Nearly five weeks after the government-controlled Etisalat Telecommunications Corporation launched the advanced MMS service, hundreds of thousands of messages have been transmitted by subscribers enjoying this innovative mobile phone experience.
Despite the rush, Etisalat said it had launched a nationwide drive to educate the public on such a service and attract more clients as part of a strategy to expand services and boost profits.
In a statement yesterday, Etisalat urged the more than 2.6 million mobile phone GSM users to take advantage of its temporary offer for half-price subscription to MMS and free messaging.
Until September 15, new subscribers have to pay just Dh15 for a one-off connection fee and can send free messages. After that date, connection will be Dh30 and users will be charged 90 fils per message with a capacity of 50 kb, one of the biggest in the world.
"Following the exciting launch of the much-awaited MMS, Etisalat is hosting a series of consumer road shows in the major shopping malls in the UAE," the company said.
It said the campaign includes setting up MMS stands that will host mobile phone experts and advanced handsets to educate the public on the MMS services. Visitors can use those handsets to send and receive MMS messages and register with the service there.
The shows were launched in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain malls yesterday while similar stands will be installed for three days at the Mega Mall in Sharjah and Manar Mall in Ras Al Khaimah next weekend. The event will end in Dubai on August 22.
"The roadshows will form an important component of our programme of awareness building events which will serve to educate our customers on the benefits and applications of using the MMS service," said Ahmed bin Ali, Etisalat's Public Relations Manager.
"MMS is the multi media evolution of SMS messaging. It allows our customers with MMS-enabled mobile handsets to capture special moments by sending, receiving and forwarding colour pictures, animated images, audio and video content over the mobile network or to an e-mail address."
Etisalat launched MMS last month after a long delay due to technical tests. Officials said they had expected a rush by customers to subscribe to the service, the latest in mobile phone advanced facilities to be introduced to the UAE.
"We expect the rush to continue," an Etisalat official said.
MMS users can combine text, pictures, photos, animations, speech and audio for messaging to another MMS-enabled handset.
A multimedia message can, for example, be a photo or picture postcard attached to a text and/or an audio clip, a synchronised playback of audio, text, photo or, in the near future, a video emulating a free-running presentation or a video clip. It can also simply be a drawing combined with text.
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