02 to start new mobile phone messaging system in autumn

Consumers should be able to send photographs, pictures and sound recordings between mobile phone handsets from the autumn using a new messaging system, telecoms firm 02.

The company, which has more than one million Irish customers, also gave the first insight into the prices European consumers will pay to use the next generation of mobile phone technology (3G).

Trial prices set for 02's 3G network on the Isle of Man will see a typical residential user charged £1.40 sterling (€2.20) a day or £44 a month for surfing the Web, downloading music or using e-mail. Business customers can expect to pay just over £80 a month.

MMO2, the holding company of O2, is the first firm in Europe to put a price on its 3G mobile services, although it said the tariffs may yet differ for Britain or the Republic. The 3G technology greatly increases the speed at which mobile phones can download data, enabling firms to introduce much more sophisticated services.

The Irish telecoms regulator will award 3G licences in the Republic next week but Irish users are not expected to be able to use the technology until late 2004.

Multimedia messaging technology (MMS), however, will be available here by the autumn, Mr Kent Thexton, chief marketing and data officer at MMO2, said yesterday. This intermediary technology, which is already available in Japan, will enable Irish consumers to send photographs and picture messages to mobiles. Handsets capable of using this technology will cost between £150 sterling to £220. "We believe that MMS has mass appeal - from teenagers and parents exchanging photographs and experiences to business users sharing product information," said Mr Thexton.

A Vodafone spokeswoman said it would also introduce MMS in the autumn.

Meanwhile, the European Commission asked national telecoms regulators yesterday to consider tougher rules on various sectors of the phone market, including operators that charge hefty fees for calls to mobile phones. In draft guidelines for EU telecoms regulators, the Commission also said authorities had to look at international roaming between mobile networks, access to local telephone connections - the "local loop" - and the terminal segments of leased lines.

The aim is to bring down costs for such services. The Commission cited call-termination charges, which account for the bulk of the cost of calling a mobile phone from a different network. The charge is levied by a mobile phone operator on a competitor for incoming calls. Operators have come in for criticism in the past over such charges, which users are often not aware they are paying.