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AT&T: iPhone MMS coming Sept. 25, tethering still delayed
AT&T is finally being frank about why it has delayed multimedia messaging services (MMS) and tethering capabilities on the iPhone, and it has to do with the fact that the operator is grappling with the tremendous growth coming from the iPhone.
In announcing that MMS would finally become available on Sept. 25, through a new software release--six months after Apple confirmed its iPhone OS 3.0 software update would support MMS. AT&T said: "The unique capabilities and high usage of the iPhone's multimedia capabilities required us to work on our network MMS architecture to carry the expected record volumes of MMS traffic and ensure an excellent experience from Day One. Wireless use on our network has grown an average of 350 percent year-over-year for the past two years, and is projected to continue at a rapid pace in 2009 and beyond."
That was a different story than what AT&T said back in June, when iPhone users were steaming about the fact that AT&T wasn't including MMS and tethering with the new iPhone software release. At the time, AT&T wouldn't disclose why it could not immediately support the two capabilities, and an AT&T spokesman told Wired.com that the lack of support was unrelated to AT&T's 3G network.
Data tethering is still delayed. AT&T's explanation: "By its nature, this function could exponentially increase traffic on the network, and we need to ensure that some of our current upgrades are in place before we can deliver the expanded functionality with the excellent performance that customers expect," the carrier said in a statement. "We expect to offer tethering in the future." AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega said in November 2008 that an official iPhone tethering option would be announced "soon."
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Comments
By Anonymous | Posted 12:45am | September 11, 2009
So..tell me: it was okay for APPLE to just not include to ability to send or receive MMS messages for the 3 years or whatever it was out until 3.0 update? And ATT has over 47 phones that can send MMS messages and over 17 or 27 I can't remember the number "smartphones" that have been able to send and receive MMS since they came out. ATT is not able to make any deals regarding the iPhone without the approval of Apple..i.e. the "early upgrade" when the 3GS came out, before Apple said it was okay, AT&T employees would get fired if they helped a customer upgrade from their 3G that they bought 31 days before the announcement of the 3GS..however once Apple says it's okay to do early upgrade, they blamed ATT for that "mix up" when the truth was Apple TOLD them not to allow it...ATT had to show them the FLOOD of angry emails and the statistics from their "save team" that their iPhone cancellations were through the roof. THEN Apple said , okay you can let them "early upgrade" but it will still cost them...just not as much.
Apple says "be ready for the roll out of MMS in late summer" and then blindsides them with the early release of the 3GS. Are you fanboys okay with Apple's policy of looking the other way when a KNOWN serial number of a stolen iPhone or iPod gets registered with NO QUESTIONS ASKED?! Are you okay with them releasing a new iPod that has a crappy FM receiver and a few other features and dropping the price of the nano and the shuffle a few months after they released the shiny new shuffle?! Go to another provider. When the iPhone or whatever device is there, and it SUCKS there too, please let me say I told you so. It's not ALL ATT's fault. Though there is SOME blame to be shared. With the economy doing as well as it is, there is NO reason it didn't drop 18BILLION dollars into building towers and adding servers to handle the stupid whiny iPhone Apple fanboys.
I HAVE AN IPHONE! I LOVE IT! It works great. I will be thrilled with it when I can send MMS messages like my mom's $20 phone can...but I can't sit by and listen to everyone yell about how crappy AT&T is when Apple is just a HORRIBLE company that only wants the money that you sheep are HAPPY to shell out whenever they slap a radio on an iPod and call it new. The truth is, the palm Pre is better...and in my area, Sprint is a TERRIBLE service provider. AT&T truly does work EVERYWHERE for me...but I've heard that new york and other east and west coast places have some problems...Sorry to hear it. Verizon SUCKS here. T-mobile is worse. Sprint works only on our highways and in major cities. AT&T and Alltell (now Verizon, I think...) are the only VERY reliable providers in the area.
The best thing to do in this situation is just press z or R twice and DO A BARREL ROLL!!!
By Anonymous | Posted 2:02pm | September 25, 2009
you're just a bag full of wrong... Apple has supported all of these functions for years now. proven by the fact that hackers were taking advantage of the built in tethering and mms... i personally know of people who've unlocked it on their iphone now for a couple of months... it was up to att to officially release the carrier update. that has nothing to do and had nothing to do with apple at all... and how could you say something as stupid as att being blindsided by apple announcing mms capability on the iphone? was att stupid enough to think that a phone of that nature shouldn't be able to send and receive mms? and by you saying that APPLE said "ok let them early upgrade"... are you really that ignorant? that's all att's call not apples. your argument is invalid. and who is even talking about ipods? yes the new nanos ARE new... a video camera is pretty substantial to me plus a $20 price job on the 16gb model? i'd say thats pretty cool... plus the new shuffles just offer more choices... why are you so angry at that?
-a very satisfied iphone user WITH att service
By Anonymous | Posted 10:18pm | September 12, 2009
In response to your comment about "Are you fanboys okay with Apple's policy of looking the other way when a KNOWN serial number of a stolen iPhone or iPod gets registered with NO QUESTIONS ASKED?!"
I used to be an Applecare iPhone tech and official internal policy is we support the product not the customer. Even if the customer flat out tells you on the phone ya I just stole this phone and I wanna change the name and info to myself, we were supposed to do just that and support it as such. If the phone had applecare protection that transfers to the new "owner" of the phone stolen or not. If they can't activate the phone due to it being reported to at&t we would be like ok either we can replace through the mail or setup an appointment to go to apple retail store to replace. "provided it is within the first year since phone was purchased" or has applecare protection plan.
As far as the mms and tethering. That was totally at&t. There have been thousands of iphones using mms for a couple years that were unlocked and taken to tmobile.
Oh btw. if you want a lower bill and have a 3g. but have a friend with origional iphone. Just stick you sim card in they're phone and plug into computer with itunes. It'll let you update your account to normal iphone plan "10 dollars cheaper and 200 free text". then put sim back in your 3g and enjoy. You will still have full 3g service.
By Justinger | Posted 4:51am | September 25, 2009
iPhone MMS released today! It's so SWEET! Check it out!
http://cars.xraysolutions.net/iphone.htm
By Anonymous | Posted 9:07am | September 26, 2009
I am in a chicago suburb and still don't have mms . yes, I have restarted the phone and no , I still dont have mms ..... WTF!
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