MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) Interview Questions And Answers

Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) is a new standard in mobile messaging. Like SMS (Short Messaging Service), MMS is a way to send a message from one mobile to another. The difference is that MMS can include not just text, but also sound, images and video. It is also possible to send MMS messages from a mobile phone to an email address.

Formats that can be embedded within MMS include:

► Text (formatted with fonts, colours, etc)
► Images (JPEG, GIF format)
► Audio (MP3, MIDI)
► Video (MPEG)

Images could be downloaded from WAP sites, selected from a menu within the phone, or could even be photos taken using a built-in camera if the phone has one (e.g. the Nokia 7650, Sony Ericsson T300, etc).

Enhanced Messaging Service (EMS), is a cross-industry collaboration between Samsung, Ericsson, Motorola, Siemens and Alcatel, among others. It is an application-level extension to Short Message Service (SMS) for cellular phones available on GSM, TDMA and CDMA networks.

EMS is an intermediate technology, between SMS and MMS, providing some of the features of MMS. EMS is a technology that is designed to work with existing networks, but may ultimately be made obsolete by MMS.

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a collaboration between groups of telecommunications associations, to make a globally applicable third-generation (3G) mobile phone system specification within the scope of the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 project of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). 3GPP specifications are based on evolved Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) specifications. 3GPP standardization encompasses Radio, Core Network and Service architecture.

The WAP 1.0 standard, released in April 1998, described a complete software stack for mobile internet access.

WAP version 1.1 came out in 1999. WAP 1.2, the final update of the 1.X series was released in June 2000. The most important addition in version 1.2 was WAP push

WAP Push has been incorporated into the specification to allow WAP content to be pushed to the mobile handset with minimum user intervention. A WAP Push is basically a specially encoded message which includes a link to a WAP address.

WAP Push is specified on top of WDP; as such, it can be delivered over any WDP-supported bearer, such as GPRS or SMS. Most GSM networks have a wide range of modified processors, but GPRS activation from the network is not generally supported, so WAP Push messages have to be delivered on top of the SMS bearer.

You must be wondering, how one can create a multimedia message. The answer is quite simple – you can take pictures with your built-in camera phone, upload audio or video clips in your cell phone via the Internet or via a USB port or Bluetooth wireless technology. The only condition is that the recipient should have a compatible cell phone. If your phone does not support MMS, you cannot send and receive multimedia messages via MMS.

Most colour screen handsets do support MMS. However, there are problems with MMS on some handsets, particularly older ones. This can depend on the content types that the message contains, the size of the MMS and the fact that not all handsets support SMIL (such as older Nokias, e.g. Nokia 6800)