Moving Forward with MMS
British network operator Vodafone has turned to Ericsson to supply Multimedia Messaging software to support the roll out of its MMS service in Europe scheduled for the middle of this year.

Based on the mass-market popularity of its predecessor SMS, Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) that enables subscribers to compose and send media rich messages to one another is expected to be the appetizer to the main course of highly anticipated 3G services.

MMS will offer Vodafone customers dramatic mobile-to-mobile messaging capabilities by enabling color pictures, animations, audio and video clips to be delivered over its GPRS networks.

Vodafone will initially roll out MMS in Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the U.K.

Ericsson will provide the network infrastructure to support MMS and, more than likely, will be one of the vendors supplying MMS-enabled handsets.

Shedding Debt
As Vodafone moves forward with its investment in MMS, it is still burdened with an estimated $23-billion debt. After overspending on 3G licenses and after investing heavily in other carriers, the world’s largest wireless operator is now gradually shedding its financial burden.

Recently the company negotiated a deal with Siemens to sell its remaining stake in Atec Mannesmann, the German engineering and automotive firm, for around $3.3-billion.

Siemens bought a majority stake in Atec two year ago when Vodafone took over Mannesmann.

Even though Vodafone’s option to sell its holdings does not expire until December 2003, a company spokesman said it was seen as an opportune moment to sell.