Press Releases

Lisbon, 29 October 2002 – As from 1 November, Vodafone Telecel customers will have the advantage of new features on its MMS Service: the facility to send picture messages to multiple addressees and to phones that do not support MMS. In addition, a new rate will be introduced, lower than that previously announced.

Vodafone Telecel customers will be able to send simultaneous multimedia messages to multiple addressees, both mobile phones and e-mail addresses, up to a maximum of ten at one time. It will thus be possible to share that special photo with a number of friends and family members at the same time.

Also during November, a major new feature will be available to users. This will allow Vodafone customers that do not have colour phones with MMS capability to receive picture messages. When a picture message is sent to a mobile phone that is not MMS-compatible, the customer will receive instead a text message containing a code, inviting him or her to view the message on Vodafone Telecel’s site at www.vodafone.pt.

Vodafone Telecel is thus able to guarantee to all its customers that they will be able to view picture messages sent to them, regardless of the type of phone they may have.

Vodafone was the first operator to launch MMS in Portugal, on 8 May 2002. MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) is a major advance on SMS (Short Message Service), allowing as it does messages containing images, colour, long text and audio to be sent to mobile phones and e-mail addresses.

Also from 1 November, each multimedia message sent to a mobile phone or e-mail address will be charged at a new rate of €0.39 (with VAT), while receiving multimedia messages from other mobile phones or e-mail boxes will continue to be free. There is a promotional period with MMS for the first six months after its launch, during which customers are invited to try out the service without charge. This period ends on 31 October 2002.