News
Issue #2002 - 19 (May 2002)
(Updated May 22, 2002)

TECHNOLOGY

China Mobile, Hong Kong CSL and Nokia demonstrate MMS services over live GPRS networks in Beijing and Hong Kong at the China Telecom Day 

(May 16, 2002) - China Mobile Communications Co. Ltd. and Hong Kong CSL Ltd. have successfully demonstrated multimedia messaging service (MMS) roaming and internetworking between their live high-speed GPRS wireless data networks in Beijing and Hong Kong. The exciting next-generation multimedia messaging service, which enables people to send pictures and multimedia messages to each other, was publicly demonstrated in Beijing today at the China Telecom Day. 

The successful demonstration in Beijing replicates the world's first-ever international MMS roaming and interconnection between Sonera and EMT of Estonia over their live GPRS networks in February, as well as Asian's first MMS roaming and interworking between Chinese operators in April, both conducted using Nokia MMS phones and infrastructure. Nokia also has played a crucial role in Asia's first MMS commercial service launched by Hong Kong CSL in March 2002. 

Mr. Lu Xiangdong, deputy general manager of China Mobile, and Mr. Hubert Ng, chief executive officer of CSL, exchanged digital pictures and a multimedia e-card between Beijing and Hong Kong using the Nokia 7650, the first MMS mobile phone with a built-in digital camera. The exchange of the multimedia message was carried out using a MMS solution provided by Nokia and transmitted over CMCC's and CSL's live commercial GPRS networks. 

The China Telecom Day demonstration coincides with China Mobile's commercial launch of its nationwide GPRS service and its Monternet brand of advanced mobile messaging services. The successful demonstration is the result of comprehensive implementation and trialing conducted by Nokia in April with Chinese mobile operators. Hong Kong CSL Limited recently launched Asia's first multimedia messaging service, implemented with the Nokia MMS solution. 

The successful demonstration marks an important milestone in the development of MMS in the Asian market, showing that both mainland Chinese and Hong Kong mobile subscribers can in the near future send and receive multimedia messages and experience seamless, uninterrupted multimedia messaging service when traveling and using different GPRS networks. The demonstration is significant because the two operators used live GPRS data networks supplied by different manufacturers. 

"This demonstration represents a breakthrough of implementing leading technologies and applications," said Lu Xiangdong, deputy general manager from China Mobile. "With MMS over our commercially launched high-speed GPRS data network, the potential usability of our wireless service portfolio, the Monternet services, will be greatly expanded, offering enriched experience to all of our users in the near future. We are pleased to work closely with leading players in MMS, such as CSL and Nokia to jointly promote MMS in the Chinese market." 

"By demonstrating successful MMS roaming and interworking, we are moving MMS further into the marketplace," said Hubert Ng, CEO of CSL." We have launched Asia's first multimedia messaging service (MMS) early this year and have been bringing fabulous and exciting MMS applications for our customers in Hong Kong. With this landmark demonstration, it is our pleasure to see that this service is not confined to local environments, but can be supported by our roaming partners. This greatly expands the scope of the MMS business, and we are glad to develop this opportunity together with China Mobile and Nokia." 

"Nokia is very pleased to help make this groundbreaking demonstration possible, through close cooperation with China Mobile and CSL," said Urpo Karjalainen, president, Nokia (China) Investment Co. Ltd. "At Nokia, we know that MMS will be key to the future of mobile services, making it a very important service for operators' business. We see the future of person-to-person messaging to be based dominantly on multimedia messaging, and are now proud to start in this new area with leading operators like China Mobile and CSL," he adds. 

Commercial MMS services available include person-to-person MMS, which is a greatly enriched version of SMS with the capability of sending photographs, pictures and voice or sounds together with text messages. Also available is a range of content-download services allowing users to deliver ready-made color postcard type of messages to friends with their favorite pictures or animated cartoons. 

The Nokia MMS is a complete end-to-end solution fully standardized to provide the fullest possible interoperability between different GSM/GPRS networks. An integral part of the Nokia MMS solution is its support for legacy phones, allowing all network subscribers to enjoy multimedia service as soon as network service is available. Nokia has extensive experience in MMS, having been piloting commercial systems since third quarter 2001 and delivering to customers since December. 

For more information: http://www.nokia.com

MobileInfo.com’s Comments & Advisory:  Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) offers a ray of much-needed hope for GPRS and 3G service providers (and of course, network infrastructure suppliers). While technology demonstrations must move forward and prove the efficacy of technology, there is very little indication that this ray of hope is going to become sunshine soon. MMS is bandwidth-intensive and expected to be expensive. We need to work on these two challenges before affordable business and consumer value becomes widespread. 

Note: This news release may contain forward-looking statements. Readers should take appropriate caution in developing plans utilizing these products, services and technology architectures.  All trademarks used in this summary are the property of their respective owners.