operators are using for the MMS push.