Cingular making it difficult for Motorola V400 users to use photos, e-mail?

I just received a call from someone who is very plugged into the camera phone business and has close ties to retail cellular stores and the moblog business who said it appears that Cingular Wireless is making it ridiculously difficult for purchasers of Motorola's new V400 camera phone to enable (1) the MMS/photo capability and (2) the e-mail capability.

First, the MMS/photo problem. I've been told that Cingular really wants subscribers to use MMS to send photos, but you must sign up for the MMS feature and the V400 isn't automatically enabled to work with MMS. A big problem is that Cingular dealers haven't been informed about this.

What's happening is Cingular customers are buying the V400 and can't immediately take photos. They need to (1) sign up for the MMS service ($2.99 per month for three months of unlimited use and then $2.99 for 20 photos per month) and (2) get their phones MMS-enabled through over the air provisioning by calling customer service.

Provisioning, e-mail problems

What I hear is the over-the-air provisioning doesn't work. One person has five V400 handsets and hasn't been able to get any of them to work with MMS -- and this person really knows camera phones.

Second, the e-mail problem. It seems that Cingular either doesn't want subscribers to use e-mail on the V400 or is really, really dumb about enabling it. E-mail, as with MMS, is not enabled out of the box. I hear it's not Motorola's fault; Motorola was ordered by Cingular not to automatically enable MMS or e-mail.

In order to get a Cingular V400 handset to work for e-mail, subscribers have to go through 21 steps to configure the phone. Moblog hosting company textamerica has posted the step-by-step procedure in its tips section.

Is this any way to run a railroad?

I assume a Cingular retail store could program the phone, but would they know to do this (maybe) and would the subscriber know to ask (no). No subscriber should have to go through 21 steps to program a phone!

Personally, I want to be able to send photos via MMS and e-mail. MMS enables you to send photos handset-to-handset....assuming you're sending the photo to a Cingular handset. You pay for every photo sent via MMS.

With e-mail, you typically may send the same photo to many recipients and you only pay for one message. Some cellular operators don't like this because they don't make as much money as when you send the same photo to multiple recipients via MMS. Too bad for the cellular operators.

If the situation with Cingular is indeed true (I have not confirmed it), it really is a textbook case of hurting/annoying your customers. I'm trying to find an ancient god -- the God of Two Steps Forward and One and a Half Steps Backward -- that would be the God of Cellular Operators. Cellular operators are offering good data services, and then they screw it up by doing incredibly stupid things.

Comments

[Aby Chacko]

Sir,

I am from India. I have one motorola mobile model no. is V 400. camara to diaplay, one strip is there. that was broken. can u tell me that from where i will get it. any authorised shop in India, particularly in BANGALORE. please help me...

[Ryan]

I recently got a v400. I am having a hell of a time trying to get outgoing email to work. It took me 3 tries calling Cinuglar's custiomer service to finally get someone who knew about sending and reading email from the phone. The first person even told me it is a useless feature that doesn't do anything because you can't read email from your internet provider :( The third person finally told me what to do. I was finally able to download email, but now I cannot send. It tells me "server not available" !!

[Rob]

I just purchased a v400 (unlocked) about a month ago from a Cingular reseller and once I signed up for MMS service, the phone worked fine for sending photos via MMS to textamerica.com and ofoto.com. Haven't tried sending to another cell phone tho. Can receive email from mycingular.com but sending email is posing problems...

[Carolina]

Cingular.. is a joke!
They have the worst customer service !!!!

[Gio Cedeno]

I am using my Cingular Moto V-400 Quad GSM phone in Ecuador - South America and its working just fine with a local GSM service provider but the only thing that does not work is the MMS option. I can not either send or receive MMS messages. Text Messages are fine but not MMS. I went to the services provider offices and ask them to config my phone to be able to send and receive MMS but they do not have the config steps for the Moto V-400 to enable this option since this company does not offeres the V-400 on their network yet. So I guess Im gonna have to wait until they get the config steps for my phone. If anyone can help me with this issue please write me at giocedeno@hotmail.com
Thanks
Gio

[heman]

im using motorola V400 cingular phone in india with a hutch connection. my gprs and text messages are working fine....but MMS doesnt work...im able to recieve but not able to send MMS and email messages....kindly help

[V400 User]

You are correct about the phone configuration issues. I bought the phone 2/12, they told me I could take pictures with it and send them off out of the box. After 1.5 hours with tech support still does not work. Awaiting call back from second tier support at this time.

[Goudy]

Too bad for Cingular, but you know, I don't think any of the mobile ops. in the U.S. have nailed down what to do w. camera phones + MMS + Email!

All have somehow screwed up the launch of their services; therefore, high adoption rates (need it badly since this is a new capability, newer and more expensive phones, etc.) ... Cingular may be screwing up by making the provisioning process difficult and others with high prices and no trail periods. If i were to pick one that did a relatively good job, it'd be Verizon.

One correction on usage: Technically, you can send an MMS to multiple recipients (max is determined by any handset and MMSC limitations). Some carriers charge a fee per recipient (for example, $0.40 per MMS per recipient on your dist. list). This pricing scheme makes e-mail a more economical alternative ... but then again, you'd have to set up that client, blah blah blah.

[Alan Reiter]

Hi Andy,

Cellular operators have complicated, bureaucratic procedures for determining the handsets they want.

For example, Sprint has made it a corporate policy to offer the latest and greatest handsets. Verizon typically lags behind some other carriers in offering the latest handsets. Verizon promotes its nationwide coverage whereas Sprint has had relatively poor coverage, although that is definitely changing.

Cingular was created by the mating of two dinosaurs -- Southwestern Bell and BellSouth -- with different cellular protocols (TDMA, GSM) and a really "sluggish" management.

All too often cellular operators' decisions are not in the interest of their customers.

[Andy Abramson]

Alan,

Cingular doesn't want some equipment on their network. They do all that they can to keep certain handsets and devices off the network.

Two years ago, as a Cingular subscriber, I received a beta of the failed Motorola Communicator PDA. I was told in no uncertain terms by Cingular that they would not provide either me or Motorola a certain identifier (which for the life of me, I can't remember the three letter designation for right now) and I never got to review the unit. Nor did the unit ever make it past the "announcement" stage for Motorola here in the USA.

Andy Abramson
Senior Editor and Co-host
The World Technology RoundUp
www.kenradio.com