Russell Beattie

Well, no. The U.S. isn't to where Europe and Japan is in terms of ubiquity or interop between carriers, but still, since Spain JUST got MMS a few months ago, and I've yet to use it despite having the exact phone for it, this news is quite interesting. Also quite interesting, is the pricing:

AT&T Wireless Launches MMS

Building on the picture messaging service it introduced last year, AT&T Wireless Thursday launched a multimedia messaging service (MMS).

MMS lets users combine pictures, text, animations, and voice recordings into a single message. Wireless operators are hoping MMS and other advanced data services will create additional revenue.

AT&T Wireless customers with MMS-capable handsets, such as the Sony Ericsson T68i, can send messages with sound, pictures and text to each other or to any e-mail address. It costs 40 cents to send a message; incoming messages from AT&T Wireless cusomters are free.

Users can also send an MMS greeting card for $1.99. Customized news, weather and stock alerts are also available. Customers will typically be charged between 35 cents and 50 cents per alert message.

AT&T Wireless said it plans to offer additional MMS-capable handsets and content in the next few months.

Earlier this week, AT&T hooked up with online dating service Match.com to offer a new mobile service, just in time for Valentine's Day. Thanks to the new MMS capabilities, users can attach pictures to their text messages to potential love interests.

Good god! You can RECEIVE messages for free! And the price to send an MMS is 1/2 what a normal person would pay here in Spain, and from what I've seen, in the U.K. also. Now isn't that amazing? Maybe the American telecoms are getting a clue! And since the other night I tried to send an MMS to a friend of Jim's in the UK who has a 7650 also, and failed because Telefonica told me that the number was "outside of the network" (even though I was able to receive a message), I won't say a thing about whether or not you can send an MMS from an AT&T customer to another telecom provider's customer

The whole Match.com service is pretty interesting too - I guess the whole "use your mobile phone to hookup" idea is pretty much beat to death, hey? I'll have to scratch that from my bizplan

:-)

-Russ

2 seconds later: Here's a relevent article at the BBC about how British carriers are trying to promote the use of MMS. "... every day objects can become significant messages". LOL. Interesting. Thanks James!