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.

[maggie1957]

Let's go back to tethering being included already in the package. I just bought an iphone on May 6 of this year when my nokia E62 bit the dust. Talk about a great phone! Anyway, I told the sales rep that I wanted a phone that I could hook up to my laptop to get on the internet, like my nokia. I thought he was going to have a cow when I said I didn't get charged for what he called "tethering." Come to find out, when I originally bought my nokia E62 the plan did include unlimited tethering. My unlimited tethering never changed as long as I never changed plans (that is until the I phone). I was promised by the sales rep that mms would be available in 3 weeks with the software update. Well, you can imagine how unhappy I am now since I don't have tethering or mms. I don't know what ATT is doing but I want my money back ($200 for the 8GB iphone when they knew they were going to offer another phone)!!! One ticked off grandmother!

[wasala18]

Alright... I have an idea..

So I've been really excited about the 3.0 software coming out for my 3G..
Quite frankly, I'm appauled and outraged that AT&T is going to hold back on things that I see as part of the iPhone plan that i pay for.
Does that make sense??
I pay for an iPhone plan every month to have use of my iPhone on AT&T's network..
As far as I'm concerned, that means eveything that and iPhone is.
Apple is rolling out an update that brings things to the iphone that it has been lacking for quite some time, MMS.
In my head, that means that apple is nbw making a normal cell phone operation available and it should definitely be covered by the iphone plan.
I mean come on!!
the question is:
Shouldnt the iPhone plan that we pay every month cover whatever apple defines as a normal iphone??
If apple says that you can send pictures and have fully functional MMS, shouldnt that be covered?
If apple says that you iPhone tethering is now part of the cool 3.0 update, shouldn't that be covered?!?!

[fotoshark]

The way I see it is that as soon as the iphone goes to another carrier, everyone will be jumping ship. This will hurt att and beat the hell out of their stock. It will be well deserved, they really screw their iphone customers in the ass with a sandpaper ***** and there is no rebuttal to that. Hmmm, lets see, if you have an iphone, you have to pay extra for the same data plan as a flip phone, ummm, really!

Here is yet another example:
http://www.tuaw.com/2009/06/15/atandt-to-discontinue-prepaid-iphone-plans/

I cannot wait until the **** hits the fan! Its going to make me :-)

[jonathanmorris1]

Everyone needs to chill out! At&t is not an evil company who simply doesnt want to provide its customers with the latest and greatest technology. The awnser is in the column right above you. At&t's netowrk or any other service provider for that matter simply cannont hanlde the data drag that would overload the system with the addition of MMS. There are currently 7 million iphone subscribers and growing espically with the new 3Gs coming out Friday. At&t is more focused on providing great network service to all of its customers, rather than rushing out a luxury data service too early. They will have the MMS feature available soon and it will be done the right way. I am as disapointed as anybody as I have had both previous iphone models and plan on getting the new one. I have gone this long without MMS messaging and I can wait another month or two for it to be done the right way!

[caleebh]

i called our wonderful provider to whom we own large amounts of are hard earned money to for service we can't use AT&T and they said there would be no extra cost for MMS. I hope she is up to speed and I don't have to call later and say " thats not what I was told by Samantha" Gosh, why can't I just send a Pic?

[randysn]

AT&T sucks.

Their service is terrible in Chicago, I cannot carry on a conversation on a bus without dropping the call once or twice. When I had TMO, there was 1 place that was a dead zone.

I like the i(Phone), (phone? haha) thats the ONLY REASON I AM ON AT&T - if AT&T doesn't get their act together, soon. I am going back to TMO and sell the damned i(Phone). I wanna know how many people have left AT&T now that its been about 2 years since the orig i(Phone) came out??

TMO US was pretty dumb to not allow Apple to do what they wanted to sell the i(Phone). And AT&T - still sucks.

[WhatTheHELL413]

This is ********. I mean come on, these mother ******* knew they weren't going to offer tethering and MMS! ***!!!! I thought this update was going to be a big difference, yeah right....!

I mean no video for us either ***!!

you gotta go buy the new one, $200!!!! ***

[saundersandrew]

AT&T just removed the OPT OUT COMMAND from my account at the request.

[seez714]

let me be the first to say it cuz i haven't read any comment that says this... and i quote... " THIS IS ****** ********!!" WHAT THE HELL AT&T?! "APPLE, GODAMN YOU FOR LETTING THIS HAPPEN!!"Why all of a sudden is there an additional charge for MMS and tethering! Im so sick of getting raped from all their fees and charges for EVERYTHING! I'm getting so sick of it that i'm even considering going back to T-Mobile. Yeah they have some crappy coverage, so what! At least their reasonable and they always take care of their people! DAMN IM SO PISSED!

[bsgraupner_dotmac]

As a mac owner, if you want your technology to work seamlessly with your phone, and need that to run your businesses, the iPhone is the only way to go. All of the blackberrys, treos, etc are horrible working with macs if they even will at all.

It's just gross that the cost of having your phone work with your mac is coming at a higher and higher price called AT&T wireless.

AT&T is absolutely disgusting in about every way possible. This is just even more icing on the cake.

[kecward78]

As much as I love my iPhone, when my crappy AT&T plan runs out in 15 months, I will probably be switching to Verizon. From what I can tell, they cover about 3x as much area as AT&T (w/3G network). Plus, AT&T has exclusive rights with iPhone until 2012.
I live just outside Richmond, VA. As you come into town, there is a huge AT&T billboard announcing that Richmond is AT&T country. I live ONLY 10 miles outside Richmond and can't get a signal. When I check at the local AT&T store about new towers OR call AT&T customer service about the towers I get a complete runaround. So I'm paying for a family plan that doesn't cover my home and they show no initiative to expand/build in my area. What a joke company!

