By Lars Aase

While the devil was waiting for 3G, he created MMS -- a unique communication protocol that you can't communicate with and which is slow and expensive to use.

With mobile email to all, we will have a better world.

Mobile handsets increasingly mimic the computer, and as technology continues to develop, only the size of the screen will separate the two.

With current means of communication such as voice, SMS, email and chat, I see no place for MMS.

Email is a superior communication tool, and is also something that everyone uses almost daily, whether in school, work or socially.

Furthermore, an email address is a must for making any type of transaction over the Internet today, such as when communicating, shopping, opening accounts and applying for memberships.

All you can do with MMS plus much more can be done by email, but faster, cheaper and with fewer problems.

SMS has become a standard on mobile handsets while the email protocol is one of the most proven and standardized communication protocols overall.

Therefore, it is surprising that telecoms operators continue to focus so hard on a way of communication which is low quality, unreliable, slow and expensive.

Now that 3G and faster mobile networks are taking over, it is even more surprising that investment in MMS continues.

Thanks to Research In Motion and other mobile email providers, mobile email has become a must-have for business users.

However, within just a few years the use of mobile email for consumers will far exceed that of enterprise users.

This development could grow faster if wireless carriers around the world start now to add some resources in the area of mobile email services.

These services should be easy to implement, cost-effective and work on all mobile phones that are already on the market.

Today, maybe as many as 80 percent of people over 18 years in the world do not have an email address, but very many of these have a mobile that can be used for email.

So, if carriers worldwide begin the marketing mobile email for private users, many in the emerging markets will get their first email address and thus effectively become part of the international community.

Lars Aase is vice president of marketing at Momail, Stockholm, Sweden. Reach him at .