Camera phone users have one more reason to smile as Bell Mobility and Sprint launch cross-border picture messaging service Bell Mobility and Sprint customers first in North America to share
pictures between wireless service providers
TORONTO,Feb. 24 2004 --
Bell Mobility and Sprint today announced the
launch of North America's first interoperable picture messaging service for
camera phone users. Until today, camera phone users were only able to share
pictures via the Internet or with other camera phone users who subscribed to
the same wireless service provider. Bell Mobility and Sprint are leading the
way in bringing seamless picture messaging sharing to North American camera
phone users.
Allowing users to send picture messages, which can include sounds and
text, is also commonly referred to as multimedia messaging. Industry analysts
forecast that once multimedia messaging interoperability - or sharing of
picture messages between camera phone customers with different wireless
service providers - becomes commonplace, its success will rival the dramatic
growth experienced by text messaging, or short message service (SMS),
interoperability. Since the first text messaging interoperability agreements
in 1998, the service has exploded: over 500 billion text messages were
exchanged globally in 2003 and over 70 per cent of mobile phone owners use
text messaging (Mobile Data Association, January 2004).
According to research firm IDC, 80 million camera phones have sold
worldwide to date, including six million in the USA; in 2004 camera phones are
expected to outsell digital cameras.
"Bell Mobility's customers already enjoy a full suite of advanced mobile
applications from Java games and location-based services to picture
messaging," said Kelly Dixon, vice president, Consumer Marketing for Bell
Mobility. "Working with other industry leaders has allowed us to continue to
introduce innovative technologies to our customers to further enhance their
wireless experience."
"Sprint has enjoyed tremendous success with our Picture Mail product. In
2003, more than 66 million pictures were shared on our network," said Jeff
Hallock, vice president of consumer product marketing for Sprint. "This new
agreement with Bell Mobility and LightSurf gives our customers another
audience for sharing life as it happens."
Currently, Bell Mobility and Sprint operate thriving nationwide picture
messaging services built on LightSurf's Open Standards MMS Platform, which
supports advanced features like online albums, picture frames, enhancements,
self-playing slideshows, and more. LightSurf manages the complexities of
seamless inter-operator picture messaging including guaranteed message
delivery, reporting and charge reconciliation, message optimization and
digital rights management.
"This announcement marks a turning point in the wireless industry, as
inter-operator picture sharing will trigger rapid and wide-scale multimedia
messaging adoption across North America," said Andy Seybold, founder of
Outlook 4Mobility. "LightSurf's solution enables this innovation by providing
operators a simple and reliable system to share pictures between networks."
"Our job is to enable the operators to create and deliver multimedia messaging
solutions that are simple to use and offer a compelling end user experience,"
said Philippe Kahn, CEO, chairman and co-founder of LightSurf Technologies.
"We are delighted to help Sprint and Bell Mobility emerge as frontrunners in
the race for achieving inter-operator picture sharing in North America."
For more information on Bell Mobility and Sprint picture messaging,
please visit: http://www.bell.ca/mypictures and
http://www.picturemail.sprintpcs.com.
About Bell Canada
-----------------
Bell Canada, Canada's national leader in communications, provides
connectivity to residential and business customers through wired and wireless
voice and data communications, local and long distance phone services, high
speed and wireless Internet access, IP-broadband services, e-business
solutions and satellite television services. Bell Canada is wholly owned by
BCE Inc. For more information please visit www.bell.ca.
About Sprint
------------
Sprint is a global integrated communications provider serving more than
26 million customers in over 100 countries. With approximately 67,000
employees worldwide and over $26 billion in annual revenues in 2003, Sprint is
widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying state-of-the-art
network technologies, including the United States' first nationwide all-
digital, fiber-optic network and an award-winning Tier 1 Internet backbone.
Sprint provides local communications services in 39 states and the District of
Columbia and operates the largest 100-percent digital, nationwide PCS wireless
network in the United States. For more information, visit www.sprint.com.
For further information: and interview opportunities contact: Nessa
Prendergast, Bell Canada Media Relations, (416) 581-3311 or 1-888-482-0809,
nessa.prendergast@bell.ca;
Archived images on this organization are available through CNW E-Pix at
http://www.newswire.ca. Images are free to members of The Canadian Press. |
|
| Go to Press Releases Index |