News
AT&T: iPhone 3G + 3GS MMS on September 25
By Jeremy Horwitz
Editor-in-Chief, iLounge
Published: Thursday, September 3, 2009
News Category: iPhone
Following earlier claims that AT&T would enable U.S. iPhone 3G and 3GS users to have access to multimedia messaging (MMS) by late summer 2009, the company today announced that MMS support will launch on September 25, 2009, several days after the official end of summer. “We know that iPhone users will embrace MMS,” AT&T said in a statement today. “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.” AT&T’s failure to support MMS immediately upon the release of iPhone 3.0 software drew jeers from attendees at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, as well as U.S.-based users, some of whom have sued AT&T and Apple over the continued unavailability of the feature. The companies still have not announced the date at which tethering—another iPhone 3.0 feature, enabling an iPhone to serve as a computer’s modem—will be supported by AT&T.
Editor’s Note: The original article incorrectly stated that summer ended earlier; the error has been corrected.
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1
Summer ends on September 21st, at least officially, so they won’t be a month behind.
Posted by Joel on September 3, 2009 at 2:00 PM (PDT)
2
Well my first reply got the spam filter for some reason…to Joel, exactly right, looking at the calendar now, 9/22/09 @ 21:18 UTC, so just over 3 days. Hardly a month.
Posted by JW in STL on September 3, 2009 at 2:15 PM (PDT)
3
i think they might need to look at caldenar on the iPhone…hey! there’s an app for that!
Sorry couldn’t resist.
Posted by JW in STL on September 3, 2009 at 2:18 PM (PDT)
4
One month after summer begins??
Call me crazy but I wouldn’t really anticipate a crippling amount of iPhone users deciding to MMS all at once. I mean, maybe everyone will send a picture message the first day but I can’t see it making much of a dent in the network after that.
Posted by Bethany on September 3, 2009 at 2:29 PM (PDT)
5
Yeah, how much more traffic could MMS possibly add to their network? To me its just a different kind of traffic, not necessarily more. I’ll MMS instead of emailing a pic maybe.
Posted by Ben Zell on September 3, 2009 at 3:29 PM (PDT)
6
I dont understand. Why not just use email… MMS is kind of a step backwards. Who has a phone anymore that wont do email?
Posted by Ruth on September 4, 2009 at 6:25 AM (PDT)
7
Since we are forced to use AT&T as the sole source for an iPhone, we should take steps to force AT&T to allow tethering and other actions with the iPhone. Or, Apple should allow multiple source providers to offer the iPhone. Let the people decide which carrier they want to use. I believe this is called fair competition.
Posted by Johnnie on September 4, 2009 at 6:30 AM (PDT)
8
One more comment. MMS has been offered to consumers for a few years and AT&T is just now getting around to offering it for the iPhone. Something wrong with this picture.
Posted by Johnnie on September 4, 2009 at 6:37 AM (PDT)
9
I too am not really concerned with the ability to do this - once I got the iPhone in June, I realized it’s an overrated feature (to me) since I can use email. Additionally, I still have some older family members who haven’t had a need to change from their ‘brick’ style phone - so email is just an overall easier way to get pictures out to them. Does that mean I won’t use the feature - well, with an unlimited message package, I can see a need to occasionally use it to MMS pics to other friends that I know have an iPhone or other phone with similar capabilities.
Posted by DJ Renton on September 4, 2009 at 6:48 AM (PDT)
10
#6: MMS is so much faster and easier than e-mail. And the vast majority of phones in use out there in the USA are “dumb” phones with little/no e-mail support.
#7: I have to agree. For example, Apple could easily offer an updated 1G iPhone to T-Mobile, since they have the same GSM and EDGE frequencies and capabilties as AT&T.
Posted by Herr Doktor on September 4, 2009 at 6:48 AM (PDT)