Cingular Wireless & AT&T Wireless announced today that they will support each other’s Mulitmedia Messaging Service (MMS). Effective immediately customers from the two GSM carriers can swap MMS messages without compatibility issues.
Seems the wireless industry remembers how SMS messaging exploded once cross-carrier compatability became a reality. Remember the old days of SMS text messaging when you could only send message to users on your network? The technology was almost useless. Once they opened up communication with each other, everybody (even my Mom) started using SMS. So, listen up guys! If you want your customers to buy more camera phones and more value-added services (like MMS) then sit down and come up with a way to make this happen!
Seeing these two carriers playing nicely with each other is a great start, but with Cingular very close to FCC approval of their buyout of AT&T, the two will soon become the same carrier anyway. The real fun will happen when T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint hop on board sit down at the table and hammer out a standard that we can all benefit from.
