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MMS Sucks
Saturday 18th August, 2007 13:40 Comments: 0
Why are mobile networks still so unreliable? I can send a text message to anyone anywhere and as long as it's a valid mobile number and their mobile is turned on, it will be delivered. Even the other side of the world (I can send a text to Australia and get a delivery report back within a few seconds). But sometimes I will get charged by my mobile operator for sending photo messages to my own number, even though I never receive that photo message (the rest of the time I get the photo message). If I send them to another number, it doesn't always get delivered. If I send them to another number, sometimes they get delivered, but the user has to view a web page on their mobile operator's website (because their SIM doesn't have MMS enabled). And sometimes I can send a photo message to someone, but only some of them go through (and it's not a content problem, as the images can be taken by the same camera with the same settings). Similarly, I can sometimes receive a photo message from someone but not receive subsequent photo messages from them.

MMS has been around for a long time. There were (according to the OMA) 105 operators that supported MMS in 2002, which jumped up to 200 operators in 2004. We're now in 2007, we have mobile handsets that play video, have touchscreens, several megapixel cameras. But we can't always send a photo message to each other. And I'm not even talking video, I'm talking an image, a simple JPEG image. Sometimes it's because the mobile hasn't been setup correctly, sometimes because the operator has changed their settings (but not done a push so the user has the option of automatically installing the new settings), but most of the time it appears to be an unreliable network operator. Which includes my own.

If mobile operators want users to download premium content, they have to make it a more reliable experience. I came across a study a while back that said something like 64% of users will stop using a service (e.g. internet browsing, photo messaging) if it doesn't work for them first time. And they're right, if a photo message doesn't work, I might try again with that person, but I probably won't. I'll probably copy it across to my laptop later on that day using my USB cable (or bluetooth if I don't have it on me) and send it via email or MSN instead. It's not as convenient, but at least I know it works (and it's free).
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