Maxis' Chief Operating Officer, Edward Ying, has announced that the operator has launched MMS services on its GSM-900 network for postpaid subscribers. Maxis is the first operator in Malaysia to launch the multimedia service commercially. By the end of 2003 Maxis is aiming to have 60,000 subscribers actively using MMS on its network.
To encourage take-up of the new service Maxis is initially waiving the one-off and recurring GPRS charges and allowing Maxis subscribers to send 50 free MMS, worth MYR 50.00, every month from now until the end of September 2003. After the promotional period subscribers will be charged a fixed price of MYR 1.00 per MMS (up to 60KB in size) with no additional GPRS charges added to this price.
According to Ying, out of the 200,000 MMS-enabled handsets sold in the Malaysian market, 100,000 of these handsets are being used on Maxis' network. In a move designed to strengthen the penetration of MMS-enabled handsets Maxis will be giving away over MYR 1 million worth of camera handsets.
Ying confirmed that Maxis has plans to launch international MMS roaming in the next few months and is currently in negotiations with the other Malaysian operators to establish inter-operator MMS. Reflecting on the potential take-up of MMS in the next few years, Ying pointed to the strong growth of SMS in the last three years as a good indication that MMS would be a success. In 2000, three million SMS per month were being sent on Maxis' network with only 20% of the operator's subscriber base using the service. In July 2003, 70% of Maxis subscribers are using the service and 200 million SMS are being sent per month.
According to local media sources, mobile data accounts for over 10% of Maxis' total revenues.
EMC World Cellular Data Metrics tracks SMS traffic data, MMSC contract awards, launch status and tariffs among other mobile data indicators including MMS traffic for key operators worldwide.
For more information on EMC World Cellular Data Metrics see: http://www.emc-database.com/redir.nsf/index/WCDM?OpenDocument&source=dz127a
