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SCMP Reporter

Peoples Telephone has entered the multimedia messaging services (MMS) battleground, offering free GPRS (general packet radio service) for data transfers.

Peoples' MMS technology runs on its PCS (GSM 1800) network. Peoples hoped the service would boost the usage of wireless data and attract corporate users. It said yesterday it would not charge subscribers to send or receive MMS messages on its GPRS network until the end of September.

To date, half of the carriers in Hong Kong have launched MMS, but all carry different tariff plans.

CSL Hong Kong launched the world's first commercial MMS in March. The monthly fee of HK$49 allows for one megabyte's worth of data, or HK$149 for two megabytes. Users pay HK$15 for downloading a single animated cartoon. Both the sender and the recipient must pay for the service.

Hutchison Telecom's subscribers must pay a monthly fee of HK$9, and HK$3 for each MMS message.

They can download and send pictures of celebrities or animated graphics from the company's Web site. Hutchison does not charge recipients.

Peoples, one of the smallest of Hong Kong's six mobile operators, will not provide MMS content on its site.

Instead, it expects users who buy the new Nokia 7650 handset, which has a built-in camera, or the Sony-Ericsson T68i, which has an optional camera attachment, to send each another photographs by MMS.

A company spokeswoman said Peoples was in talks with content providers to offer more services in the future.

CSL welcomed Peoples' entry to the market, but declined to comment further until the eventual billing plan is announced.

Orange said that since it launched MMS last month, it had converted about 5,000 of its 1.7 million users to the service.

'We are partnering with a lots of content providers in offering the service. Only the senders need to pay and they are charged per event, rather than data transmission. The pricing plan is more standard and more economical for customers,' Orange spokeswoman Teresa Lok said.

She said the company would offer other value-added services in the future. For example, if a customer was using a non-MMS handset but was sent a MMS, he would be notified by a short text message and directed to view the MMS content over the Internet.

Sunday Communications plans to launch its MMS by October, while SmarTone Telecommunications intends to launch a service in partnership with China Mobile this quarter.

Service operators expect usage of MMS to grow with the launch of new MMS-enabled handsets from Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, Siemens and Motorola this year.



Peoples enters MMS battlefield with free-of-charge offer