MMS

Alltel debuts avatars for messaging service

Phil Goldstein — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 09:50:28 -0400

Alltel Wireless is launching an animated MMS service that allows users to send messages using 3D avatars, photos and their own voices.

The service, called Alltel Avatars, is powered by Vidiator, a 3G multimedia platform, and looks to bring a higher level of personalization to messaging, going beyond the usual emoticons.

For more:
- see this article

Related Article:
AT&T to energize its mobile branding

Sybase acquires C&W MMS hubbing service

Sue Marek — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:09:25 -0400

In another sign of consolidation in the mobile messaging space, Sybase 365 announced that it has acquired Cable & Wireless' MMS hubbing service and partnered with the firm to get exclusive rights to market and sell mobile data roaming services. Sybase says the deal makes it the largest mobile data, or GRX, provider in the world. Sybase now has direct relationships with 73 carriers and, through peering agreements, its reach extends to nearly 500 operators.

Sybase has been providing text messaging interoperability since 2006, when it purchased Mobile 365.

For more:
- see this article

Related article:
Sybase completes its acquisition of Mobile 365

T-Mobile USA crosses 30M subs

Thu, 08 May 2008 06:59:58 -0400

T-Mobile USA reported first-quarter net income of $462 million, up from $315 million a year ago--service revenues increased 14 percent to $4.57 billion from $3.99 billion in Q1 2007, growth the operator attributed to an increase of contract customers.

Net Subscribers: T-Mobile USA added 981,000 new customers during the quarter, crossing the 30 million subscriber mark.

Churn: The carrier's average monthly rate of churn fell to 1.7 percent during the quarter, down from 1.9 percent a year ago.

ARPU: Average revenue per user (ARPU) slipped to $51, a $1 decline from last year.

Data services revenues were $760 million in the quarter, accounting for 16.6 percent of ARPU or $8.50 per customer, up from 15.8 percent/$8.20 in the fourth quarter of 2007 and 14.3 percent/$7.50 in Q1 2007. The company said messaging revenues remain the primary driver behind data growth: The operator reported that SMS and MMS swelled to 33 billion in the first quarter of 2008, compared to 24 billion in the previous quarter and 16 billion a year earlier. T-Mobile USA cited the popularity of its myFaves unlimited rate plan as a major catalyst behind its messaging growth.

Technology Business Research analyst Ken Hyers noted that if the newly acquired 1.13 million SunCom subscribers are removed from T-Mobile's quarterly additions, year-to-year growth shrinks to only 14 percent, which is the slowest year-to-year subscriber growth yet for the carrier.

For more:
- read this release about T-Mobile USA's Q1 results

AT&T adds 2.7M subs

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 06:59:58 -0500

The largest U.S. wireless operator reported strong subscriber and revenue growth in fourth quarter 2007. Wireless revenues totaled $11.4 billion, up 16.3 percent over the year-ago quarter. Service revenues were $10.2 billion. Here's a rundown of other key metrics:

Growth: AT&T added 2.7 million net wireless subscribers, up 13.5 percent from fourth quarter 2006. In addition, gross adds totaled 6 million, up 9.6 percent from the year-earlier fourth quarter. At year-end AT&T's total wireless subscriber base was 70.1 million.

ARPU: ARPU was up 2 percent to $50.28. AT&T said this was the sixth consecutive quarter that it has reported ARPU growth.

Data: Data revenues increased 57.5 percent over the year-ago quarter. The total data revenue is now $2 billion, up from $1.3 billion a year ago. Data now accounts for $12 of postpaid ARPU and it makes up 19.9 percent of AT&T's total wireless service revenue. During the quarter, AT&T customers sent 496 million MMS and 32 billion text messages.

iPhone: At year-end AT&T had 2 million iPhone customers on its network and 40 percent of those customers were new to AT&T. In December, the company doubled its iPhone sales as compared to sales in October and November.

