Comments on: Why is AT&T delaying rollout of iPhone tethering, MMS?

AT&T won't offer data tethering and MMS services when Apple launches its upgraded operating system for the iPhone, but the U.S. carrier says it will add it this summer.

[gino382]

to me it is a joke that i pay 30 dollars a month for "unlimited data" then they limit some apps to wi fi only like sling box and skype and then they charge you for mms and don't even have that.

[sudcm]

I am a fan of the iPhone but definitely not a fan of the service provided by AT&T. Of course, it has been mentioned previously that every carrier has its positives and negatives. That is true but I have had the opportunity to use all carriers except for T Mobile and have found AT&T to be, by far, the worst service yet. I will be one of the first, and I'm sure not the only, iPhone user that will drop AT&T's service as soon as the iPhone is available on other carriers. I am looking forward to that day. AT&T will be losing this customer unless there is a drastic improvement in service.

[trentZ2]

Hell they could have come out at the conference and said sorry no upgrades at this time...but we're switching carriers to Verizon and sales would have doubled overnite.

[rcardona2k]

I would bet money these features are delayed due to CALEA, i.e. NSA-approved MMS and tethering

[Tokyo3G]

Hello from Tokyo, Japan. I am an American living and working here. The 3G coverage, capacity and performance is far above average in Japan. Tokyo has about 12 million people but the system is built to handle the load. People get upset here if they can't get a signal or immediate signal in an undergroud subway! They demand service and get it.

Don't let AT&T try to blow smoke in your face. The technology and capacity are there to use, like the German autobahn.

American carriers are trying to drive a 1974 Ford Pinto on it. While you are driving along at 62mph/100km/h many European and Asian carriers are blowing your doors off like a Nissan GT-R or a S-class Benz. Maybe the investment is too high. Who knows?

Softbank mobile here just introduced a Sharp clamshell model with a 10 Megapixal camera and digital TV receiver/recorder and a slot for a 16G microSD card. I am sure I will see Japanese high school kids with it soon. Yes, high school kids.

So what is Apple to do when some mobile phone companies outside of the U.S.A are able to utilize fully or exceed the capabilities of the Iphone while AT&T lumbers along like a camel??

It reminds of this old country song called "Mississippi Cotton Pickin Delta Town" by Charley Pride.

[tkarel]

I'll grant you the technological advantage in Japan. Can you tell me how often a high school girl needs a 10 Mp camera? And, how much does it cost, USD please, per month for Softbank service? Do they have 5GB/mo. limit?
Remember to include the money Japan?s national and local governments use to subsidize Softbank each year. Divide that by 12, then divide that by the number of Softbank consumers. In USD, please.
For extra credit, tell us how a Japanese citizen without a cell phone (or who uses it as, OMG!, a phone only) feels about paying for a service he will never use.

[mirk87]

You know everybody wants to **** and moan about att and all their down falls, but who are you all kidding!!! The prices of att & vzw are exactly the same! What does verizon offer.... the storm?!?!? talk about a damn joke! Get over yourselves! I mean seriously, you think verizon could handle as many customer as att?? lets put it this way, i know their network, it cant handle 1/3 of the people on att. Yall are a joke and should really know what your talking about before you comment on here and sound like a bunch of retard know it alls! What a joke!!!!

[ryanl14785]

Now your pissing me off. I just switched to AT&T.

Verizon HAS 80m customers, att has some 73....
Verizon is going have LTE 3 years before AT&T.
Verizon has a larger 3G Network
Verizon gets reception in a Washington DC Metro.
Verizon sends my messages faster
Verizon is BY FAR better than AT&T. Get your facts straight. I only switched for the iPhone

[PCUser2008]

That is just too bad. I just jumped ship from verizom to at&t just for the iphone 3g, and now i hear all this stuff about not until end of summer. Man what a set back, but i am happy with my current phone (3G). And my plan is cheaper with at&t then my old verizon plan. I am only paying $62.90 a month. Not to mention my employers discount of 25%. So i will just deal with apple and at&t's BS

[flugo31]

Ok, so what up with having to pay full price for a new iPhone 3GS when already have an iPhone 3G. I understand you would be breaking the contract however you are still getting to more years on top of the one time fee tagged for activation and upgrade. To me it doesn't make much business sense.

