BPL Mobile launches India’s first multimedia messaging

Our Corporate Bureau
12 October 2002

Mumbai: BPL Mobile, India’s premier mobile phone service provider, has launched India’s first multimedia messaging service (MMS). With the BPL Mobile launch, India will be the fourth country in Asia Pacific to commercially launch the MMS service.

MMS will be the killer application on GPRS, and BPL Mobile is the only operator in the country possessing a robust GPRS network to deliver a rich and true MMS experience to its subscribers. At an introductory pricing of Rs 199 per month, BPL Mobile will offer 100 MMSs (outgoing-incoming will be free) besides unlimited Mobile Internet access to its subscribers on their mobile phones. Post the 100 MMSs, each outgoing MMS will cost Rs 3 per message.

BPL Mobile subscribers with MMS-compatible mobile handsets (currently the Nokia 7650 and Sony Ericsson T68i) are able to send multimedia messages at the touch of a button to anywhere in the world, much like how SMS works. Recipients who do not have MMS-compatible mobile handsets can receive their multimedia messages either on their emails or as an SMS notification on their existing handsets. In addition, BPL Mobile will be creating a photo library on its website, where subscribers can compose MMS messages and send them to designated mobile phone numbers.

MMS is the next generation of messaging service. Now mobile users will be able to use mobile phones with built-in cameras and sound-recording equipment to create their own multimedia messages, or retrieve ready-made graphics and sound from video-and-audio-banks either online or in their mobile phones.

Riding on BPL Mobile’s GPRS network, MMS is the gigantic leap in messaging technology. A prerequisite for delivering the real MMS experience, GPRS is today the corner stone of all new data and mobile Internet applications rollout plans of BPL Mobile.

Says BPL Mobile president and CEO F B Cardoso: “SMS has taken the world by storm and we believe MMS, with its enhanced features, will enjoy similar success. As the saying goes, a photo speaks a thousand words. We at BPL Mobile expect MMS to create the messaging revolution similar to the Internet boom after the introduction graphics- and animation-based content.