MMS Message
MMS stands for Multimedia Messaging Service. It is a standard way to send messages
including multimedia content to and from mobile phones or PCs. MMS further improved
the functionality of SMS messaging by allowing sending pictures, audio and text
up to 300 KB. MMS service is provided by almost all GSM service providers.
MMS is most popularly used for sending photographs, delivering news and entertainment
contents such as videos, pictures, photos, texts and ringtones in the cellular mobile telephone
network. The standard is developed by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), although during
development it was part of the 3GPP and WAP groups.
It is widely known that today most mobile phones can be used for sending and receiving
MMS messages. Although, only some people know that MMS messages can also be sent from
PC to mobile phones. All you need for MMS messaging in your PC is to setup a powerful
MMS gateway software to support MMS messaging.
Prerequisites for MMS messaging from PC
To enable your IT system to send and receive MMS messages you need the following:
- a standard PC
- a GSM modem (that includes a SIM card with MMS subscription)
- a data cable to connect the GSM modem to your PC
- a powerful MMS gateway software
The GSM device needs to have a GPRS support. The data cable can be a USB cable or a standard
RS232 cable. The MMS subscription can be purchased at the local GSM service provider
(from which you have purchased the SIM card). It is recommended to use a high quality,
industrial GSM modem such as Wavecom Fastrack, for seamless MMS messaging.
Sending MMS messages
After you setup your system (you configured the MMS gateway and connect the GSM modem to
your PC) you are ready to start sending MMS messages. It is quite similar to sending SMS
messages. Before you start, select the content you wish to send in your MMS and save it
to the hard disk of the computer on which the MMS gateway has been installed (Below you
can find the list of formats that can be the attachments of MMS).
For sending an MMS message you need to select the message type in your MMS gateway to
MMS. In the message composer you can enter the recipient phone number, the text for the
message and then you need to specify the full path pointing to the attachment(s). Finally,
just send the MMS.
Receiving MMS
In order to receive MMS messages you need a suitable industrial GSM modem because most
modems cannot be used for this purpose. The reason is that most modems cannot forward
incoming MMS indication messages to the computer and without this message, MMS message
cannot be received. For example, for MMS messaging Wavecom Fastrack and Siemens TC65 are
recommended modems.
Each service provider has unique MMS settings. For sending MMS messages from your PC,
you need to configure the service provider connection in your PC application.
The only difference between SMS and MMS messages is that in case of MMS the message text
will be an XML file that contains a list of the attachments that came with the MMS. These
attachments can be audio, video, text and picture files.
There are three steps to receive MMS.
- The first step is called MMS submission. This happens when a mobile phone sends
an MMS to the phone number of the GSM modem attached to your PC. When the MMS
message is sent it is first posted to the Multimedia Message Service Center (MMSC).
The MMSC is operated by the mobile network operator.
- Step two happens after the message has arrived to the MMSC. When the MMS is
fully uploaded, the MMSC sends a so called "MMS Indication" SMS message to your GSM
modem. This "MMS Indication" SMS message contains an URL. The URL points to the MMS
message itself on the MMSC.
- Step three, the final step is called "MMS Download". In this step, your system
opens a GPRS (or EDGE or HSDPA) connection to the mobile network and downloads the
MMS message from the MMSC. This GPRS connection is very similar to a standard GPRS
internet connection.
MMS messages can contain the following attachments:
(extension - MIME format)
Video Formats
- .mp4 - video/mp4
- .mov - video/mov
- .avi - video/avi
- .mpg - video/mpg
- .flv - video/x-flv
- .divx - video/divx
- .movie - video/movie
- .qti - video/qti
- .qtif - video/qtif
- .r3t - video/r3t
- .r1m - video/rlm
- .rec - video/rec
- .rpm - video/rpm
- .ogm - video/x-ogm
Audio Formats
- .3gp - audio/3gp
- .aac - audio/aac
- .wav - audio/wav
- .mp3 - audio/mp3
- .amr - audio/amr
- .mid - audio/mid
Picture Formats
- .gif - image/gif
- .jpg - image/jpeg
- .png - image/png
- .tif - image/tiff
- .bmp - image/bmp
- .wbmp - image/vnd.wap.wbmp
Text Formats
- .txt - text/plain
- .html - text/html
- .wml - text/vnd.wap.wml
For more information please visit MMSC page...
To get more information, please visit the following websites:
The Ozeki NG SMS Gateway website
The best site about SMS integration