TDMA: AT&T will shut down its TDMA network at the end of February. The operator moved 390,000 subscribers off the network in fourth quarter and there are about 390,000 subscribers that remain on the TDMA network. AT&T says most of those are wholesale customers. -Sue

For more on AT&T's quarter:
- read this press release

Verizon Wireless raises SMS rate to 20 cents

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 06:59:55 -0500

Verizon Wireless has joined Sprint by raising the price of sending and receiving text messages to 20 cents apiece, up from 15 cents each. The move is an effort to drive more subscribers over to messaging bundles, which include a $10-a-month 500 text and picture messaging bundle plus unlimited in-network messaging. Sprint's rate hike took effect about three months ago. The major U.S. carriers each raised their text message rates from 10 cents to 15 cents per message last year.

For more on Verizon Wireless' SMS rate hike:
- read this article from RCR News

Related Articles:
Cingular Wireless set to increase SMS to 15 cents Article
T-Mobile USA: SMS same price as MMS Article
Report: Operators fumbling $4.9B in SMS revenue Article
Sprint raises SMS rate from 10 cents to 15 cents Article
Verizon Wireless: We have the heavy texters Article

Metric:Content users spend $77 a month

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 06:59:55 -0500

According to a report from J.D. Power & Associates, mobile phone owners in the U.S. who use their handsets to make use of email services, text message alerts, MMS and music download services spend about $77 a month, while those who do not use these services tend to spend $63 each month. Mobile subscribers who use these non-voice applications spend nearly twice as much on handsets as users who do not: $70 vs. $37. The firm said the price of handsets, applications and services has led to a monthly wireless bill that is $13 more expensive in 2007 than it was in 2005.

For more on the study:
- read this press release

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CTIA study: Carrier mobile data revenues surpass $10B

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 15:21:40 -0400

CTIA president and CEO Steve Largent opened Day Two of his organization's annual CTIA Wireless I.T. and Entertainment event with an update on the growth of mobile data. According to Largent, mobile data now amounts to $10.5 billion in U.S. carrier revenues--during the first six months of 2007, consumers dispatched 2.6 billion MMS messages, 472 million of them in June alone. -Jason

CTIA: 243M mobile users in U.S.

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 06:59:57 -0400

CTIA president and CEO Steve Largent opened his organization's annual CTIA Wireless I.T. and Entertainment event with a quick pulse check of the industry's subscriber growth. According to Largent, as of June 2007 the U.S. wireless consumer market surpassed the 243 million subscriber mark, representing roughly 81 percent of the overall national population. In addition, U.S. subscribers now send an average of 1 billion text messages every day, transmitting 28.8 billion messages in June alone.

"This is an industry that continues to grow, continues to innovate and continues to diversify," Largent said.

In a follow-up press release CTIA said its recent survey found that wireless data service revenues for the first half of 2007 rose 63 percent year-on-year to $10.5 billion. Now data revenues account for 15.5 percent of all wireless service revenues. The survey also found that wireless subscribers in the U.S. sent 2.6 billion MMS messages during the first half of 2007, which is nearly twice as much as last year. The survey found that wireless customers used more than 1.1 trillion minutes in the first half of this year, up 18 percent year-on-year.

For more on the survey:
- read the press release

SPOTLIGHT: CTIA study: Carrier mobile data revenues surpass $10B

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 06:59:52 -0400

Andrew Seybold: Intro to IMS--Simplifying the network

Andrew M. Seybold — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 08:59:02 -0400

We are hearing a lot about IMS these days, but what is it? Most of you probably know that IMS stands for Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem, and perhaps you know it is intended to replace the wireless network operator's current complex back-end architecture with simpler architecture based on routers and IP soft switches. Today's wireless networks grew up using massive hardwired switches based on SS7 (Signaling System 7), which was invented by AT&T to replace its older switching systems already in use.

If you look at diagrams of most wireless networks today, you will see that in addition to a large number of MSCs (Mobile Switching Subsystem), over time a number of servers have been added for a variety of additional functionality including SMS, IM, MMS and other forms of voice and data services. The problem with these wireless network back-ends is that they have grown up piece-meal over time and have become extremely complex. Another problem is the large number of touch points,or different connections to the outside world's wired and wireless systems, that have been added over the years.

The idea of IMS is to simplify all of these connections and, over time, replace SS7 switches and other hardware components with IP components where most of the work is done in software. While numerous IMS systems are under construction, many of them got their start when 3G data services were added to the networks. Airvana, a Massachusetts company, has been pioneering in this area for a many years, AT&T, is building an IMS system based on Alcatel-Lucent technology and systems around the world are coming on line.

