The company has shelled out GBP8 million on a marketing campaign. Orange is hoping to increase its ARPU by attracting customers to the service, which allows users with MMS enabled phones to send photographs to each other. The company hopes it will be able to offer customers five or six MMS-enabled phones by the end of the year.
Orange’s deal is only available to contract customers at present, although there are plans to introduce it to pay-as-you-go services by year-end. The Sony Ericsson T68i, with camera facility, can be purchased for GBP199.99 with a monthly subscription contract with Orange. Each MMS will then cost 40p to send.
T-Mobile and Orange are unlikely to enter into a price war over MMS services; the Deutsche Telekom unit charges a monthly subscription fee of GBP20 for up to 350 picture messages – a completely different price structure from its France Telecom-owned rival.
