Filed under: iPhone
Breaking News: September 25 for MMS on the iPhone
Hot off the proverbial presses. Finally, AT&T has a date for MMS! The word came to me a few minutes ago from Brad Mays of AT&T.The date is September 25th, which does indeed fall a few days past the official end of summer. It was important to give our customers a positive experience from day one. We support more iPhone customers than any other carrier in the world so we took the time necessary to make sure our network is ready to handle what we expect will be a record volume of MMS traffic. We truly appreciate our customers' patience and hope they'll understand our desire to get it right from the start.
The service will be enabled with a software update on the launch date. Customers can obtain the update from iTunes, just like all other iPhone updates.
As for tethering, 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. We expect to offer tethering in the future.
He also added some comments on the network in general:
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. We appreciate your patience as we work toward that end.
We're riding the leading edge of smartphone growth that's resulted in an explosion of traffic over the AT&T network. 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. The volume of smartphone data traffic the AT&T network is handling is unmatched in the wireless industry. We want you to know that we're working relentlessly to innovate and invest in our network to anticipate this growth in usage and to stay ahead of the anticipated growth in data demand, new devices and applications for years to come.
Reminder: MMS will only work on iPhone 3G and 3GS models.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
captain said 3:20PM on 9-03-2009
Nice, three days after the fall equinox and 4 months after the announcment. Oh well, at least it's finally here.
I still don't understand any of their arguments. Everyone knew for months that MMS was coming in June - why is it AT&T decided to wait until after it was available to work on this problem?
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Scotty said 3:17PM on 9-03-2009
Yes.... Because MMS is so leading edge....
Dear God I hope Apple I hope Apple signs a contract with TMobile and/or releases a CDMA version soon....
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emil said 3:47PM on 9-03-2009
Can't say I share your faith in the integrity of T-mobile's network, assuming you mean you'd switch to T-mobile. AT&T may be overloaded, but if T-mobile became an option available to people other than those willing to jailbreak/unlock, I suspect they'd have congestion issues practically overnight.
That said, it WOULD reduce congestion on AT&T's network, so you might have a point ...
Scotty said 4:19PM on 9-03-2009
Good point in that it would simply migrate the data traffic over to TMobile.
I had TMobile before switching over to ATT for the iPhone. I miss them and their great customer service.
The end result is that competition is GOOD. The reason ATT can delay tethering and MMS is that they have no deadlines to beat other than their own.
LAGal said 6:20PM on 9-03-2009
if Apple does either, they are idiots.
the biggest complaint about the ATT contract is lack of choice. they are better off with dropping all contracts and letting anyone that can, service the phones.
as for CDMA, they aren't required to have a CDMA device and splitting their resources by making an second phone is a bad move. sorry Verizon and Sprint folks but you lose. until such time as said carriers pick up the tech Apple decides to use.
Brian Allen said 3:18PM on 9-03-2009
New Information: They indicate that 3G iPhones will be supporting MMS.
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drumstik76 said 3:57PM on 9-03-2009
That's been known since they announced MMS in 3.0
Brian Allen said 4:01PM on 9-03-2009
good correction
Hi Chris! said 3:22PM on 9-03-2009
@ Brian Allen I think that came with the 3.0 Software, it just wasn't enabled because AT&T was still working on the network (Mentioned @ WWDC keynote)
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Jay said 3:24PM on 9-03-2009
att...we need to chat. if you want to chalk it up to "trying to improve the network" that's fine, but when everyone with your service that lives in a major city has seen a SERIOUS downgrade in call quality in the last 3 or 4 months, its not giving me high hopes.
you're taking an average of $90 per month from what is it now, 3...4 million people?
you're one of the biggest wireless providers in the world. get it the f together.
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MRCUR said 4:11PM on 9-03-2009
Exactly! I'm not even asking for faster data right now, I'm asking for the 3G to work in the first place. Probably 70% of the time at my house I'm on EDGE (WiFi of course, but for calls and such it's EDGE). I'm also in one of the most recent 3G markets, which I would hope means was deployed with updated hardware if there is any.
Please AT&T, just get it together already.
Christian Nevarez said 3:33PM on 9-03-2009
What about those that own the 2G iPhone, why are we left in the dark and still paying for texting plan with no MMS. I don't mind seriously I just email my pictures around.
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MRCUR said 4:13PM on 9-03-2009
You're now two whole generations behind, that's why.
jankbiz said 11:50PM on 9-03-2009
Nope, not in the dark. Just send free MMS texts, without AT&T support, via the Picfree app. http://bit.ly/EHaJf
NutMac said 3:33PM on 9-03-2009
Um, why is the model holding iPhone 2G?
http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=1574
Perhaps 2G will at least be able to receive MMS now?
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oboewan said 3:40PM on 9-03-2009
If AT&T can't handle network traffic, why the #$%^ are they selling phones with cellular data connections?
I love how he pointed out that they "support more iPhone customers than any other carrier in the world." DUH. And 95% of those will run like #$%^ when the iPhone goes unexclusive.
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Arlo said 3:39PM on 9-03-2009
So they release this news the same day the New York Times runs an article about their network's inability to handle the iPhone. Coincidence?
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Larry said 3:41PM on 9-03-2009
I don't think this new line of argument, "Too Many People are Buying and Using Phones for stuff!" does AT&T any favors really. Not exactly the best corporate spin to say, Yes we agree our network blows, but its really the fault of our customers who use it.
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JR said 3:41PM on 9-03-2009
"...the excellent performance that customers expect"
Come on, we would never expect that from at&t.
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Howie Isaacks said 3:42PM on 9-03-2009
I don't give a rat's ass about MMS. I want tethering. This statement is full of fluff, but basically says that they're nowhere near ready. AT&T's network is crap in Dallas.
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