[inupe]

I am upset that i just paid 325.00 for my 16 gb iphone and you now you can buy it for 149.00 before taxes that really bites. I have have mine for about 3 months. Apple should give us a 100.00 credit or accommodate us another way. I have been a loyal customer to att and Apple and this is the thanks that I get.
Thanks alot att& apple

[jwhite321]

because their network already sucks. think what using it as a to thether would do. y do u think att blocked slingplayer????

[ranunez]

I have used Sprint/Nextel, T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T. I've had issues will all three. Currently, AT&T provides the best 3g service in the most places. Is their service the best? I guess it depends on the individual. For me, where I am AT&T provides the best 3g GSM service. Verizon has better 3g service where I am, but most of my phones are GSM.

Customer Service on the other hand is a completely different animal. T-Mobile has, by far the best customer service. Verizon is next. AT&T is dead last and last by a long way. Everything takes long on AT&T than any other carrier. I have two laptops. One came with a verizon Data Card and the other with an AT&T Data Card. The verizon card was up and running in twenty minutes with no call to verizon. AT&T has no option to activate the account without calling. Even then the process took two hours. Switching to AT&T took over an hour at the AT&T store.

The ONLY reason I have an iPhone is that it is the best phone I can get, for the US 3g GSM network. There are MANY great phones (HTC Touch HD for one) out there, but they do not support the US 3g GSM network. I'd go back to T-Mobile in a heartbeat, but there 3g network is years away for me and it requires both 1700 and 1900 bands. Most 3g GSM phones do not support that, iPhone included. Other 3g phones do 900, but you need 850 for AT&T. Very few phones support that. Right now the iPhone is it.

[tkarel]

Let's take a step back...
Apple users have always, at least implicitly, paid a premium for better design, UI, usability, and sometimes performance. That agreement remains in place for the iPhone. Another historic fact, early adopters receive, and pay for, the social and technical benefits of having the latest and greatest.

The article indicates that AT&T, based on sound research, expect iPhone users to hammer it's network. Granted, it'd be nice to have it in place at roll-out, but if AT&T uses these weeks to improve data through-put to iPhones... Yeah, it IS a big if.
And if iPhones consume 90% of the additional capacity, shouldn't iPhone owners pay for it? Let's say, AT&T has a 1 TB pipe between Palo Alto and Oakland; then adds a 500 MB pipe which, 90 days after rolling out tether/MMS, carries 450MB 12 hours a day. iPhone users don?t pay for the added 500MB?

Lastly, Thank God we live in a mostly free-market economy. In the article and discussion you, the users (the people!), came up with a dozen alternatives to what iPhone/AT&T offer.
Government fines and regulations add costs, costs we don't always see. A&T/Apple paying a fine and AT&T/Apple providing tether/MMS free-of-charge have at least one thing in common; both mean they pay for something which has no revenue to support it.

[Eddie-c]

The MMS part is a joke anyway ...

Messaging is part of everday life now - GLOBALLY - especially with "the younger generation" and things like Twitter. When you take that into consideration, the fact that ATT has an absurdly pathetic *100* international message per month plan yet in their announcement yesterday Apple said MMS in 29 countries, obviously wireless carriers either have to get a clue & step up to the plate, customers (especially corporate ones) have to wake up and demand that carriers have more substantial plans, or consumers will continue to get ripped of by quasi-extortionate fees when SMS itself costs fractions of pennies to send.

[Eddie-c]

Really Spyers? You think that's a good move after they just got pwned?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/09/t_mobile_hack_latest/

I think T-Mobile will be doing some fast-talking and their customers might gear up for a very fat suit against them.

[rsierra54]

Why would Apple ever partner with a company that would hold back the sale of a product. I would love to get the new Iphone but it's not happening until I can use all of the functionality that comes with. I am still waiting for 3G in my area, very sad. Maybe it's time Apple looks for a new partner.

[atlanta75]

Even IF Apple moved to another carrier ... right now the iPhone uses a sim card. I don't think that Verizon does. So that would mean a totally new phone ... for Apple AND for the consumer. So if they moved to Verizon, then ALL iPhone users would have to buy a new phone. Apple and ATT have a lot of money tied up in each other. Simply changing to another carrier isn't an easy task. As long as Apple is continuing to advance the iPhone, add new features, etc., just figure that it will stay at ATT.

