10th November 2004 - Swiss company, Comfone, a leading
provider of global mobile value-added roaming services,
today announced the launch of two services, the first
allowing mobile providers to exchange MMS (Multimedia
Message Service) information, and the second offering
a complete MMS broker service.
The services uniquely draw on the joint competencies
of Comfone and MATERNA, partners in offering the comprehensive
multimedia messaging interworking solution. The companies'
collaboration brings together Comfone's expertise
in international mobile roaming with MATERNAs experience
in providing, implementing and operating MMSCs (Multimedia
Messaging Service Centre) for mobile operators throughout
the world.
The MMS eXchange service, Comfone MMSX, facilitates
the bilateral interchange of MMS between mobile operators,
including access, relay, bulk file production, online
reporting and financial clearing. The comprehensive
MMS eXchange service, part of Comfone's data service
portfolio and based on Comfone's proven GRX infrastructure
with reach to over 130 mobile operators worldwide,
provides IP access, DNS and routing for the transport
of MMS. MMS interworking is enabled between different
mobile operators with its Relation Management, Mobile
Number Portability check, Transcoding and further
options. Bulk file production and financial clearing
of MMS are offered in addition.
Denis Gheysen, Comfone's Executive Vice President
Marketing and Sales, commented, "MMS will become
a major source of revenue for service providers, increasing
ARPU (average revenue per user) and allowing customer
retention. But building up a network of bilateral
interworking relationships between mobile operators
is time consuming and costly. Comfone's solution reduces
the complexities involved in rolling out a new network.
Comfone MMSX enables mobile network provider's operational
costs to be reduced and the setting up of network
relations speeded up."
The enhanced full broker solution for MMS provides
worldwide coverage for MMS termination and interworking
through only one agreement with Comfone and one connection
to Comfone's central platform.
“The combined offer of MATERNA and Comfone gives
us a unique market position”, said Stefan Kruppa,
Senior Product Marketing Manager of MATERNA. “This
is the only offer in the market using a full MMSC.
The service takes advantage of its proven Mobile Number
Portability (MNP), store and forward and content conversion
technology, which guarantees a high rate of successful
delivered messages and interoperability between the
different MMSCs of the mobile network provider.”
About Comfone
Comfone supplies mobile operators services that are
needed for the worldwide interconnection of mobile networks,
so called 'roaming'. Founded in 1997 with the goal to
provide efficient solutions in the field of international
roaming, Comfone's service portfolio is currently unique
in the world. Comfone is the first Roaming Broker and
the first operator of an international roaming platform.
With its head office based in Berne, Switzerland, it
is 75% owned by four management members who are actively
involved in the company. Comfone comprises of 70 employees,
consisting of 13 nationalities who speak a total of
16 languages. Services include Signalling Solutions
(SS7), Data, Financial, SMS and MMS Interworking Clearing,
Roaming Management, and data services (GRX and MMSX)
for GPRS and MMS.
