Will MMS be in 3.1?

[Duvi]

Here you go! Part 1 and 2 being the points to look at.

Not making an excuse, but stating the facts. People use the web/iTunes/email more on the iPhone because there isn't MMS! On other smartphones and regular dumb phones, aside from business users, messaging runs circles around web/iTunes/email/phone. It's fact, and working for AT&T, I see it. In fact, a lot of customers block internet. Messaging unlimited is $30 a month for a family of four. It's $120 extra per month to have the family all have data.

It's getting old how people blame AT&T for not having the feature or dropping the ball... why did you purchase this device if it was so important? There is no excuse for anyone to complain about a feature that was known not to be there and was said to be coming later this summer. The economy is bad, so don't expect AT&T to be giving Overtime for this feature to get pushed, you can wait; everyone's been waiting since 2007, another month or two won't kill you.

Part 1 - I will also let you in on the reason why AT&T is in the position it is in... Apple said they would never get MMS and that it was primitive; email was going to take over. Well, AT&T seeing that Apple wasn't going to add it, not only created a text only package for the iPhone, it also had to remove xyz (can't say what it is) from the back-end to stop those that had family messaging and had an iPhone, but had a different phone on the account allowing them to get MMS. So the system would automatically recognize an iPhone when it would hit the cell tower vs. going by the phone on the account.

Part 2 - Apple then says to whoever needs to know (upper management in corporate) that all these features were coming, but guess what? Upper management isn't the ones re-enabling these features and since Apple has all employees (including me) take a training and acknowledge/agree to secrecy, they didn't tell the team (tech) that would enable it or else they would have known it was coming. When the announcement was made, they allowed developers to call in and get MMS enabled while working on adding the feature to the biller for the iPhone. So many "developers" were calling in, they stopped doing it.

Part 3 - With the feature code that is going to be added, I believe the effective date will all be the same for everyone so it seems as the switch was flipped for everyone at the same time. This part is speculation, but this is why a lot of people are seeing iPhone MMS PPU codes.

 

[Duvi]

Bottom line: Apple's secrecy BS only allowed the tech group to know about it on announcement day. This is to stop leaks. If the techs started enabling it before the announcement, everyone would officially/unofficially know it was coming.

 

[whmurray]

Bottom line: Apple's secrecy BS only allowed the tech group to know about it on announcement day. This is to stop leaks. If the techs started enabling it before the announcement, everyone would officially/unofficially know it was coming.

You are kidding us, right? You have your tongue in your cheek. Slingplayer was available before 3.0 and was bleocked only on iPhone. Was there ever any doubt that whenever 3.0 became available it would have MMS. Are you asserting that Apple kept the announcement date of 3.0 from its exclusive partner?

It did not require "enabling" to have it, only capacity. It did not take action to allow it, rather it took action to block it.

How come all the other carriers were "enabled" and the "steaming pile of failure" was not? How come those using other phones on AT&T have access to broadband applications that are arbitrarily denied to iPhone users?

I for one am not buying and I doubt that you can sell this line to many others. As much as I would like almost any rationale for AT&T's behavior, this one simply does not fit the evidence.

Nice try but I think that your should try again. This time try to find an excuse for AT&T that does not blame others and that fits the evidence.

 

[whmurray]

Bottom line: Apple's secrecy BS only allowed the tech group to know about it on announcement day. This is to stop leaks. If the techs started enabling it before the announcement, everyone would officially/unofficially know it was coming.

"When you are in a hole over your head, stop digging."

 

[whmurray]

Give me a seconds to quote another blog I posted at. Yes, it's primarily Apple's fault.

I'm actually getting tired of seeing everyone wanting to bash AT&T. The only reason AT&T isn't pointing fingers is because they are puppets and everyone including the CEO of wireless (supposedly) take an iPhone course each year stating nothing can be said outside of Apple officially saying it.

I am sure you are. Perhaps it is unfair, but "bashing" AT&T is not limited to this forum or iPhone users. It was not an iPhone user who coined "steaming pile of failure." The NYTimes was not talking for iPhone users. There is no data in San Francisco for any users, not just iPhone users. It is particularly vexing to iPhone users because we rely upon data, but the market is clearly under-provisioned. It is hard to blame that on Apple secrecy, or any other Apple behavior.

