All four UK mobile operators are now committed to supporting Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), although only T-Mobile, the new name for One 2 One, has launched a service across GSM.

Uncertainty remains over the tariffs that each operator will charge for their MMS facilities, but it seems clear that it will initially be the senders of messages who pay.

T-Mobile, for instance, has announced a flat-rate tariff, which is surprising because such tariffs are recent innovations even for SMS. The other networks look as if they will follow the conventional pattern of charging a fixed price per message.

Research suggests that customers will cough up three or four times as much as they pay for SMS to access the extra facilities of MMS.

The networks are targeting the big SMS users first, which is the younger end of the market. Image banks will be available from which users can choose pictures to forward, rather like the greeting cards that are popular on the web.

MMS adds to the concept by allowing senders to attach a sound clip and text to the image. Not all MMS handsets will feature an integrated camera, so the idea of grabbing pictures from a store may well appeal to customers.

A lot of thought has been put into the problem of early adopters who have nobody to send MMS messages to. In theory, subscribers should be able to send a message to any phone.

If that phone doesn't have MMS or doesn't support the media type, the network will try to convert the message into something that can be displayed.

It will at least send an SMS giving a URL where the message can be viewed with either an HTML or Wap browser. This is a powerful technique that encourages people to bow to peer pressure and buy MMS phones so that they don't miss out on the messages being sent.

The fact that a single MMS could contain a minute of audio opens up the possibility of some nice features when hooked into a voicemail system. Users could have their voicemail messages delivered by MMS, allowing them to store key messages locally rather than relying on a central store.

Premium MMS services may be aimed at specific groups. Football fans might enjoy pictures of a team's goals rather than just the notification that one has been scored, and may well be prepared to pay through the nose for such a service.

Although the initial emphasis is on consumers, there are many areas where MMS can help businesses. Almost any company with a mobile workforce could benefit from tailored applications.

Insurance assessors could send photographs to be used as backup material for rapid authorisation of claims, for example. The photographs could then be archived in the event of a dispute.

News organisations could provide reporters with MMS camera phones to capture early images of events, especially if a cameraman is unavailable.

An estate agent could put an image of a property on the web before leaving the seller's house, then show the owner the live result on a PDA, smartphone or notebook PC.

This all suggests that MMS will soon become useful and ubiquitous in the corporate world, and companies should begin to look carefully at ways in which such services could help them to do business.