Top cellular operator Maxis today launched the first picture messaging service in Malaysia and said it aimed to woo 60,000 new customers by year-end with the new multimedia services.

Maxis is giving customers up to 50 free pictures a month until September and will waive charges for the general packet radio services (GPRS) during the period to spur take-up, Bernama news agency said.

Depending on the phone's capacity, the new service allows users to take pictures or select provided picture content, add text and sound, and send it to other Maxis-customer phones within the country.

Images can also be sent from the phone via e-mail to contacts overseas.

Value-added services

Chief operating officer Edward Ying said Maxis expected to roll out international multimedia messaging services (MMS) as well over the next few months.

Out of more than 200,000 MMS compatible mobile phones in the market currently, he said about half were using the Maxis network.

Head of mobile data business Steve Martineau said Maxis had spent about RM100 million in developing GPRS value-added services.

He said the new MMS was expected to boom in three to five years' just like the short messaging services (SMS), which has surged to a volume of 200 million messages a month from three million a month three years ago.

Some 70 percent of Maxis customers now use SMS, which contributed about 10 percent to the group's annual revenue, he added. - AFP