Picture messaging still too expensive

vnunet.com reports on new research from Informa Telecoms & Media finds that "the relatively high prices charged by network operators for MMS messages is holding back market growth," with charges currently "four times as much to send an MMS compared to a text message."

Kester Mann at Informa Telecoms & Media said, "Pricing is fundamental to the success of MMS. Subscribers are still unwilling to pay the comparatively higher tariffs for MMS and, until the price ratio with SMS narrows, traffic volumes will remain low. Interoperability, ease of use, handset penetration and service development are other important factors, but pricing will remain key in the long term."

According to the report, MMS traffic quadrupled in 2005, but "only three operators recorded more than 100 million MMS messages sent. This compares to 30 billion text messages in the UK alone last year."

Interoperability seems to be a big reason holding back adoption. I've read you can send MMS messages to people using different carriers, but I've never had any success do so. At least that saves me the 40 or 50 cents...