Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) and Far EasTone Telecommunic-ations Co (遠傳電信), the nation's two major mobile-phone operators, announced a business alliance yesterday that enables users of these two companies to communicate using multimedia messaging services (MMS).
"The move is expected to boost public acceptance of MMS," Kao Kai-sheng (高凱聲), the deputy director of the Directorate General of Telecommunications, said yesterday.
MMS is an advanced data transmission mobile service allowing cellphone users to send color photos, multimedia graphics and audio files. To access MMS, both the message sender and receiver must have color-screen handsets.
Kao said that since the basic motivation of using a phone is to be able to connect to others, therefore MMS acceptance won't be high until the interconnection problem is solved.
Some Taiwanese operators began offering MMS in the third quarter last year, while the market reaction was lukewarm due to the compatibility problem.
Problems with MMS are two-fold. First, handset makers have not created a standard for MMS exchange, resulting in blurry photos when, for example, transmitting from a Nokia phone to a Sony Ericsson handset.
Second, wireless-service providers also have no MMS communication standard, meaning subscribers with different services, such as Taiwan Cellular Corp (
Yesterday's alliance demonstrated these problems can be solved as long as competitors can sit down and talk, Kao said.
Kao made the remark on sideline of a press conference yesterday, where Chunghwa and Far EasTone announced the launch of MMS interconnection plan.
The authorities are currently coordinating with other mobile operators including Taiwan Cellular, TransAsia Telecommunications Inc (
"We hope by August users of all these operators can access MMS without limitations," Kao said.
Along with the service launch, both Chunghwa and Far EasTone decided to cut MMS rates nearly in half to NT$4 each transmission.
Last year, when MMS first debuted in Taiwan, the charge was as high as NT$13 each transmission.
A telecom analyst said that compared with prices in other regional markets, the promotion is quite attractive.
"The MMS fee [whichthese two companies offered] is quite cheap in comparison with other countries [such as China, South Korea and Singapore]," said Ann Liang (
However, Liang expressed skepticism about the market reaction.
"Handset prices and service fees are prerequisites, but can't guarantee success," Liang said.
She added that there are currently not an extensive number of handset models supporting MMS, with Nokia being the only vendor which has a wide variety of models.
Agreeing with Liang, an industry veteran in Chunghwa said the market also needs more competition to bring prices down.
"If we can offer a wide selection of MMS handsets at affordable prices, the MMS penetration rate is expected to increase," said Shih Mu-piao (
According to Liang, MMS may take some time to take off.
"More significant growth [in MMS use] will take place next year," she said.
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