AT&T's reputation is in its own hands.

 

[Watcher]

I think I understand what Duvi is saying. He's saying that initially Apple told AT&T that MMS would never be on the iPhone so AT&T took steps account-wise, in the background, to make that happen. He's basically saying given the steps and procedures it took to do this, it can't be easily undone for millions of accounts.

What others are saying is carriers in other countries similarly had to face the same initial supporting of MMS for the iPhone as well, but they didn't have any delays. Does anyone know if they are facing the same "undoing of procedures" that AT&T put in place to block MMS on each iPhone account? Does anyone know this for certain? And also are any of the other carriers faced with enabling this feature for even half of the amount of users AT&T has?

Just curious... don't shoot the cat!

 

[Duvi]

whmurray, I'm assuming reading comprehension isn't your strongest point... so maybe I'll take baby steps for you.

I hope you're still with me... "Part 2" states that upper management (around the COO level of the wireless side & above, meaning up to CEO of AT&T as a whole) knew, but they aren't the ones who provision. The ones who did could not have been told prior to the announcement date or risk a leak.

I know this as I am a manager for our business group. We received an email about it only an hour after I knew from the keynote. We and the 99.5% of AT&T never know until it's officially announced.

We also, even me had to take an online course agreeing to secrecy no matter what we've found out prior to any announcement.

I could care less if you blame them for being a pile of whatever (very classy btw). You know only what you see on blogs and believe you know everything; nowadays that means you know everything . Just wanted to set it straight with MMS.

The other companies didn't do what AT&T did... first off they don't have that many subscribers. AT&T has the most iPhone subscribers of any carrier abroad. No other carrier within the US can have as many subscribers on iPhones. AT&T did as good a job as they can.

Why are we bringing SlingPlayer in to the convo? We are talking about MMS. Is that the only way you could get any type of leverage? Please enlighten me as I failed to see what the blocking of SP (as you said) has anything to do with 3.0. It also sounds like you're writing just to write. SlingPlayer is not blocked, it's only able to stream through wifi (without jailbreaking/hacking the phone). I'm assuming you don't own your own business and if you do, you're probably looking at filing a chapter 7.

You bought an iPhone (if you started from 2G, even worse) knowing that there wasn't any MMS and then when the announcement came saying later this summer, you get mad because other carriers have it and AT&T doesn't? Come on, now you sound like my little sister when we were younger... "Mom he has more than me, that's not fair." It doesn't sound bright if you know the shortcomings (according to you) of a device and then complain about it (for the wrong reasons and against the wrong company) not being available.

You sound like an Anti-AT&T person anyways and I don't expect you to even read this, comprehend what I said and then take a chill pill, so do me a favor.

Take a long walk on a short pier...

 

[Duvi]

I think I understand what Duvi is saying. He's saying that initially Apple told AT&T that MMS would never be on the iPhone so AT&T took steps account-wise, in the background, to make that happen. He's basically saying given the steps and procedures it took to do this, it can't be easily undone for millions of accounts.

What others are saying is carriers in other countries similarly had to face the same initial supporting of MMS for the iPhone as well, but they didn't have any delays. Does anyone know if they are facing the same "undoing of procedures" that AT&T put in place to block MMS on each iPhone account? Does anyone know this for certain? And also are any of the other carriers faced with enabling this feature for even half of the amount of users AT&T has?

Just curious... don't shoot the cat!

Thank you for being civilized BTW.

The reason other carriers have it is because they didn't take the extra steps to remove the feature off the back-end like AT&T. Heck, if you unlock an iPhone for T-mobile USA, they even give you the steps on getting it to work. Why? Because they want subscribers. The other carriers abroad don't have as many subscribers and even then their plans/rates are so ridiculously high, not too many people can afford it.

AT&T knows when the switch it turned on for MMS, they will be a spike in data usage. So while getting the provisioning part ready, they're beefing up the network as well. It's a known fact, iPhone users are power users, more so the BlackBerry devices. My work and person BlackBerry combined can't even compare to my iPhone usage. Receiving voicemail uses data and so do many of the applications. So it may seem like AT&T is slacking, but the truth is, none of the carriers in the U.S. could handle the iPhone better than AT&T did (by themselves).

