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AT&T gives time frame for Friday's iPhone MMS launch

Carrier says multimedia messaging service will arrive late Friday morning for the iPhone, but subscribers aren't all exactly gushing.

Jim Dalrymple Special to CNET News
Jim Dalrymple has followed Apple and the Mac industry for the last 15 years, first as part of MacCentral and then in various positions at Macworld. Jim also writes about the professional audio market, examining the best ways to record music using a Macintosh. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. He currently runs The Loop.
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Jim Dalrymple
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It's already known that AT&T is activating MMS for the iPhone on Friday, but the company has now narrowed the time frame to within a few hours.

Apple

As reported by AppleInsider, AT&T's official Facebook page said the service will be activated late morning Pacific time Friday. That's not exactly definitive, but at least no one will need to sit around all morning wondering if it's on yet.

The iPhone's multimedia messaging service will allow the transmission of photos, contacts, audio files, and locations with the Messages app, according to Apple.

In order to get the service, you will need to download a "new carrier settings update enabling MMS," according to AT&T. The update will be available through iTunes, the company said.

It seems odd that an update is needed when some users have been reporting for the last 10 days that MMS has been activated on their iPhones.

Despite AT&T bringing one of the most requested services to the iPhone, comments on AT&T's Facebook page could be described as sarcastic at best.

"Welcome to 2003 AT&T!" one comment read.

"I hope it crashes badly....this will make them spend all that money they charged us for something that we could not even use for months!" wrote another.

While some people scorned AT&T's delay in delivering MMS, others echoed the recent sentiments of CNET News' Elinor Mills and suggested the company improve its network.

"I rarely use the network at all. I pay...every month for a handheld mac. I only get enough service at my home to text, we don't have 3G anyway so I use my own wi fi...I am paying twice for the Internet. I could care less about MMS because I'd rather get signal and make calls (than) send picture messages," one person commented on AT&T's Facebook page.