Telstra and Vodafone Australia reach agreement for MMS

Telstra has signed an agreement with Vodafone allowing interoperability between the carriers for multimedia messaging services (MMS).

Optus and Vodafone announced in December last year the ability for customers to send full colour images, text and sound direct on their mobile phones between networks.

Vodafone and Telstra customers can now send colour photos, sound clips and text across both mobile phone networks.

The agreement represents a crucial step forward in providing customers with the complete Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS or PXT™) experience.

“We’re delighted that we can now offer our customers even wider use of this great service, now that we have agreements with two other carriers,” said Vodafone Australia Managing Director, Graham Maher.

“The successful intercarrier SMS agreement struck between carriers in April 2000 contributed to enormous growth in text messages, and we are already seeing a great response to PXT™.“

According to Telstra Consumer and Marketing Chief of Products, Mr Rick Wakeham: ”The growing range of new MMS-compatible mobile phones and intercarrier arrangements are set to drive growth in the Picture Messaging market.”

A key advantage of this service is that messages can also be sent to a non-MMS mobile phone. An SMS/ TXT™ message is sent to recipients advising them of how they can view the message on websites, and MMS picture messages can also be sent to any e-mail address worldwide.