Transmission of multimedia messages between mobile station terminals

A system for transmitting a multimedia message in a telecommunication network from a first mobile station terminal of a sender to a second mobile station terminal of an intended recipient of the multimedia message, said system comprising:

• a second multimedia message server;
• a first multimedia message server operable for receiving the multimedia message from the first mobile station terminal, for saving the received multimedia message, for transforming the received multimedia message into an e-mail message and for sending the e-mail message to the second multimedia message server;
• a first address database associated with the first multimedia message server for maintaining address information of plural multimedia message servers of the telecommunication network;
• an IP network for transmitting the e-mail message from the first multimedia message server to the second multimedia message server;
• said second multimedia message server being operable for receiving the e-mail message from the first multimedia message server, for transforming the received e-mail message into a new multimedia message, for saving the new multimedia message and for sending to the second mobile station terminal a notification of the saved new multimedia message;
• and
• a second address database associated with the second multimedia message server for maintaining address information of subscribers associated with the second multimedia message server.

A method comprising:

• receiving an e-mail message at a first multimedia message server associated with a first mobile operator, wherein the e-mail message includes content corresponding to a multimedia message sent from a mobile station associated with a second mobile operator and destined for a recipient mobile station associated with the first mobile operator;
• converting the received e-mail message into a multimedia message for delivery to the recipient mobile station;
• and
• sending a notification of receipt of the multimedia message to the recipient mobile station.

A system comprising:

• a multimedia message server of a first mobile operator configured to receive an e-mail message, wherein the e-mail message includes content corresponding to a multimedia message sent from a mobile station associated with a second mobile operator and destined for a recipient mobile station associated with the first mobile operator;
• the multimedia message server further configured to convert the e-mail message into the multimedia message for delivery to the recipient mobile station;
• and
• the multimedia message server further configured to send a notification of receipt of the multimedia message to the recipient mobile station.

A system comprising:

• a multimedia message server of a mobile operator configured to receive multimedia messages from mobile stations associated with the mobile operator and send notifications and multimedia messages to the mobile stations associated with the mobile operator;
• the multimedia message server further configured to convert multimedia messages to e-mail messages when a destination address of a multimedia message is not associated with a mobile station associated with the mobile operator, to receive e-mail messages representing multimedia messages from mobile stations not associated with the mobile operator, and to convert the received e-mail messages into multimedia messages;
• and
• the multimedia message server further configured to transmit converted e-mail messages to a first predetermined server over an Internet Protocol (IP) network and to receive e-mail messages representing multimedia messages from a second predetermined server over the IP network.