Customers of Australia’s two leading mobile carriers, Optus and Telstra, can now send full colour images, video and sound direct from their mobile phones to friends, family and colleagues on either network, as telecommunications companies move further into delivering wireless multimedia content.

Optus Director Mobile Marketing, Paul Kitchin, said picture messaging, known as MMS, had become a popular way to communicate since its launch last year.

“Now that Telstra and Optus customers can send picture messages to one another, its popularity is expected to grow further,” Kitchin said.

Telstra Consumer and Marketing, Director of Mobile Marketing, David Scribner, said Australian consumers were quickly adopting MMS messaging as it enabled quick and personalised communication of pictures or sound.

“We have seen phenomenal growth in SMS messaging since intercarrier SMS began in April 2000. On average, Australian consumers send more than 300 million SMS messages each month, which demonstrates the appeal of non-voice forms of communication.

“MMS messaging clearly has enormous potential to grow and this agreement with Optus will play a major part in that growth,” said Scribner.

To send and receive MMS messages, customers need an MMS-capable handset. Customers who are sent an MMS message but do not have an MMS-capable phone will receive an SMS text message informing them to go to their carrier”s website to view the picture message.

MMS messages are charged at 75 cents per recipient for each message sent from either Telstra or Optus services.

MMS and G3 both send pictures.