Multimedia Messaging Service 242406 225242746 2008-07-12T17:29:32Z 84.9.60.166 /* MMSC Vendors */ {{dablink|For the Microsoft Media Server (MMS) protocol, see [[Microsoft Media Services]].}} {{Cleanup|date=May 2008}} {{Unreferenced|date=August 2007}} '''Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)''' is a standard for telephone messaging systems that allows sending messages that include multimedia objects (images, audio, video, rich text) and not just text as in [[Short message service|Short Message Service]] (SMS). It is mainly deployed in cellular networks along with other messaging systems like SMS, [[Mobile Instant Messaging]] and Mobile [[E-mail]]. Its main standardization effort is done by [[3GPP]], [[3rd Generation Partnership Project 2|3GPP2]] and [[Open Mobile Alliance]] (OMA). == Basics == [[Cellphones]] have popularized the services provided by SMS (Short Message Service), MMS (Multi-media Messaging Service), as well as [[WAP]] ([[Wireless Application Protocol]]). Text messaging (SMS,which is a text-only messaging technology for mobile networks) is mostly popular in Asia and in Europe. SMS is used by people to send short messages usually from person-to-person. Picture messaging has become more and more popular now that [[cellphone]]s have built in or attachable cameras on them enabling people to send picture messaging back and forth. Picture messaging is made possible through the MMS system which supports all kinds of photos, graphics, animation, as well as video and audio clips. MMS is the evolution of '''[[Short message service|Short Message Service]]'''. It allows the sending and receiving of multimedia messages. It has been designed to work with mobile packet data services such as [[General Packet Radio Service|GPRS]] and [[CDMA2000|1x]]/[[EVDO]]. Many people get images off of the internet and send them around to their friends and family. Mobile cards are popular. This option also allows certain phones to feature games. The most recent addition is the mobile internet which is powered by WAP, (Wireless Application Protocol). This application allows one to access their emails, to get directions, the news and sports statistics etc... The options are endless and unpredictable == Applications == * MMS-enabled [[mobile phone]]s enable subscribers to compose and send messages with one or more [[multimedia]] parts. Multimedia parts may include text, images, audio and video. These content types should conform to the MMS Standards. For example a phone can send an MPEG-4 video in AVI format, but the other party who is receiving the MMS may not be able to interpret it. To avoid this, all mobiles should follow the standards defined by [[Open Mobile Alliance|OMA]]. [[Mobile phone]]s with built-in or attached cameras, or with built-in MP3 players are very likely to also have an MMS messaging client—a [[software]] program that interacts with the mobile subscriber to compose, address, send, receive, and view MMS messages. * MMS Technology is tapped by various companies to suit different solutions. [[CNN-IBN]], India's biggest English news channel, has Mobile Citizen Journalism where citizen can MMS photos directly to the studio.{{Fact|date=June 2008}} * The [[Indian Premier League]] Club, [[Kolkata Knight Riders]] has its team owner and [[Bollywood]] Celebrity [[ShahRukh Khan]] uploading photos from the match venue to the website directly. Using a Mobile Photo Sharing Platform called Mobshare, these photos are also broadcasted to thousands of fans directly on their mobile phones. == History == MMS was originally developed within the ''Third-Generation Partnership Program'' ([[3GPP]]), a [[Standards organizations|standards organization]] focused on standards for the [[Universal Mobile Telecommunications System|UMTS]]/[[Global System for Mobile Communications|GSM]] networks. Since then, MMS has been deployed world-wide and across both [[Global System for Mobile Communications|GSM]]/[[General Packet Radio Service|GPRS]] and [[CDMA]] networks. MMS has also been standardized within the ''Third-Generation Partnership