AT&T has just announced that MMS -- a
much-ballyhooed feature of iPhone OS 3.0 -- will finally be hitting AT&T on September 25. There's still no date for tethering, though the company is holding the line that it'll be offered "in the future." Expanding on the logic behind the tethering delay, they're saying that "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're no network engineers, but "exponentially increase traffic" and "AT&T" are two things we don't typically like to hear in the same sentence -- let's hope the 850MHz, 7.2Mbps, and backhaul upgrades they're cranking on right now go a long way toward sorting that out. As for MMS, they're acknowledging that the release "does indeed fall a few days past the official end of summer," arguing that their support of more iPhone customers than any other carrier in the world made a positive launch experience a bit of a challenge. Of course, virtually every other phone AT&T sells (and has sold for the past several years) supports the same tech, so this feels like a pretty active admission that iPhone users blaze through data-rich features at a pace that the carrier has been ill-equipped to handle.
posted September 3rd 2009 2:09PM
it's funny to imagine all the iphone fan boys salivating at screen with those three, oh-so-glorious, letters...MMS.
hahah!
Wow, MMS!!! Man, those developers at Apple are soooooo ingenius!!! What will they think of next? A rotary dial cell phone? LOL Frickin' Apple.
So much for an August release date.
Everyone bleats on and on about how THEIR network would be the best if they had received the iPhone-exclusivity contract....
Honestly, I am of the mind that ALL of the cellular networks would have failed pretty well. ALL of the carriers suck, and we've all done nothing but line their pockets.
I think that there shouldn't be ANY exclusivity for the iPhone. I haven't had HUGE issues with my AT&T service (and I've been with AT&T since they were Cingular), but I know that I pay an arm and a leg for my service on the iPhone. An amount that is truly RIDICULOUS. But we will pay it, because we want this damn phone.
Breaking this exclusivity bull**** would probably be one of the best ways for us to get this phone at a better cost. Unfortunately all of this is just guessing and none of us will ever really know until the day that SOMETHING different happens with this phone.
Perhaps if the iPhone hadn't been exclusive to AT&T we all would be enjoying better service on our respective carriers because we wouldn't be on a greedy carrier's overloaded network.
But what do I know...
AT&T = Epic FAIL for taking so long. Hopefully Apple isn't happy either and will expand to other carriers, especially Verizon
PSH! See this is why people Jailbreak their phones. Fuck AT&T! TMobile works great for me! Hold on just got a picture on my phone from a friend. HA!
I suggest you don't upgrade to OS 3.1 when it comes out. I'm sure that tethering will be inaccessible without AT&T's good graces.
I can live with the quirks that 3.0.1 has to offer, as long as I can keep my tethering capability, thanks to http://help.benm.at/help
hallelujah!!!
My pre already Tethers. What up
They had better not charge extra for tethering either!. I'm already paying an extra $30 per line for a data plan on top of the phone plan!
you KNOW they will charge for Tethering. They are going to ring every last dollar out of you for everything.
Hey iphone users, welcome to 2004!
*sends MMS on his 5 year old AT&T RAZR*
Every time a friend of mine asks me why I didn't respond to a mms they sent me and I tell them my phone doesn't support that feature yet they all think I'm lying. Seriously, I have never had any problems with the ATT network but this is ridiculous.
honestly I don't know where all you people live, but I have never dropped a call on my iPhone OR lost 3G... ever.
Are you kidding me?
We're already talking about 4G and LTE coming next year.
You are now still talking about MMS? to a smartphone?
Apple slaves are still paying $100/month, and they can't even use Flash on their iphone. What a disgrace! They got you right where they want you.
WOW MMS!! "Only on the iPhone"
I dont mean to insult the Iphone or their owners (because some people get a little bit angry if you say something bad about apple) , but to me it sounds a bit odd that two features that other phones offer standard from the get go are being touted like some accomplishment. With 3.0 you can copy/paste and now you can MMS. Again, not trying to be offense or anything, but I find it a bit weird
It's because idiot bashers would always... well... bash the iPhone for those two specific reasons. Like "Omg no copy paste LOL my razr can do that!" Now the iPhone has just about everything that people were complaining about it not having. MMS, copypaste, Push, 3G, Video... etc. Apple is basically saying "in-yo-face" but at the same time they should have had those features in the first place. It's pretty stupid to complain now that it actually DOES have said features. What it needs though is proper multi-tasking >:[
Softbank in Japan already has MMS. I just got service for my unlocked iphone yesterday while I am traveling to Japan. An interesting note -- while the softbank data limit is pretty low, there was no long term contract to sign. I can go month to month with their smallest plan. This plan includes free calling to other softbank customers most of the day and a fee for calls made between 9pm and 2am (or close to that). In addition to no contract, this plan was only $9 per month for voice, and around $20 per month for the required data. While this plan is not even close to all you can eat, its really useful and I think it shows how much AT&T is screwing people over.
