MMS Receiving Cost

Hello,

Can anyone give me an idea of the typical range of costs associated
with *receiving* an MMS message (sent via WAP PUSH) across the main UK
networks and their pricing schemes.

Chris Key

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"Chris" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hello,
>
> Can anyone give me an idea of the typical range of costs associated
> with *receiving* an MMS message (sent via WAP PUSH) across the main UK
> networks and their pricing schemes.
>
> Chris Key

Erm, nothing. It costs nothing to receive MMS, it's not done via the normal
chargable WAP access-point, and thus is not chargeable.

Taylor wrote:

> "Chris" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Hello,
> >
> > Can anyone give me an idea of the typical range of costs associated
> > with *receiving* an MMS message (sent via WAP PUSH) across the main UK
> > networks and their pricing schemes.
> >
> > Chris Key
>
> Erm, nothing. It costs nothing to receive MMS, it's not done via the normal
> chargable WAP access-point, and thus is not chargeable.

Hi,

Thanks for the very prompt reply. Can you confirm that this is the
case with all the the UK networks? Out of interest, if this is the
case, is there anything to stop you using the WAP access point used for
MMS messages to get free data access?

Yes, simply that data to/from the MMS server isn't charged for, but all
other data is.

"Chris" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hello,
>
> Can anyone give me an idea of the typical range of costs associated
> with *receiving* an MMS message (sent via WAP PUSH) across the main UK
> networks and their pricing schemes.
>
> Chris Key
>

Nothing, but if you point the phone at a certain degree angle it costs you
5p/min. You can a acute angle "bolt-on" for £5/month I believe.

[email protected] declared for all the world to hear...
> Hello,
>
> Can anyone give me an idea of the typical range of costs associated
> with *receiving* an MMS message (sent via WAP PUSH) across the main UK
> networks and their pricing schemes.

£0.00.

Premium content is usually charged by sending reverse billed SMS at
£1.50 a pop. If higher charges are required then service providers will
send 2 or 3 messages instead of one.
--
Regards
Jon

[email protected] declared for all the world to hear...
> Out of interest, if this is the
> case, is there anything to stop you using the WAP access point used for
> MMS messages to get free data access?

Yes, the MMS APNs only allow you to connect to the MMS servers, they
don't connect you to the internet.
--
Regards
Jon

"Bruce Lee" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "Chris" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Hello,
> >
> > Can anyone give me an idea of the typical range of costs associated
> > with *receiving* an MMS message (sent via WAP PUSH) across the main UK
> > networks and their pricing schemes.
> >
> > Chris Key
> >
>
> Nothing, but if you point the phone at a certain degree angle it costs you
> 5p/min. You can a acute angle "bolt-on" for £5/month I believe.
>
>
difficult to get sarcasm in text format i guess..

Jon wrote:

> [email protected] declared for all the world to hear...
> > Out of interest, if this is the
> > case, is there anything to stop you using the WAP access point used for
> > MMS messages to get free data access?
>
> Yes, the MMS APNs only allow you to connect to the MMS servers, they
> don't connect you to the internet.

Hi Jon,

Ok, so does this mean that if I send a WAP PUSH message with a URL
pointing to content on my own server, that most users will not be able
to access it? If a user's phone is configured to use a specific APN
for accessing MMS content, and this APN will only allow access to
certain servers, then surely the phone will fail to get the content.

There are only 2 possibilities that I can imagine that would allow it
to succeed:

1) The phone fails to get the content via the MSM APN and
automatically tries the general access APN, and the user would hence
presumably be charged.

2) The network provider would intercept the WAP PUSH message, download
the content from my server, place the content on their own server and
rewrite the WAP PUSH message accordingly.

Neither seems particularly likely, and (2) appears to have a major
problem, in that if the content is a SMIL file that refers to, say, an
image file hosted elsewhere on the internet, then the network provider
would have to make this image available from it's servers and rewrite
the SMIL file appropriately.

Am I missing something blindingly obvious here?

Chris Key

[email protected] declared for all the world to hear...
> Ok, so does this mean that if I send a WAP PUSH message with a URL
> pointing to content on my own server, that most users will not be able
> to access it? If a user's phone is configured to use a specific APN
> for accessing MMS content, and this APN will only allow access to
> certain servers, then surely the phone will fail to get the content.

I would agree with that. I'm not overly familiar with how to build a WAP
push message, but an ordinary text with a URL in it will automatically
get turned into a "clickable" URL by most modern phones. When "clicked"
this URL will be accessed using the phones default connection which
should allow access to anywhere on the internet.

> 1) The phone fails to get the content via the MSM APN and
> automatically tries the general access APN, and the user would hence
> presumably be charged.

For the data transfer, yes.

> 2) The network provider would intercept the WAP PUSH message, download
> the content from my server, place the content on their own server and
> rewrite the WAP PUSH message accordingly.

That sounds a bit far fetched.

> Am I missing something blindingly obvious here?

