AT&T is on Pins and Needles over MMS Launch

[Happy Noodle Boy]

Maybe if the iPhone was transferred to another network they would have problems -initially. However AT&T has had time to improve their network to handle the load. They can't dance fast enough. Anything else about other carriers is purely speculation and is totally irrelevant.

You really need to understand just what an impossible task network infrastructure in the United States really mean. To upgrade you need to build more towers and lay down fiber-optics/cables. These things are based on regional/state/city codes and take months at a minimum to get through buying/leasing the land, moving the tower parts, bidding and contracting the work crew, then actually building then. And I'm not mentioning connecting it and updating nearby towers to accommodate for loads. This is even worse in urban areas and cities.

Then realize like I said earlier that AT&T isn't one single powerful network. It's patched up from lots of networks, who were at time running different hardware and configurations. (check the attachment).

Then you really really need to understand what a beast the iPhone (and its users) really is.

Then you really really really need to accept that AT&T has improved their network, considerably, over the last 3 years since the iPhone was announced and released.

There is absolutely no other phone in the world with the amount of use (especially when it comes to data) as the iPhone. The fact that AT&T has managed to keep up with it (even if it's barely) is nothing short of amazing.

[toawkanavngthded]

sigh.... i still own a 2g...

[Channan]

I doubt these reports are true. If AT&T is so worried about it, why post on your website and send text messages to people reminding them MMS is coming tomorrow?

[Poseidon79]

Maybe if the iPhone was transferred to another network they would have problems -initially. However AT&T has had time to improve their network to handle the load. They can't dance fast enough. Anything else about other carriers is purely speculation and is totally irrelevant.

AT&T had no clue how big the iPhone was going to be initially. It would have been a bad business decision to dump billions into upgrades BEFORE hand. Once they realized how crazy things were going to get they jumped into action as fast as possible. "They can't dance fast enough"??? Obviously you have no idea how difficult network infrastructure is. Also it's not speculation about other carriers. You take approx 5 million iPhones (on AT&T) that use on average 10 times more data than normal subscribers and that equates to 50 million normal phones What do you think might happen if you dumped 50 million subscribers all at once onto any one of them. And if you did... how fast do you expect them to "dance" to keep up with something that blind sided them.

[mainc21]

I did the ipcc hack and my MMS started working today. I'm in San Diego, CA area.

[tudtran]

I been waiting all summer for mms. I hope at&t will focus on fixing the network after this. Because my phone dropped tons for calls.

[FRiiTOZ]

Edit Poseidon: Racial slurs will not be tolerated.

[spooneditr]

That's funny, Mine just started working two days ago, been sending MMS pictures almost everyday. Finally! I still have the 3.0 on phone with the band patch for the MMS and tethering to both work and they finally do!

[b3nny]

i think its very reasonable to be angry with AT&T. all those iphones using however many times more bandwidth than a regular phone have also been paying a hefty price for that service for a LONG TIME now. The users have a right to reasonable expectation of service and imho mms is well within reason considering its totally standard. network infrastructure shouldn't be our concern. no matter how you cut the pie AT&T is making money hand over foot and yet we're paying for a service thats taken them YEARS to deliver. just my two cents.

[jeezy45]

i hope we dont have to update through itunes to get mms

[GIRLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL]

You really need to understand just what an impossible task network infrastructure in the United States really mean. To upgrade you need to build more towers and lay down fiber-optics/cables. These things are based on regional/state/city codes and take months at a minimum to get through buying/leasing the land, moving the tower parts, bidding and contracting the work crew, then actually building then. And I'm not mentioning connecting it and updating nearby towers to accommodate for loads. This is even worse in urban areas and cities.

Then realize like I said earlier that AT&T isn't one single powerful network. It's patched up from lots of networks, who were at time running different hardware and configurations. (check the attachment).

Then you really really need to understand what a beast the iPhone (and its users) really is.

Then you really really really need to accept that AT&T has improved their network, considerably, over the last 3 years since the iPhone was announced and released.

There is absolutely no other phone in the world with the amount of use (especially when it comes to data) as the iPhone. The fact that AT&T has managed to keep up with it (even if it's barely) is nothing short of amazing.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the promises AT&T has been handing out. "We're rolling out on the 850MHZ band" "We're throwing up towers" "7.2Mbps soon to help with the influx of data usage".

To say that Verizon/Sprint/T-Mobile would have problems is just speculation. They don't have the iPhone so you're just making an assumption based on the problems that AT&T is having.

Somehow T-Mobile is able to have 3G upgrades occurring every other day, and they just moved philly up to 21mbps. Somehow Sprint is improving coverage and Sprint has WiMAX rollouts for about 15 cities. Verizon is just fine with no real network issues to speak of and the best coverage to boot regardless of how many networks they've absorbed. AT&T has ALWAYS had coverage and network issues, same with Cingular. This is coming from a former customer of both.

Getting on the 850MHZ band isn't as easy as snapping your fingers either so they can keep playing that broken record for as long as they want to.

There is no good excuse for why they are having so many infrastructure issues. They can't handle the load?

