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NowSMS Support Forums ⬆ MMS & SMS Technical Discussions (unsupported) ⬆ Archive through October 29, 2003 ⬆ |
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| Author | Message | |||
| Anonymous |
Hi, This is a general query really, but if we were to launch MMS services in the UK we would need access to subscribers on all UK networks. The question is, if subscribers configure to use the NOWSMS MMSC can they receive MMS alerts from their existing network providers as well, or just the NOWMMSC? Is there anyway that the UK operators can lock out independent MMS services in the long run? If we are to invest in the capability to deliver these services, we need to know that operators can't just switch them off at some point in the future. Also, for pier to pier MMS traffic, how does the billing work? Thanks Jon. | |||
| Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support (Bryce) |
Jon, It depends. Right now, the tough one in the UK is Orange. With the settings that Orange UK is configuring for MMS on their phones, other MMS is effectively blocked out. (The phone receives the MMS notification, but the message cannot be retrieved.) The reason for this is that the settings to connect to the Orange MMSC involve connecting to a special Orange GPRS APN that only allows connections to a special Orange WAP gateway, and that WAP gateway can only connect to the Orange MMSC. They don't allow other WAP gateways, including the regular Orange WAP gateway to connect to their MMSC to fetch content. (Part of the problem is taht the regular Orange WAP gateway doesn't support SAR - segmentation and reassembly - which is required to support MMS over WAP.) I believe that Orange did this primarily because they want to bill GPRS traffic differently when it is for MMS. So routing that traffic to a different GPRS APN allows them to do this. It just has a side effect of blocking other MMS services unless the settings are changed. It remains to be seen how this sorts out long term. For our product, we're also going to be building in interfaces for connecting to operator MMSCs in the future, so that you have flexibility For peer-to-peer MMS, essentially the MMS notification to a mobile device is sent as a special SMS message (often two concatenated SMS messages). The sending and receiving of the MMS content takes place over GPRS (basically, it's over IP, just usually GPRS, but it is possible to even use dial-up). -bn | |||
| Anonymous |
Hi, But if users configured their Orange phones to The Nowsms MMSC through your Wap gateway, surely you could then send them MMS messages? My big concerm with all networks is whether they could also receive messages from their own operator? So, for Voda, mmo2 and T-mobile do subscribers need to configure their phones to your settings (MMSC etc) to receive MMS sent through an email interface? Thanks Jon | |||
| Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support (Bryce) |
Jon, Absolutely. If someone configures their phone to connect to a particular MMSC, then its a no-brainer to send them messages. Well, let me try to clarify a bit, since I can sometimes be a bit long-winded. The MMSC setting is really only relevant in current specifications when you send an MMS message. The phone always connects to the configured MMSC to send a message. When a message is received, the phone receives a special SMS with a pointer to a URL that contains the MMS content. Whether or not the phone can receive that message depends on whether or not the active profile for MMS points to a configuration set that allows the phone to retrieve the URL. As the content is fetched through a WAP gateway ... specifically, what comes into play here is that active GPRS APN setting can limit what WAP gateway the phone connects to, and the WAP gateway setting can limit what content servers it connects to (in the case of MMS, the content server usually being the MMSC). I think I was long-winded again. Basically, if you're going through the operator WAP gateway, you should be able to fetch content from both. (If you're going through an independent WAP gateway, it depends on whether or not the operator has a firewall around their MMSC that blocks message retrieval from outside their network.) There can just be a problem with configurations like Orange UK, where their normal WAP gateway doesn't have the underlying support for MMS ... so they're routing all MMS traffic through a separate gateway. (That said, maybe you can still receive with alternate settings. We only have one Orange phone in the office so we couldn't test.) -bn | |||
| Pablo |
More questions... I have the same problem in Spain, all the operators have different APN connections for MMS and for GPRS DATA, so there is no option for sending MMS that uses a MMSC different that operator ones. What I'm trying to find is an option in for sending MMS trought operator MMSC. Is there any way in your software for doing that ? Thanks you in advance for the info. | |||
| Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support (Bryce) |
Pablo, At present, no. We are planning a beta release of a new version shortly which supports a variety of protocols for connecting to operator MMSCs. So stay tuned for the v5.0 beta release coming soon. -bn | |||
