Interoperability is the biggest barrier to broad adoption of network-based multimedia messaging, but Comverse announced an MMS Exchange service this week that helps break down that barrier.

Comverse’s MMS Exchange is a central messaging hub that multiple network operators can use to interconnect their MMS services, reducing the need for links, routing and interoperability agreements with other operators.

The exchange supports standard and non-standard MMS implementations such as: GSM to CDMA interconnection and MMS to i-mode interoperability. It also can be easily customized to the specific billing, monitoring and reporting requirements.

The service is provided using Comverse's Multimedia Messaging Service Center (MMSC), part of Comverse's overall Total Communication portfolio. It supports person-to-person as well as application-to-person messaging of rich multimedia content. It is built on the eXtensible Messaging Framework (XMF) architecture and uses rules-based content adaptation to provide broad MMS handset and legacy device support and terminal interoperability.

Other products in the Comverse suite that comprise the service include: the Comverse MMS Mailbox, which provides a Web interface to receive and send MMS messages, message storage beyond the limitations of handset memory, and a content-rich multimedia album of images to be used when composing messages; and the MMS A2P Expeditor, which handles application-to-person messaging.

Recognizing the importance of interoperability, in October, the CTIA’s Inter-Carrier MMS Working Group announced an interoperability pact between wireless operators and an agreement to create guidelines for multimedia message exchange.