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.

1. 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.


2. 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.


3. 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)

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