 

[Cmec#AC]

Now that was spoken from a true At&t employee. While At&t big wigs are sitting on their jets traveling the world their employee's are covering the MMS mess up lol. I for one don't care what the reason is I would just love to see MMS enabled on my iPhone. We all know however long it takes At&t to enable it there still will be problems. And what will happen next, us iPhone user's will be back in the forums complaining about it! Take your time At&t and worry about getting it right! I am in no rush, I just don't want it to fail!

 

[redbeard]

It's funny, people talk about MMS putting a strain on the network, even though it's nothing compared to surfing the web, and I keep hearing about how everyone just e-mails pics, as if e-mail uses no data.

I wouldn't be surprised if by New Years we still don't have MMS.

 

[Earless Puppy]

it should be out with 3.1, I would be surprised if it wasn't...

 

[whmurray]

It's funny, people talk about MMS putting a strain on the network, even though it's nothing compared to surfing the web, and I keep hearing about how everyone just e-mails pics, as if e-mail uses no data.

I wouldn't be surprised if by New Years we still don't have MMS.

I no longer care about it, but I will be surprised if we do.

 

[Jeremy]

I no longer care about it, but I will be surprised if we do.

I thought you were leaving AT&T and the iPhone?

 

[whmurray]

I thought you were leaving AT&T and the iPhone?

And that is why I no longer care. Actually, I never cared about MMS per se. What bugged me was that AT&T offered services to the users of phones where AT&T did not have an exclusive while denying them to iPhone users on whom they thought that they had a lock.

 

[whmurray]

whmurray, I'm assuming reading comprehension isn't your strongest point... so maybe I'll take baby steps for you.

I hope you're still with me... "Part 2" states that upper management (around the COO level of the wireless side & above, meaning up to CEO of AT&T as a whole) knew, but they aren't the ones who provision. The ones who did could not have been told prior to the announcement date or risk a leak.

I know this as I am a manager for our business group. We received an email about it only an hour after I knew from the keynote. We and the 99.5% of AT&T never know until it's officially announced.

We also, even me had to take an online course agreeing to secrecy no matter what we've found out prior to any announcement.

I could care less if you blame them for being a pile of whatever (very classy btw). You know only what you see on blogs and believe you know everything; nowadays that means you know everything . Just wanted to set it straight with MMS.

The other companies didn't do what AT&T did... first off they don't have that many subscribers. AT&T has the most iPhone subscribers of any carrier abroad. No other carrier within the US can have as many subscribers on iPhones. AT&T did as good a job as they can.

Why are we bringing SlingPlayer in to the convo? We are talking about MMS. Is that the only way you could get any type of leverage? Please enlighten me as I failed to see what the blocking of SP (as you said) has anything to do with 3.0. It also sounds like you're writing just to write. SlingPlayer is not blocked, it's only able to stream through wifi (without jailbreaking/hacking the phone). I'm assuming you don't own your own business and if you do, you're probably looking at filing a chapter 7.

You bought an iPhone (if you started from 2G, even worse) knowing that there wasn't any MMS and then when the announcement came saying later this summer, you get mad because other carriers have it and AT&T doesn't? Come on, now you sound like my little sister when we were younger... "Mom he has more than me, that's not fair." It doesn't sound bright if you know the shortcomings (according to you) of a device and then complain about it (for the wrong reasons and against the wrong company) not being available.

You sound like an Anti-AT&T person anyways and I don't expect you to even read this, comprehend what I said and then take a chill pill, so do me a favor.

Take a long walk on a short pier...

Perhaps I finally get it (the little nuns always said that I was a slow learner). Are you telling us that your problem is the controls that you have in place to discriminate in services based upon the phone that the subscriber is using, controls that other carriers do not have because they treat all GSM phones the same? Is that your problem?

(Incidentally, I thought that the GSM agreement required all carriers to treat all GSM compliant phones the same.)

 

[whmurray]

How is it not AT&Ts fault?

Its not like Apple kept MMS a secret from the carriers.

How is it that every other carrier was prepared but not AT&T?

Well, Duvi would now have us believe that Apple only told the top brass at AT&T, that, because of their NDA with Apple, it was kept from the worker-bees until it was too late. Obviously that is Apple's fault?

 

[Jeremy]

All of this banter about who's fault it is that MMS has been delayed has been beaten to death in other threads previously.

Thread closed...