Orange customers can say it with pictures now it has become the second network to launch photo imaging via multimedia messaging service (MMS). It follows in the footsteps of T-Mobile, which launched its service in June.
MMS, seen by the networks as an evolution of SMS text messaging, allows mobiles to send images to each other using integrated cameras. The images can be accompanied by text or voice messages.
Orange is also launching a service called Picture Content Messages, which offers entertainment and information updates with images. Similar to T-Mobile, Orange offers the service with the two key MMS-equipped camera/ phone handsets - Nokia's 7650 and the Sony Ericsson T38i, which has a snap-on CommunicCam camera to take the pictures.
However, its pricing structure is completely different. While T-Mobile users pay £20 a month for a range of services including the option of sending a large number of photo messages, Orange has no subscription fee, just a charge of 40p for every image sent and 25p for each one received.
If the image is sent to a non-MMS phone, or an MMS-phone that uses another network, a text message is sent with details of a website where the image has been stored.
Orange's Suzanne Snygg explains: "Next year, when a person can send an image to MMS phones on any network, and the number of users is higher, we will look at offering monthly MMS subscriptions as well as pay-per-image pricing."
Some within the mobile industry believe the price of 40p per image is too high. "There are services in Europe that charge as little as 15p per image," says Mick Greenway, of market analysts Datamonitor. "For photo messaging to work it needs to be cheaper."
His views are echoed by Simon Gordon of O2, which plans a November launch for its MMS. "We decided to hold back until there was a good selection of handsets available and interoperability issues are being resolved. I think images will cost in the region of 30p to send."
Vodafone also intends to launch MMS in the UK in the autumn. It has similar services running in other European countries, with the average cost per image being between €0.30 and €0.40.