Screwing people over? Maybe if all you want to do is data and message; however, if you want a viable *phone*, Japanese cell phone companies are a giant rip.
You can already tether with the iPhone 3G WITH the 3.0 update. Google it and there is a package you can download that when installed allows you to tether. No need for NetShare any more even though I love that program because it worked great.
Are any of you honestly surprised that Apple left MMS out of the iPhone? This, coming from the manufacturer that we KNOW leaves things out until the next one to keep you hooked like its crack. I'm surprised they were nice enough to give us speakerphone on the first iPhone(just kidding).
On the car topic, I don't care what suspension or brakes your SRT8 has, an entry level 3-series not even the 335i will outhandle and outbrake it any day of the week. That being said, I own an Evo 8(heavily, HEAVILY modified, but still cost less than your SRT8) and an M5(pretty stock except a few really minor things) and i'll gladly hand you your ass any time you line up next to me be it in a straight line or most definitely the twisties. Get over the "American Muscle" theory of bigger is better(engines, cars, etc.) and climb into one of the latest Japanese econo rockets or pretty much anything out of Germany with M or AMG pedigree worked into it even if it isn't actually an M or an AMG. You don't hear of the Japanese or German companies going out of business or getting bought up by someone else within this past year. There is a reason for that. Leave the building of cheap to maintain and good gas mileage vehicles to the Japanes, and the excellent-handling luxury cars to the Germans.
Side note: if you're thinking about bringing up cars like, viper, corvette, cts-v, etc. The Corvette ZR1 is the exception to this rule, the Viper may be no more now that Fiat owns a majority stake in Chrysler, and the CTS-V is a nice car but its build quality and all around confidence-inspiring ride is still nowhere near an M5/E63.
AT&T, you will be sorely missed once you roll out unlimited-data tethering and MMS on the iPhone. The date this happens will be R.I.P. AT&T's network. Get ready for no bars in no places and the most dropped calls everybody!
btw, don't know if this has been touched upon yet, but for everyone screaming LTE IN 2010! I CAN HAZ IPHONEZ?? LTE is a good 3-4 years away from service form. i have no data to back this up, but i doubt there are many cell towers already being fed by fiber, if there are some..it's NOWHERE near going to mimic verizons current service map, even with another year of upgrades
another thing i dont understand, a good numer of the iphone users today, had phones pre-iphone that had the ability to send MMS...why does everyone, including AT&T assume enabling MMS is going to cripple the network?
This thing about AT&T bringing MMS to the i Phone is a bunch of bull stuff. Sept. the 25th? Yeah right; I really doubt it. Oh, and even if it comes on that date it's only coming to the new G3S phone. (No surprises there) What about the users who have the 1st or 2nd i Phone; are they going to make them go out and buy new phones? Screw that; if you want to send MMS from your iphone for free to anyone then go to MMS.ifind2.com and down load the sender today and forget about waiting on Apple & AT&T. Just check out the video on the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AygkZYjjNY
It's coming to 2nd and 3rd generation phones.
I really don't understand the network issue . . . . an MMS message is MUCH smaller typically than downloading a single web page. What's the big deal?
Um....no it's not. a typical MMS is anywhere from fifty kilobytes to a couple hundred kilobytes, about the size of a moderately-content-rich web page.
Sending a picture via email to another phone requires you to know what the other carriers' internet domain is for sending MMS to a phone from the internet. In a good many cases, it's not just phonenumber@carrier.com. Well, in some cases it might be, but there are enough where that's not the case to make it not worth the hassle to know the specific one for all the numbers you want to send a picture to. That cuts down on a LOT of traffic.
