The long hoped for feature for the iPhone finally gets a date of arrival: the Multimedia Messaging Service feature will be enabled on all iPhone 3G and 3GS devices (sorry, original iPhone users) on September 15. For those of you not in the know, MMS is the feature that allows you to send and receive picture/video messages to other cell phone users. Up until now, iPhone users have been stuck in the dark ages, only able to send and receive texts (and more recently audio and contact files). MSS will be enabled through a required software update via iTunes.
What took so long, you ask? Put simply, AT&T’s service is sucky and they believed that their cell tower structure was not ready to handle the heavy traffic of iPhone users sending pictures to each other. After having plently of time to fix and upgrade things (and breaking a promise of a Summer MMS release), AT&T is confident in saying:
“We know that iPhone users will embrace MMS. The unique capabilities and high usage of the iPhone’s multimedia capabilities required us to work on our network MMS architecture to carry the expected record volumes of MMS traffic and ensure an excellent experience from Day One. We appreciate your patience as we work toward that end. … We want you to know that we’re working relentlessly to innovate and invest in our network to anticipate this growth in usage and to stay ahead of the anticipated growth in data demand, new devices and applications for years to come.”
Note that there was no new information divulged about tethering. It was only mentioned that it will be supported “in the future.”