Somehow these Chinese and Japanese carriers manage advanced phones with more than triple the subscribers. They must have fairy dust sprinkled over their networks.

Not once has AT&T made the excuse "the network infrastructure that was previously in place is causing problems with us improving our network". Not that it matters anyway, they purposely degraded the Bellsouth network when they merged to cut costs. So this noise about the companies they've absorbed causing problems is just a cock and bull story for their currently sorry network

Well I'm comforted to know that they are working on it and up until recently they we're denying that there was even a problem. What a relief

[StevenB]

i hope we dont have to update through itunes to get mms

How else would you get the carrier update?

[ihaveabu]

if i'm still running 3.01, will i get MMS?

[zakkman28]

Mine has been working since the beginning of the month thanks to some trickery. But what I can't get an answer to is: Why is this so difficult for AT$T? Every other phone can do it. As far as network congestion that's bs because instead of iphone users sending MMS messages they send emails and up load to facebook, twitter and every other website external to their network. I would think sending MMS messages internally would cause less of a strain on the network then sending pictures to external places. Unless it's just the MMS servers can't handle the load, in which that's a simple fix add more servers. I'm a Systems/Network Engineer for the last 10 years maybe I'm missing something? I would love for this question to be answered. Anyone know?

[StevenB]

Mine has been working since the beginning of the month thanks to some trickery. But what I can't get an answer to is: Why is this so difficult for AT? Every other phone can do it. As far as network congestion that's bs because instead of iphone users sending MMS messages they send emails and up load to facebook, twitter and every other website external to their network. I would think sending MMS messages internally would cause less of a strain on the network then sending pictures to external places. Unless it's just the MMS servers can't handle the load, in which that's a simple fix add more servers. I'm a Systems/Network Engineer for the last 10 years maybe I'm missing something? I would love for this question to be answered. Anyone know?

Emails, facebook, twitter, and all other external websites are still connecting through 3G (or Edge or WiFi)...now they're adding more strain to the network because of MMS (Pic and Video). Remember they are adding 5 million (or whatever the iPhone count with ATT is) in one day. That will put a strain in whatever network considering that everyone with an iPhone will send a pic message now that we can. Eventually the usage will even out but for the next few days I would expect a huge strain.

Edit: Also remember that not everyone has apps like iPhone does. I know people who are streaming music all day long on their phone through pandora, i heart radio, etc.

[mawells787]

WOW!! This thread is getting heated.

@ GIRLLLLLLL, take a deep breathe because that was a lot,

I agree with you 95%, only because i don't think that t-mobile/sprint have a network as big as AT&T / Verizon, which makes it much easier to work on and they don't have as many subscribers to complain about problems in the network.

I would love a sprint/t-mobile person with a 3G phone to come into my apartment complex and try to use it. But guess what it won't work because evdo/ or t-mobiles 3g network can get into my house, but at&t/verizon can.

But yes, AT&T took too much of a laisezz-faire approach to their network and this is what happen. They should've invested a lot more money regardless if they thought the iphone was going to be a success or not, just to make sure that us the consumer get an exceptional experience instead of a sour taste in our mouth.

Instead they spent all of the money on marketing! I rarely see sprint/tmobile TV ads, because they are spending it on network upgrades.

AT&T sponsors MLB, mary j. blige, all of the texting phones they have, the fact that is the fastest network. All the money spent on those commercials should go to HSPA/LTE.

[Carrbone]

The staff at mmi can try and stick up for AT&T all day
at the end of the day the fact is that..... 3 YEARS LATER AT&T still hasn't updated their network.

This isn't like the iPhone came out in June.
It's been three years. If 3 going on 4 years isn't enough time for them to update the system then all the time in the world isn't going to help them


I hope mms shuts down AT&T and apple realizes it's time for a new carrier or atleast to add another one to the list.

[s4mb4]

i think AT&T is great. i have been a customer of theirs for several years and will remain a customer for many more. I have an iPhone and a complete u-verse package. They can do no wrong in my book. Good luck tomorrow AT&T.

[zakkman28]

Emails, facebook, twitter, and all other external websites are still connecting through 3G (or Edge or WiFi)...now they're adding more strain to the network because of MMS (Pic and Video). Remember they are adding 5 million (or whatever the iPhone count with ATT is) in one day. That will put a strain in whatever network considering that everyone with an iPhone will send a pic message now that we can. Eventually the usage will even out but for the next few days I would expect a huge strain.

Edit: Also remember that not everyone has apps like iPhone does. I know people who are streaming music all day long on their phone through pandora, i heart radio, etc.

I completely agree but I believe this could have be avoided had they had this feature from day one like every other phone then it wouldn't have been a big deal to iPhone users. Just like everything else for most people most people want what they can't have. I myself don't use it that much but since I paid $700 for a phone I wanted all the feature that a free phone has and plus what I paid for. I would imagine like you said it'll settle down fairly soon as I don't think it will be used anymore then the average phone user. It is what it is..

[Kariodude]

I've had the updated IPCC file since it was available on the forums, but MMS just started working for me this morning.