AT&T to enable MMS for iPhone 3G and 3GS on Sept. 25
AT&T confirmed Thursday that multimedia messaging capabilities will come to the iPhone a few days late, on Sept. 25 -- just after the end of summer -- bringing to an end months of waiting and speculation.
The service will be available with a software update on the launch date. The update will arrive for customers as a download from iTunes. The feature will only be available for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS users.
"It was important to give our customers a positive experience from day one," AT&T said. "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."
AT&T officials said they have been working for months to prepare their systems and network for MMS capabilities on the iPhone, which is expected to bring a great deal of additional bandwidth the the wireless provider's network. Officials have admitted that the additional bandwidth consumed by iPhone users has been extremely taxing, resulting in dropped calls and slower service. The company plans to spend $18 billion this year to upgrade and expand its 3G network, and coverage in the Tri-State Area was recently boosted.
Tethering, however, will not be a part of the update. An AT&T spokesman told AppleInsider that the company expects to offer it in the future.
"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," he said.
It was revealed earlier that AT&T has no plans to place a bandwidth cap on iPhone users, even if they tether to share a data connection with a computer.
"We know that iPhone users will embrace 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. We appreciate your patience as we work toward that end."
The company said its wireless data usage rate has grown 350 percent each year for the past two years, and that is projected to continue through 2009. But the company said it wants to assure its customers that it is doing everything it can to provide the best possible service for users on its network.
"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."
While other overseas carriers have had MMS capability available since the launch of iPhone OS 3.0, AT&T has been late to the game, and previously only said the capability would arrive late in the summer. As the summer has crept closer to its end, users have increasingly wondered when MMS would arrive, and some even filed lawsuits over the matter.
Apple demonstrated the iPhone's MMS feature at preview of OS 3.0 in March.
The service will be available with a software update on the launch date. The update will arrive for customers as a download from iTunes. The feature will only be available for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS users.
"It was important to give our customers a positive experience from day one," AT&T said. "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."
AT&T officials said they have been working for months to prepare their systems and network for MMS capabilities on the iPhone, which is expected to bring a great deal of additional bandwidth the the wireless provider's network. Officials have admitted that the additional bandwidth consumed by iPhone users has been extremely taxing, resulting in dropped calls and slower service. The company plans to spend $18 billion this year to upgrade and expand its 3G network, and coverage in the Tri-State Area was recently boosted.
Tethering, however, will not be a part of the update. An AT&T spokesman told AppleInsider that the company expects to offer it in the future.
"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," he said.
It was revealed earlier that AT&T has no plans to place a bandwidth cap on iPhone users, even if they tether to share a data connection with a computer.
"We know that iPhone users will embrace 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. We appreciate your patience as we work toward that end."
The company said its wireless data usage rate has grown 350 percent each year for the past two years, and that is projected to continue through 2009. But the company said it wants to assure its customers that it is doing everything it can to provide the best possible service for users on its network.
"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."
While other overseas carriers have had MMS capability available since the launch of iPhone OS 3.0, AT&T has been late to the game, and previously only said the capability would arrive late in the summer. As the summer has crept closer to its end, users have increasingly wondered when MMS would arrive, and some even filed lawsuits over the matter.
Apple demonstrated the iPhone's MMS feature at preview of OS 3.0 in March.
Comments
September 22, 2009 at 5:18 pm EDT
exactly.
Now, when AT&T told me "late summer" I expected late summer, not "early fall"......
Septermber 25, 2009 IS NOT "late summer"
Ya gotta luv AT&T. They heard our chants today.
Fat chants.
I've become so used to email for pics i'm not to concerned with that.Tethering is where its at.Take your laptop anywhere and surf and download or what ever.
Friends don't let friends use SMS/MMS.
What about tethering???????
I've become so used to email for pics i'm not to concerned with that.Tethering is where its at.Take your laptop anywhere and surf and download or what ever.
I don't think you will ever see tethering on AT&T's network until they have a 4G solution and can better handle large amounts of traffic. AT&T is already having a hard enough time surviving the bandwidth used by iPhone users (not to mention all the other smartphone traffic out there). If you give users the ability to easily use their computers to connect it'll kill their network. Users will download much more data (and some will prolly use the network exclusively over their existing home networks) while on a laptop than while on an iPhone (ie: video downloads become possible from your computer whereas Apple/AT&T restrict certain video apps from 3G access on the iPhone). In any sense, once AT&T has a 4G solution with tethering, it will require a new iPhone 4G model and by then Apple will be shipping to other providers as well.
Just use e-mail.
Friends don't let friends use SMS/MMS.
Takes too long.
Just use e-mail.
Friends don't let friends use SMS/MMS.
Friends don't let friends constantly getting bounced notes from attempting to send an MMS via email.
Um....fall starts
September 22, 2009 at 5:18 pm EDT
exactly.
Now, when AT&T told me "late summer" I expected late summer, not "early fall"......
Septermber 25, 2009 IS NOT "late summer"
They should have said EARLY FALL! Fail ATT, FAIL.
ATT & Apple just opened the door for many lawsuits being that everything said the MMS would be avaiable late summer.
OK, probably dumb question, but does MMS = IM as far as the 20 cents/per or $5/mo IM charge? Does AT&T consider them the same thing?
If I remember correctly AT&T said MMS will treated as SMS. In other words, if you already have SMS plan then you will not be charged for sending or receiving MMS.
OK, probably dumb question, but does MMS = IM as far as the 20 cents/per or $5/mo IM charge? Does AT&T consider them the same thing?
MMS is a kind of Message, similar to an SMS except able to include images, audio and video. Generally, just images though. How AT&T will price them on totally backwards US plans I don't know
Is there any technical limitation that will prevent the original Edge iPhone from using MMS? I'm not sure I understand why it's only for the 3G and 3GS.
Technically, EDGE Phones are capable of sending MMS. However, Apple and AT&T are not supporting this on iPhone. That might sound like they're being jerks, but MMS relies on the data network. As someone who has sent an MMS over EDGE...Trust me, you don't want to. It's slow as molasses
They should have said EARLY FALL! Fail ATT, FAIL.
ATT & Apple just opened the door for many lawsuits being that everything said the MMS would be avaiable late summer.
I for one will definitely have suffered from AT&T gross negligence for those 3 days of missing out texting pics.
Um....fall starts
September 22, 2009 at 5:18 pm EDT
exactly.
Now, when AT&T told me "late summer" I expected late summer, not "early fall"......
Septermber 25, 2009 IS NOT "late summer"
Yes it is. Summer as in "when AT&T told me "late summer"" is not a proper noun identifying a specific season (Summer). It is a more generic time of the year as in, the latter part of August and September is considered late summer (not Summer).
What about tethering???????
I've become so used to email for pics i'm not to concerned with that.Tethering is where its at.Take your laptop anywhere and surf and download or what ever.
get one of the free 3G laptop cards. not like it was going to be part of the basic data plan
I understand the tethering thingy, that it would over load ATT network.Thats what is holding back the MMS.Tethering on an edge phone is slow but it still works.Of course it must be jailbroken.When your conected to wifi at starbucks and tether using usb cord to pdanet then it works pretty good. 2wire speed tests shows 1.4mbps.Not bad for a 2g iphone.
Just use e-mail.
I always send email. But my friends/family still send MMS to me. And the website is flat-out obnoxious.
So even though I'll never send an MMS, this is a welcome feature.