Sending a picture to just a phone number is much, MUCH simpler. However, it requires a bit more than just "shoot it over the internet to the other carrier," now we're talking between-carrier MMS agreements, between-carrier clearinghouses and their resulting overhead, more routing and tracking involved (how else did you think they could charge you per MMS sent). The ease of sending it to just a number also reults in a LOT more messages being sent and received.
Sending it as an email just just a basic data transaction at that point and pretty much a straight shot to the internet.
With the current method of pictures on an iphone:
Between iphones it's straight out and straight in.
From an iphone to another mobile on the same carrier it's straight out then back in to their gateway then as a normal MMS.
From an iphone to a mobile of another carrier it's straight out and AT&T washes their hands.
With the messages being sent as true MMS:
Between iphones it's out to their messaging server, then a check to see where it's supposed to go, then routed through the network to the other iphone.
From an iphone to another mobile on the same carrier, see above.
From an iphone to a mobile of another carrier it's to the messaging server then a check to see where it's supposed to go, then out to their between-carrier partner, then AT&T washes it's hands.
It may not look like it, but there's quite a bit more network overhead involved with a normal MMS that's above and beyond what the size of the picture itself is. If it's an email going out or coming in, it's pretty much just a basic data packet at that point and almost all the extra overhead isn't in the equation.
So that + iphone user's voracious appetite for all things data-related = more network congestion (but profit!)
WOW, i already have MMS and tethering on my iPhone and i don't need to pay 50cents per freaking MB. Am glad i got T-Mobile.
What's the difference between sending a pic over an email or over MMS? aren't they both sending data over AT&T's data network?
tether this.
I want to win one :)
At last, it is coming. It was a long wait for the people to check out the updates made by apple in this field. But now I guess the wait is over.
Its amazing that a 99c phone right out of the box can do MMS since 2005 or so but a 500 dollar iPhone 2G cant?
Too much for a phone thats 5 years ahead of the competition huh..or is it the Death Start AT&T doing tricks to force the 2G customers to upgrade to 3GS and sign a new 2 yr contract??
"exponentially increase traffic" and "AT&T" = DISASTER! Wait, they are not ready for it.
they are the marketing genius's. Im sure im not the only one posting here that has purchased a 2g 2g, 3g and 3gs as theyve come out. but everytime I hoped id be able to take advantage of MMS with an update of somekind. and even though they lack regualr cheap phone basic features we keep buying and buying and buying into whatever they sell. im sure im not the only one that feels awesome for having the chance to own an iphone let alone multiple gens but i feel ripped at the same time. at least every june
MMS should pretty much sink the AT&T network which quite regularly fails sending a TXT SMS message here in NYC. As for tethering, AT&T would have to provide a reliable internet connection to the phone itself before you could share it with another device.
"...we can deliver the expanded functionality with the excellent performance that customers expect."
did he laugh after he said that?
I've had my iPhone for 2 months and I'm ready to throw it out the 12th floor window because of AT&T's abysmal service. What's the metric for number of dropped calls in an hour that can be considered excellent performance? What about 3G availability?
How about they have a decent network before they do anything else? I don't have signal almost anywhere.
Everyone with a 3g or 3gs should call AT&T and ask for a 3 day credit on their messaging plan. I already did and it only gets you $1.50.
If only a million people can do it then AT&T will lose 1.5 million dollars. As a customer of their crappy services I think they should lose that money for missing the "late summer" deadline.
I know its not a lot of money but if we got enough people to do it they would lose a noticeable chunk of change. Enough to notice and maybe try a little harder to please customers?
MY BIRTHDAY!
Its already out in some regions but not working properly at all; users with the 3.1 beta 3 version can send to other phones but not receive or send to other i Phones, what kinda $h!t is that? It's like most 3rd party apps that you can download from the i-tunes store, they all can send but not receive from the i phone. There is only one app that can do that it's from the people at MMS.ifind2.com and it's called Send MMS puls they also offer View MMS for those of you that are tired of having to put in that stupid user name and password that AT&T sends you when you receive a text message. Also they offer tethering so you can use your phone as a modem to surf the net, something AT&T hasn't even offered yet.
I could really care less about MMS. Give me the tethering!
Will AT&T be able to handle iPhone 3G/iPhone 3GS MMS traffic tomorrow? - http://pkmtech.net/?p=191
Maybe MMS will kick in this afternoon?