What are you trying to do?
--
Regards
Jon

Jon wrote:
> [email protected] declared for all the world to hear...
> > Ok, so does this mean that if I send a WAP PUSH message with a URL
> > pointing to content on my own server, that most users will not be able
> > to access it? If a user's phone is configured to use a specific APN
> > for accessing MMS content, and this APN will only allow access to
> > certain servers, then surely the phone will fail to get the content.
>
> I would agree with that. I'm not overly familiar with how to build a WAP
> push message, but an ordinary text with a URL in it will automatically
> get turned into a "clickable" URL by most modern phones. When "clicked"
> this URL will be accessed using the phones default connection which
> should allow access to anywhere on the internet.
>

As I understand it, a WAP PUSH message is very similar in effect to
what you described. It is a special form of SMS message that amongst
other things, contains a URL. When the phone recieves this message, it
recognises it as a WAP PUSH, and then does one of two things, dependant
upon a flag within the message itself.

In one case, it notifies the user immediately, with a message along the
lines of 'MMS message received, download now? (Yes/No)". If the user
picks 'Yes', it goes on to download and display the content. In the
other case, it receives the message, and the download's the content
automatically. Once the content has been downloaded, the user is then
notified, and asked if they wish to view the message.


> > 1) The phone fails to get the content via the MSM APN and
> > automatically tries the general access APN, and the user would hence
> > presumably be charged.
>
> For the data transfer, yes.
>
> > 2) The network provider would intercept the WAP PUSH message, download
> > the content from my server, place the content on their own server and
> > rewrite the WAP PUSH message accordingly.
>
> That sounds a bit far fetched.

Quite, however I couldn't see how else the user's phone could access
the content for free, whilst preventing users being able to configure
their phone to get free internet access.

> > Am I missing something blindingly obvious here?
>
> What are you trying to do?

Quite simple: I'm setting up a service that sends MMS notifications to
users, and wanted to confirm whether or not there'd be any cost to the
user (other than the advertised cost of the premium rate SMS message as
appropriate)

Chris Key

"Chris" <[email protected]> a écrit dans le message de news:
[email protected]...
> Can anyone give me an idea of the typical range of costs associated
> with *receiving* an MMS message (sent via WAP PUSH) across the main UK
> networks and their pricing schemes.

MMS and Wap Push are two similar but different things.

An MMS notification message is usually processed automatically by the
handset. It connects to the MMS APN and downloads the message contents from
the telco's MMS server. When done, the handset notifies its user that a new
message is there. As mentioned by others this is free.

A Wap Push message is typically processed manually. The handset notifies
the user that something arrived. It is up to the user to accept connecting
the the regular (chargeable) Wap APN and download the content. The pricing
scheme is that of their data plan.

Sincerely,

François

François Manchon wrote:

> "Chris" <[email protected]> a écrit dans le message de news:
> [email protected]...
> > Can anyone give me an idea of the typical range of costs associated
> > with *receiving* an MMS message (sent via WAP PUSH) across the main UK
> > networks and their pricing schemes.
>
> MMS and Wap Push are two similar but different things.
>
> An MMS notification message is usually processed automatically by the
> handset. It connects to the MMS APN and downloads the message contents from
> the telco's MMS server. When done, the handset notifies its user that a new
> message is there. As mentioned by others this is free.
>
> A Wap Push message is typically processed manually. The handset notifies
> the user that something arrived. It is up to the user to accept connecting
> the the regular (chargeable) Wap APN and download the content. The pricing
> scheme is that of their data plan.
>

Hi François,

Many thanks for the reply, it's made things somewhat clearer. I was
under the impression that an MMS notification was just a Service Load
WAP PUSH mesage. Is this definately not the case?

Chris

"Chris" <[email protected]> a écrit dans le message de news:
[email protected]...

> Many thanks for the reply, it's made things somewhat clearer. I was
> under the impression that an MMS notification was just a Service Load
> WAP PUSH mesage. Is this definately not the case?

Basically two different implementations of a similar idea. There is a big
difference is in the user experience: with MMS, everything happens
silently until the entire message is downloaded into the handset and
available for viewing. With Wap Push, users are quickly notified that
something is available, but they must wait for the download to proceed
before viewing.

Sincerely,

François

François Manchon wrote:
>
> Basically two different implementations of a similar idea. There is a big
> difference is in the user experience: with MMS, everything happens
> silently until the entire message is downloaded into the handset and
> available for viewing. With Wap Push, users are quickly notified that
> something is available, but they must wait for the download to proceed
> before viewing.
>

Hi François,

Forgive me playing Devil's advocate, but is the difference described
above not merely the difference between a "service load" and "service
indicator" WAP PUSH message?

If an MMS notification is truly distinct from a SL WAP PUSH, then are
you aware of any UK companies that offer the ability to send normal and
premium rate MMS messages? The only ones I've come across have only
offered SMS and WAP PUSH.

Chris Key