Program 2'' ([[3rd Generation Partnership Project 2|3GPP2]]), a [[Standards organizations|standards organization]] focused on specifications for [[CDMA2000]] networks. As with most 3GPP standards, the MMS standards have three stages: * Stage 1 - Requirements (3GPP TS 22.140) * Stage 2 - System Functions (3GPP TS 23.140) * Stage 3 - Technical Realizations Both 3GPP and 3GPP2 have delegated the development of the Stage 3 Technical Realizations to the [[Open Mobile Alliance|OMA]], a [[Standards organizations|standards organization]] focused on specifications for the mobile wireless networks. [[GSM Association]] has produced a MMS Interworking Guidelines [http://www.gsmworld.com/documents/index.shtml IR.52] document for MMS interconnection between GSM operators. == Facts == * Currently{{when}} 88% of the market of SMS users are under the age of 22 years old.{{Fact|date=June 2008}} * Text message usage in 2002 was at approximately 300 million messages per month in the United States and today has risen to over 2.5 billion messages per month.{{Fact|date=June 2008}} * [[Verizon]] Wireless and [[AT&T]] Wireless, two of the largest [[cellphone]] companies, have been compatible with each other since [[March 18]], [[2005]]. On that day, Verizon's volume of text messages "tripled overnight" according to Verizon spokeswoman J. Abra Degbor.{{Fact|date=June 2008}} * Without getting a package deal, on average Verizon and Cingular charge 25 cents per photo message. * It is said that by 2004, SMS was the favorite method of business communication over emails, voice mail or even voice calls. * Norwegians and Irish send or receive 2 messages a day. Malaysians send or receive 4 messages a day, Koreans get 10 messages, Singaporeans get 12 messages, and people in the Philippines get 15 messages per day.{{Fact|date=June 2008}} == Challenges faced by MMS == There are some interesting challenges with MMS that do not exist with SMS: * '''Content adaptation''': Multimedia content created by one brand of MMS phone may not be entirely compatible with the capabilities of the recipients' MMS phone. In the MMS architecture, the recipient MMSC is responsible for providing for ''content adaptation'' (e.g., image resizing, audio codec transcoding, etc.), if this feature is enabled by the mobile network operator. When content adaptation is supported by a network operator, its MMS subscribers enjoy compatibility with a larger network of MMS users than would otherwise be available. * '''Distribution lists''': Current MMS specifications do not include distribution lists nor methods by which large numbers of recipients can be conveniently addressed, particularly by content providers, called ''Value Added Service Providers'' (VASPs) in [[3GPP]]. Since most SMSC vendors have adopted [[File Transfer Protocol|FTP]] as an ad-hoc method by which large distribution lists are transferred to the SMSC prior to being used in a bulk-messaging SMS submission, it is expected that MMSC vendors will also adopt FTP. * '''Bulk messaging''': The flow of ''peer-to-peer'' MMS messaging involves several over-the-air transactions that become inefficient when MMS is used to send messages to large numbers of subscribers, as is typically the case for VASPs. For example, when one MMS message is submitted to a very large number of recipients, it is possible to receive a ''delivery report'' and ''read-reply report'' for each and every recipient. Future MMS specification work is likely to optimize and reduce the transactional overhead for the bulk-messaging case. * '''Handset Configuration''': Unlike SMS, MMS requires a number of handset parameters to be set. Poor handset configuration is often blamed as the first point of failure for many users. Service settings are sometimes preconfigured on the handset, but mobile operators are now looking at new device management technologies as a means of delivering the necessary settings for data services (MMS, WAP, etc.) via [[over-the-air programming]] (OTA). * '''[[WAP Push]]''': Few mobile network operators offer direct connectivity to their MMSCs