Alcatel announced today that Alcatel`s Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) solution is showcased in the Intel booth at ITU Telecom World 2003 in Geneva. On this occasion, Alcatel will reproduce, in a live and public environment, the record-setting performance achieved in May this year during the intensive testing campaign commissioned by Intel and implemented in the US by the Tolly Group, an independent US laboratory. This new demonstration, that will take place during the whole period of ITU Geneva, constitutes a European first.
Following the sky-rocketing success of Short Messages Systems (SMS) worldwide, the MMS traffic should dramatically grow in the coming years. MMS Premium Services, that enable wireless messaging with multimedia support, including the combination of pictures, animations, audio and text, and ultimately video and audio streaming, will turn into true revenue generators for operators.
The industry analysts firm IDC believes MMS will be worth more than USD 4.4 billion in Western Europe by the end of 2007. According to Paolo Pescatore, IDC Senior Analyst for EMEA Wireless and Mobile Communications: "MMS will be the bridge that will assist operators to aid the take-up of mobile data in Western Europe. Pictures speak a thousand words. Users will find the idea of taking a picture with camera-enabled handsets so compelling that they will take to the concept."
In order to support the growing MMS traffic, operators worldwide will need more powerful MMS solutions, based on more powerful servers. The intrinsic performance of MMS servers - and in particular their cost/performance ratio - will become a key differentiating criterion for operators in the selection of their MMS solution suppliers.
Alcatel`s MMS solution showcased in the Intel booth at ITU Geneva constitutes an innovative breakthrough in the messaging field. It is running on the Intel TIGPR2U server based on the Intel Xeon processor and using a Linux Red Hat 7.3 operating environment. In addition, it benefits from an innovative software architecture (the Alcatel Nx Proxy Platform software) that guarantees superior performance. This optimized hardware and software configuration allows Alcatel`s MMS solution to process up to 47 MMS/sec per CPU board at a sustained rate with the complete MMS cycle, which represents an industry record to date.
Alcatel`s MMS solution stands out as truly cost-effective and evolutionary. The Alcatel Nx Proxy Platform software brings unmatched ease of implementation and maximum scalability. Furthermore, it benefits from the modularity of Intel`s standard-based telecom server platforms and from the well-established roadmap of the Intel Xeon processors family. As a result, Alcatel`s MMS solution allows the operators to significantly reduce their CAPEX and OPEX, and offers a highly cost-effective and flexible solution to help operators face the challenge of MMS service launch and ramp-up.
Several mobile operators all over the world (STA in Andorra, Jersey Telecom in Jersey, Edge Wireless and First Cellular in the US, Tikiphone in French Polynesia) already selected Alcatel`s MMS solution to provide advanced MMS services to their highly-diversified subscribers` bases in a cost-effective manner. In addition, Alcatel`s MMS solution was chosen by the Orange Group to be one of the services included inside its live 3G experimental network in France.
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Alcatel provides end-to-end communications solutions, enabling carriers, service providers and enterprises to deliver contents to any type of user, anywhere in the world. Leveraging its long-term leadership in telecommunications networks equipment as well as its expertise in applications and network services, Alcatel enables its customers to focus on optimising their service offerings and revenue streams. With sales of EURO 16.5 billion in 2002, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries.
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