[ryanl14785]

No, becuase they would produce an iPhone with GSM and CDMA. And ATT would continue to sell it.

[stormborn1]

I was with Verizon for 15 years and just a couple months ago went to AT&T for the sole purpose of the iPhone. I LOVE this phone and don't see myself going back to a regular phone again. Yea, they are a bit behind with the initial lack of video, lack of pic messaging but I use it to play games, read books on the Kindle App, check the weather, maps, and so much that I depend on this thing now!! Eventually when the internet access is faster on it (4g or 5g) then it will be my laptop computer replacement too. I figured going into it that the worst feature might be the phone portion of it. AT&T is horrible and I can't wait until Apple's contract is up with AT&T. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't go to Verizon since Verizon would definitely want the market share of the most popular smartphone in the world. Verizon's network and customer service is amazing, AT&T's customer service acts bothered if you call them and says, OH WELL if you have a problem, lol. AT&T will lose most of their customers if the iPhone goes to Verizon or opens to all carriers I think. Not to mention Verizon will have 4G soon, so who knows, in 2 years Apple could release a much improved iPhone for 4G, woot! Waiting for my upgrade until then, since my contract will be up then anyways. What we need to do is email / encourage Apple to dump the crap that is AT&T and pick a real carrier, or drop exclusivity altogether, which would only increase the sales of the phone anyways.

[ryanl14785]

Speaking of which, AT&T service reps YELLED and deliberatly talked slowly about the MMS issue. They always said it was an apple problem then they would say it is an AT&T problem a minute later.

[brynn08]

in regards too everyone kissing verizons ass.....sprint WAS the first to bring you 3G in 2005....and the FIRST to bring it to you at the end of 2008 and is expanding the network this summer to more markets....sprint doesnt get the recongition bcuz everyones heard that they had bad customer srvc expereince...but that was in the past....if your not a subscriber rt now....than dont say anything bcuz you really dnt know...you just go by what other ppl say.....everyones just so hypnotized by verizon's network and att "iphon" excuse me i mean apples iphone....you ppl make me sick !

[ryanl14785]

Sprint is going to use WIMAX. Not even Verizon is doing that this time.

[brynn08]

i meant the first to bring you 4G.....SPRINT ALL DAY

[Houston_99]

The business model in the US and I think Canada is sign up for a contract and get a subsidised phone. I don't see many people willing to pay $400 plus for a smart phone. I mean seriously we all like the discounted smart phones and are willing to commit two years just to get it. I think this is a moot point. We are not in Europe or in Asia and our networks are better in some aspects and behind in others. Lets be grateful for what we have :)
I.e. Many of our Cell Tower are backed up by copper wire lines and not cheap VOIP. (this excludes Cricket)

Ever since ATT launched the I phone 3G it's 3G network has sort of sucked! I agree ATT needs to figure out a way to improve it. I also think Apple needs to put pressure on ATT to improve their network or break their exclusivity contract with ATT. The reason the blackberry bold was delayed was because ATT was unable to handle the 3G data demands due to the I phone 3G.

I think somewhere down the line Apple got toooooo greedy with the I phone. I mean they want the I phone to be affordable for everyone thus increasing their profit margins. But they know that ATT cannot handle the data demands of having so many i phones out there. I am sick of Apple going on and on about how they are soooo customer focused. But if they truly care about their customers they would not allow for such a poor network experience.

I think ATT should be very careful before implementing data tethering, we sure as he** don't want a slow network to get even slower.

Oh by the way for all those Verizon fans, Apple first approached Verizon about the I phone launch, guess what Verizon said 'No thanks' I betcthey regret that decision!

[lovembbw]

"Siegel couldn't say whether MMS and data tethering will be available on older versions of the iPhone. But if Apple is offering the features as part of the software upgrade, and AT&T offers the service for the iPhone 3G S phones, it would make sense for the company to offer the features on all iPhones supporting the upgraded software. But Siegel couldn't say for sure if this was the case."

Hmmm. Asking ATT to do something that makes sense, huh? Want the sun to be purple too, do ya?