for content providers. This has resulted in many content providers using WAP push as the only method available to deliver 'rich content' to mobile handsets. [[WAP push]] enables 'rich content' to be delivered to a handset by specifying the URL (via binary SMS) of a pre-compiled MMS, hosted on a content provider's web server. A downside of WAP push is that from a billing perspective this content is typically billed at data rates rather than as an MMS. These charges can be significant and result in 'bill shock' for consumers. Although the standard does not specify a maximum size for a message, 300 kB is the current recommended size used by networks due to some limitations on the WAP gateway side. MMS should not be confused with [[Enhanced Messaging Service]] (EMS), which is simply [[Short message service|Short Message Service]] (SMS) with additional payload capabilities, allowing a mobile phone to send and receive messages that have special text formatting (such as bold or color), animations, pictures, icons, sound effects, and special ring tones. == MMSC Vendors == * [[Acision]] * [[Comverse]] * [[Huawei]] * [[Openwave]] * [[Ericsson]] * [[Nokia Siemens Networks]] * [[Motorola]] * [[LG]] * [[NowSMS]] * [[Wireless Technologies Finland]] == Open Source == * [http://www.mbuni.org Mbuni Open Source MMS Gateway] == See also == * [[Common Short Code]] * [[Enhanced Messaging Service]] (EMS) * [[Mobile Marketing]] * [[Short message service|Short Message Service]] (SMS) == Protocols == * [[EAIF]] — Nokia's External Application Interface * [[MM1]] — the 3GPP interface between MMS User Agent and MMS Center * [[MM2 (MMS)|MM2]] — the 3GPP interface between MMS Relay and MMS Server * [[MM3 (MMS)|MM3]] — the 3GPP interface between MMS Center and external servers * [[MM4]] — the 3GPP interface between MMS Centers * [[MM5 (MMS)|MM5]] — the 3GPP interface between MMS Center and [[GSM core network#Home Location Register .28HLR.29|HLR]] * [[MM6]] — the 3GPP interface between MMS Center and user databases * [[MM7]] — the 3GPP interface between MMS VAS applications and MMS Center * [[MM8]] — the 3GPP interface between MMS Center and the billing systems * [[MM9]] — the 3GPP interface between MMS Center and an online charging system * [[MM10]] — the 3GPP interface between MMS Center and a message service control function * [[MM11]] — the 3GPP interface between MMS Center and an external transcoder == Resources == * {{cite web|title=Text Messaging- American Dinosaur|first=Anthony|last=Wayne|url=http://www.articlesbase.com/cell-phones-articles}} * {{cite web|title=Three Ways to Market on Mobile|first=Mike|last=Baker|url=http://www.enpocket.com/news/in-the-press}} * {{cite web|title=Firms Make Messaging Pictures Much Easier|first=Peter J.|last=Howe|url=http://www.boston.com/buissiness/technology/articles}} * {{cite web|title=Report Dismisses MMS hype|first=James|last=Pierce|url=http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet}} * {{cite web|title=Photo Messaging Services 'Baffling' to Consumers|first=Matthew|last=Broersma|url=http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications}} == External links == * [http://www.mms-stamp.ch MMS-Stamp] - the worlds first MMS postage stamps, published by the Swiss Post after a public competition [[Category:GSM Standard]] [[ar:خدمة رسائل الوسائط المتعددة]] [[cs:MMS]] [[da:MMS]] [[de:Multimedia Messaging Service]] [[es:Multimedia Messaging System]] [[fr:Message multimédia]] [[ko:멀티미디어 메시지 서비스]] [[hr:MMS]] [[id:Multimedia Messaging Service]] [[it:Multimedia Messaging Service]] [[he:Multimedia Messaging Service]] [[lb:Multimedia Messaging Service]] [[lt:MMS]] [[hu:MMS]] [[nl:Multimedia Messaging Service]] [[ja:マルチメディアメッセージングサービス]] [[no:Multimedia Messaging System]] [[pl:Multimedia Messaging Service]] [[pt:Serviço de mensagens multimídia]] [[ru:MMS]] [[sk:Multimedia Messaging Service]] [[sl:Multimedijski sporočilni sistem]] [[sr:MMS]] [[fi:Multimediaviesti]] [[sv:Multimedia Messaging Service]] [[vi:Dịch vụ nhắn tin đa phương tiện]] [[tr:MMS]] [[uk:Послуга мультимедійних повідомлень]] [[zh:多媒體短訊]]