T-Mobile and Sprint agree on MMS

**SurrealNetworks** · 07-07-2005, 12:35 PM

Sprint and T-Mobile today became the latest wireless companies to drop the corporate barrier on camera phone photos.

The nation’s No. 3 and No. 4 wireless companies announced a deal that will allow their customers to send photos and videos back and forth.

The deal is Sprint’s first U.S. photo sharing agreement. Cingular and Verizon wireless customers announced a similar deal for their customers in March.

Ever since wireless companies began adding cameras to phones about three years ago, their customers have been somewhat restricted on how they can share their photos.

Sprint customers, for instance, could send photos directly to the phones of other Sprint customers, or to any e-mail address. But they couldn’t send them to the phones of customers of T-Mobile.

“Interoperability” agreements between wireless companies can be tricky, involving issues ranging from technology that doesn’t match up, to cooperating with a competitor. It took years before the large wireless companies allowed customers to send text messages to customers of their competitors.

“Sprint continuously looks for ways to enhance Sprint PCS Picture Mail service to make it easier and more convenient for its customers to share, print, store, manage and display digital images,” said Pierre Barbeau, general manager of Sprint’s Picture Mail service.

Michael Gallelli, director of product management for T-Mobile, said the company’s customer’s don’t care what network their friends use — they just want to communicate.

“T-Mobile’s customers want to expand their communications world by allowing more people — regardless of wireless provider — to receive their text, instant and picture messages,” Gallelli said.

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**greg00ss** · 07-07-2005, 12:53 PM

cool..

**blacknoi** · 07-07-2005, 12:54 PM

Well thats great news. Who's left now? Just Verizon that we cant MMS to? (I can already MMS to AT&T customers, never tried to a cingular, but I'd assume it'd work).

**aristoBrat** · 07-07-2005, 01:25 PM

Regarding Cingular,
T-MOBILE, Cingular Team On Multimedia Messaging
InformationWeek - Manhasset,NY,USA
... T-Mobile USA and Cingular Wireless said Thursday that they will enable
users of one carrier to send and receive multimedia messaging service
(MMS) messages ...

http://informationweek.com/story/sho...leID=165700481

**steveh552** · 07-07-2005, 01:37 PM

Yeah, I send to my friend on Cingular all the time. Never tried it with anyone else though.

**rwalford79** · 07-07-2005, 02:20 PM

From what I understand, only the Cingular users in former AT&T markets are the ones able to send and receive messages from T-Mobile. I had some friends in the Tri-Cities Tennessee area, who use Cingular, and CANT get messages from me, but can send them TO me....

Now they are on Verizon... Most people I know are on Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, so for me the new Sprint MMS Inter-carrier compatibility is a must... I just long for Verizon to get a move on it.

**Random420** · 07-07-2005, 03:38 PM

Well this is all fine and good but what about sharing video clips???

**PDXMatt** · 07-07-2005, 03:40 PM

Originally Posted by Random420

Well this is all fine and good but what about sharing video clips???

Good question. Wonder what will happen to pixtopix.

**roamer1** · 07-07-2005, 05:06 PM

Originally Posted by PDXMatt

Good question. Wonder what will happen to pixtopix.

Doing video is harder than pics (at least when going between CDMA and GSM carriers...going between two CDMA carriers or two GSM carriers is easy) because of differences in codecs.

-SC

**No Nothing** · 07-07-2005, 07:52 PM

That's awesome news!

I wonder how long it'll be until it actually works.

**PDXMatt** · 07-07-2005, 07:59 PM

Originally Posted by No Nothing

That's awesome news!

I wonder how long it'll be until it actually works.

I have been sending and recieving from SPCS users for over a month now. You should try it with a SPCS buddy.

**No Nothing** · 07-07-2005, 08:13 PM

Hmmm. I'll give it a shot at work tomorrow.

**SurrealNetworks** · 07-07-2005, 11:45 PM

T-Mobile has had agreements with ATT and Cingular for a while and now Sprint. The article says this is Sprints first agreement and I read that Verizon and Cingular signed Verizons firs mms agreement about a month ago. Why are other carriers so slow to adapt to open standards but it seems that T-Mobile is pretty quick to "share" with others. They don't restrict wap access and are quick to provide unlock codes. So far T-Mobile seems "nice".