Come on, AT&T
By now, just about everyone has heard about the upcoming release of the iPhone 3Gs and the 3.0 firmware update for the iPhone. There are some great features in the new firmware. Two notable ones are tethering and MMS messaging; both of which won’t be supported by AT&T when the firmware is released.
For those who don’t know what MMS and tethering are, here is a brief description:
Tethering would allow people to use the iPhone’s 3g network access to connect other devices to the internet. For example, if you have a laptop you could connect the iPhone via usb, or even bluetooth, and access the internet through your iPhone data plan.
MMS messages are delivered in a fashion almost identical from a user standpoint to SMS, but any multimedia content is first encoded and inserted into a text. It is primarily used to send photos, or sounds, such as ringtones.
When the new firmware update is available next week, 22 carriers will allow tethering and nearly 30 will have MMS enabled. AT&T won’t support either.
AT&T stated that MMS will be available in the “summer.” They state that it will take that much time to change all of the existing iPhone plans so that they don’t “opt out” of the MMS function.
As for tethering, I wouldn’t get your hopes up. AT&T, if they ever do allow it, will probably charge a ridiculous amount to enable it’s usage. That is assuming their 3g network could even handle it.
Something needs to change about the way AT&T does business. They are constantly behind other carriers. They need to understand that the iPhone alone isn’t going to save them. As soon as their exclusive agreement with Apple ends, I’m sure many people will change providers, myself included.
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