Even though the IMS standard was adapted for wireless by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Program) and the 3GPP2 (the CDMA version of the standards organization), there are still many differences between IMS systems being deployed. In some cases, the network operator finds out that the equipment it is installing has some proprietary components embedded in it. As with any standard, vendors want a marketing advantage.

Although IMS was updated for wireless by the 3GPP, there are still a number of issues that make “standardIMS less than optimal for many wireless networks. There is the issue of IMS being designed to handle SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) applications but not doing an optimal job with non-SIP applications (the bulk of what is being used today). Another issue is that “standard IMS still has what some consider to be too many touch points to external networks and not enough security across the network to defend against rogue devices or content.
These issues are currently being addressed in both the 3GPP and the 3GPP2 thanks to the leadership of Verizon Wireless and a consortium of companies that have reviewed the specifications and made additional recommendations. The result will be a more secure version of IMS with a single touch point to trusted sources beyond the network and a more secure network that could be disengaged from the rest of the worlds networks if there were a massive denial of service or other disruption on the wired Internet or elsewhere.

Everyone in the industry believes that IMS, or at least IP in the network back-end, is the ultimate goal. We also know that all of the new wireless technologies including WiMAX, UMB and LTE are being designed to embrace IP from devices through the entire network back-end. The results will be long time coming though, as there are a number of issues yet to be resolved. If you look at a diagram of a typical IMS back-end, you will see that it has grown to be almost as complex as todayÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s hard switch systems, and then there is the issue of a network dumping SS7 switching, which is still carried on the books and being depreciated.

All of this will work itself out. What are the benefits for wireless network operators? They range from a better, easier-to-manage network, to less capital expense and less operating expenses. The resulting benefit is that wireless network operators will be able to deliver voice and data services less expensively in the future.

What does this mean for end users? Over the long term, as the cost to deliver voice and data across the networks declines, the cost of using voice and data should also decline. Finally, because we will, at some point, live in an all-IP world, we will have more flexibility to access other networks, different content and a new set of services these systems will enable.

Like any new technology upgrade, conversion to IMS will occur slower than has been predicted and there will be bumps along the way. But once we get there, wireless networks will be more efficient, and services to the customer base will be more plentiful and less expensive.

Andrew M. Seybold is an authority on technology and trends shaping the world of wireless mobility. A respected analyst, consultant, commentator, author and active participant in industry trade organizations, his views have influenced strategies and shaped initiatives for telecom, mobile computing and wireless industry leaders worldwide.

Note from editor: Learn more about IMS and it's potential at IMS 2007 Sept. 19-20 in Washington, D.C. Hosted by FierceMarkets, this event delves into the technical and business aspects of deploying IMS. Here's a link to the agenda.

T-Mobile USA's revenues make up 23% of DT's

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 06:59:58 -0400

T-Mobile USA continues to buoy its European parent's financial situation, revenues from T-Mobile USA make up about 23 percent of DT's total revenue. Here's how the U.S. carrier's Q2 breaks down:

Subscribers: T-Mobile USA now has nearly 27 million subscribers, after adding 857,000 net new subs during the second quarter. Of those, 687,000 or 80 percent were contract customers.

ARPU: T-Mobile USA's blended ARPU was $53 during the quarter, up from $52 in the first quarter of the year. Data services revenues totaled $616 million in Q2, representing 14.7 percent of blended ARPU, or $7.80 per customer. During Q1 those revenues made up 14.3 percent of blended ARPU, or $7.50. Net income for Q2 was $350 million, up 11 percent from $315 million in Q1.

Messaging: Uptake in SMS and MMS drove ARPU's growth as the total number of SMS and MMS messages increased to 18 billion in Q2, compared to almost 16 billion in the Q1 and 8 billion in the Q2 of 2006.

Churn: Contract customer churn was 1.8 percent during the quarter, down from 1.9 percent in Q1 and 2.2 percent in Q2 of 2006. Blended churn of both prepaid and contract subscribers was 2.7 percent for the quarter, slightly up from 2.6 percent Q1 of 2007.

For more on T-Mobile USA's Q2:
- read this press release