T-Mobile Germany shows innovative messaging services
Wide range of options for mobile message transfer CeBIT demonstrations of sending mobile animated greetings cards and personal photos via WAP mobile phones "WAP Push E-Mail" brings e-mails to your mobile phone at the touch of a button First applications to be based on Multimedia Messaging Service Showcase on Mobile Instant Messaging: "Telekom Online Messenger" facilitates mobile online communication in real time Mobile data communications via SMS continues to enjoy rising popularity: Some 900 million short messages are currently sent each month via the T-D1 network as compared to 750 million a month just six months ago. At CeBIT 2002 T-Mobile Germany will be presenting further innovative developments in the messaging field, including facilities for sending animated greetings cards or personal photos by mobile. T-Mobile is the first provider in Germany to show an application scenario on "Mobile Instant Messaging".
Under the heading of "Mobile Greetings" T-Mobile will be showing at CeBIT how you can send digital greetings cards containing personal text to other mobile phones, either via the WAP portal of T-Mobile online or via the Internet. Visitors to the booth can try out the service themselves and send mobile greetings cards across networks free of charge. There will also be a presentation of the Web-based "Photomessaging" feature. This service enables users to create and administer their private photo album online and send picture details to mobile phones that support the reception of image data. An additional advantage is that you can also access your private photo album and send picture details by WAP mobile phone.
Another CeBIT highlight of T-Mobile is "WAP Push E-Mail". This new service transfers e-mails to your mobile phone at the touch of a button without your having to set up a special link and dial into the WAP portal. This is made possible by the "always-on" functions of GPRS technology, which ensures that incoming e-mails received via the mobile radio network are rerouted to the mobile phone display almost at once. The need to look up messages separately is thus a thing of the past.
A further trailblazing innovation is the Multimedia Messaging Service, or MMS for short. MMS stands for the coming generation of mobile exchange of messages. The technical prerequisite for this is rapid data transmission of the kind provided, for example, by GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System). Compared to SMS, MMS permits the transmission of much larger data packets. MMS enables users to exchange multimedia content, such as animated greetings cards, music files or video sequences, either from mobile phone to mobile phone, or between mobile phone and Internet. At CeBIT T-Mobile will be demonstrating the sending of electronic postcards with animated components or audio elements.
The "Telekom Online Messenger" to be presented by T-Mobile at CeBIT offers mobile data communications in real time. This service is a further development of the T-Online Messenger familiar from the Internet and will in future effectively link the mobile and Internet-based Instant Messaging services of T-Mobile and T-Online. T-Mobile is the first provider in Germany to showcase a Mobile Instant Messaging service. An important part of the service is the "Buddylist", a list drawn up by the customer of his favorite interlocutors. When Mobile Instant Messaging is used, certain symbols are shown on the mobile phone display, indicating what friends and acquaintances are online at the same moment - as long as they also have Telekom Online Messenger installed. In this way users can have a quick chat via the mobile phone, meet other people or form mobile communities.
The customers of T-Mobile Germany will be able to use the Telekom Online Messenger in the course of this year as part of a pilot project. Numerous attractive functions will be available right at the start. Facilities include mobile registration for the service, registration under an anonymous nickname, the creation of a Buddylist, the sending and receiving of Instant Messages, and administration of the service via the Internet.
The new Telekom Online Messenger and the T-Online Messenger will be mutually compatible, so that the exchange of messages between mobile phone and Web will present no problems. It is planned to continuously extend the starter range to include additional platforms and functions. More details of this and of prices will be published by T-Mobile in time for the launch of the pilot project.