Aicent Enhances MMS

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Aicent, Inc. (http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aicent.com&esheet=5864225&lan=en_US&anchor=www.aicent.com&index=1), announced today the launch of mBridge MMS Virtual Delivery Release 2.0, a service that lets its global carrier partners offer subscribers a way to easily send multimedia messages to any non-enabled MMS phones, including the iPhone, across any network, any time.

Multimedia messaging service (MMS) allows mobile subscribers to send messages with pictures and videos as easily as they do other text messages. As the vast majority of new mobile phones come equipped with still and video cameras, this type of rich content messaging has become increasingly popular.

According to CTIA, in North America alone, more than 5.6 billion MMS messages were sent in the first half of 2008 – almost as many as were sent in all of 2007. Worldwide MMS traffic in 2008 hit 75 billion messages with revenues of US $31 billion expected worldwide next year, according to a study released in December 2008 by Portio Research.

As MMS use continues its impressive growth into 2009, Aicent’s product positions them in the marketplace as the premier provider of a true, global MMS messaging exchange service across all networks.The new version of the service works by allowing the recipient to download and reply to incoming MMS messages from a web URL link embedded in an SMS notification. Subscribers who send the message use their normal sending procedures. A new feature of mBridge extends this service even further by letting the subscriber browse the text parts and images on the web or a PC using the same URL, and then download the message if needed by the cell phone.

“Mobile network operators’ customers have increasingly asked for more MMS features and global coverage,” said MK Chang, vice president of product marketing at Aicent. “Through mBridge and our global, extensive coverage via the world’s largest MMS hub, operators can immediately offer MMS service to their customers, letting them stay more competitive while giving their users the ability to send MMS messages mobile-to-mobile and globally across any network.”

Aicent Inc.