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Wed, 14 Apr 2004

JP/Cellular operators expect MMS traffic to increase by 20%

Cellular operators expect MMS traffic to increase by 20%

Dewi Santoso, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Three local cellular operators expect to see a 20 percent increase in multimedia messaging service (MMS) traffic as cellular phone users are now able to send cross-operator multimedia messages.

PT Telekomunikasi Selular's (Telkomsel) vice president for cellular partnership, Ahmad Sentosa, said on Tuesday that his company expected to see monthly MMS traffic increase to 700,000 bits this year, from 500,000 bits last year.

MMS is a service that enables cellular phone users to send text, voice and pictures. It can work only with general packet radio service (GPRS)-supported cellular phones.

"I think our expectation is reasonable as cellular phone users are now able to send cross-operator multimedia messages," said Ahmad.

The cross-operator agreement was signed on Tuesday by PT Telkomsel, PT Satelit Palapa Indonesia (Satelindo) and PT Excelcomindo Pratama.

Under the agreement, the three firms will charge post-paid proXL, Matrix and IM3, and kartuHALO customers Rp 1,000 (about 11 U.S. cents per 50-kilobit multimedia message, while prepaid proXL, Mentari and IM3, and SimPati customers have to pay Rp 1,250 for sending a similar sized message.

A picture contains between 10 to 40 kilobits depending on the amount of pixels.

Satelindo's vice president for product development Trias Kater Kartasasmita shared the same optimism, saying: "I expect our monthly MMS traffic to double this year, from 400,000 bit last year."

Excelcom's general manager for marketing product development, Erik ten Have, is also optimistic the cross-operator agreement will boost the MMS traffic, but he dared not make a projection of the increase in the firm's MMS traffic. Last year, the firm sent 150,000 bits of MMS monthly.

"It (MMS) is not as easy as SMS. The price, the functionality and the setup are different from that of SMS. We will need to educate the public more about the use of MMS," said ten Have.

Some analysts believe MMS will have difficulty in gaining popularity in the country as people mostly use cellular phones for conversation rather than sending data. The number of SMS sent reached 9 million per day last year.