[rocketdocket]

Not exactly correct on Europe. A number of carriers have contracts, although most Europeans buy their own phones from third parties, unlocked, then choose a carrier. While it's true that GSM is the standard in most countries, it's not true in all. And not all mobile phones work with full functionality on all carrier networks.

With regard to cost, data and voice services vary from country to country in Europe. That's why many Europeans buy SIM's--again from a third party--to get the best per minute and data rates in the countries where they travel.

You're correct about cellular companies' up until recent lack of handset offerings. They're only doing it now because over 280M Americans have cell phones and the voice market is saturated. Data and Smartphones are the only way for U.S. carriers to remain profitable.

[Christian147]

AT&T's service for I Phone is a disgrace. In the past month, I've dealt with three separate tech support people. Two did not speak clearly. None of them could help me with my I Phone. They connected me to a specialist service -- for which one is required to pay money. I already pay enough money to this company for its service -- for I phone, Internet, telephone. I'm thinking of switching to another company. One problem is that while most Apple products are great -- I use only Mac computers and love them -- the I Phone is full of bugs. Keys stick. The screen freezes. it is hard to sync with a computer (not in procedure but in practice); the manager at the local AT&T store and two of his staff tried to help when I complained that clearing an email from the I Phone wiped out the email on my server, which is undesirable for those of us who travel. This is a mixed Apple-AT&T problem. The difference is that Mac support is world class. AT&T tech support is a myth. They need a better trained staff, and if specialist support is required, it should be provided free of charge, as we already pay for the service and we are merely asking the company to stand by the service that it sells.

[PandaButcher]

AT&T users should band together and sue AT&T. They so nickel and dime you. I would advise, look carefully through your bills there has been charges, many charges that I have had them reverse. We pay way too much for the iPhone (with data, texting etc.) already so now more for mms! We pay for messaging ALREADY! AT&T STOP PINCHING US!

[Nefraneer]

I can't WAIT to dump AT&T AGAIN! They are astonishingly clueless. When every mass-migrates away from their service the minute they are not exclusive anymore, they'll wonder what happened. Certainly there's at least ONE person in that corporation that will be able to tell the executive team.

[onelastencontr]

AT&T is honestly stupid i personally own the iphone 3GS at the moment love it no complaints i had the iphone 3G and it is yet a huge jump when going to the 3GS, although the tethering honestly why would you carg for that we pay for an unlimited data plan as it is so why not continue with that being unlimited, also there are easy work arounds that do the exact same thing already, and last they act like tethering is going to be the biggest thing in the world, the connection will be slow, 95% of the hotels now a days have wifi and if they don't then your probably in an area where at&t may not even have signal or a good signal at that, and just drive to the nearest mc donalds and some of them offer free wifi. and same with the mms ok yes telling people to send the pic to your email does get annoying but the most of us have gotten used to that by now where mms woudl be a very nice and creative feature but if there going to charge extra for that there wasting there time and money to just get that enabled because know on in there right mind is going to pay for that when they have unlimited web use and can just use there email i would rather tell people to send it to my email everytime then pay to have mms, AT&T if you read this honestly starting thinking cuase if you charge for mms and teathering and verizon gets that contract with apple, you will be blown out off the water so fast and so easy you wont even know what hit you,, yes your service is pretty pistine although why charge so much more when people can get it cheaper somewhere else.

[Tincan1988]

Really flip phones?.......... Haha I liked flip phones too :) now as for all the others here bitc*ing about AT&T being lame and all that what not about "the only reason why they are still in business is due to contracts" let me tell you that I'll be more than happy to sign another two years knowing that it helps this company stay in business which provides hundreds of Americans with jobs. And we all know that it's something we really need these days. So as I type and post this comment useing my iPhone 3gS I say woot woot to contracts :) oh and if you think that another country is sooo much better and has wayyy more cool tech, then get the fu*k out of here and enjoy

[pgodfrey]

I wonder why AT&T wants to create a "plan" for MMS on the iPhone, when it's available on every other device at no additional cost. It was part of my SMS text plan when I had my Blackberry.

Now, I can enable it and also tether...but MMS only works for a bit before they shut it down again.

I've been a customer for 15 years since they were "South Western Mobile Systems". Still have the same number. But you know what...they don't care, it makes no difference how long I've been with them.


I think if they start charging an arm and leg for MMS it will be the biggest unlock day in iPhone history. I might just take my phone to another carrier.

[cjm0162]

Yes, it is frustrating and I'm sure ATT is hard away at work to get this up and running. I'm sure they have gotten plenty of guff from both their customers and Apple. Why would they intentionally hold back on a feature that they know will keep their contracts, customers, and clients happy?! Let's try to remember that running a phone company isn't exactly quite as easy as selling cupcakes and puppies. And as far as the comments about the US being so tormented by the cell phone companies, let's please also remember that there are kids in 3rd world countries with no water. We have pretty great lives if we have the time, money, resources to complain about not being able to instantly send a video on our $300 phones to our friends on their $300 phones. Perspective. It will all be available at your finger tips soon. Breathe, smile, repeat. : )

[teddyj56]

I bet Apple released the 3.0 OS before AT&T was ready for the upgrade on purpose. AT&T is pushing for an extension on their exclusivity contract. Apple knows that people was more availability for the iPhone, as they know that there is much more opportunity to turn a larger profit. By releasing the new iPhone updates before AT&T can accommodate, the consumers will erupt in frustration in a backlash against AT&T, "forcing" Apple to meet popular demand and expand to other networks.

Just a theory