AT&T customers can't get MMS from me

[AnthroMatt]

Apologies for multi-forum cross-posting....

I posted this question over in the Nextel forum at HoFo a long time ago with no luck in finding an answer, so maybe someone in here has some insight?

When I send an MMS with a picture to any AT&T user, they cannot open the file (jpg, less than 50kb). Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile users have no problems opening and viewing the attached image. Since this only fails when sending to AT&T users, I am not certain the problem is on the Nextel end of things.

The phones the people have are all different too...iPhone, blackjack, Nokia basic flip, etc.

Does anyone here have any idea as to why AT&T users (or at least the 5 of them I send pics to) can't seem to open the pics I send them?

[Yankees368]

Ugh, AT&T and MMS are just two things that do not go together. Hell, that was one of the main reasons I had switched my girlfriend over to Sprint.

I can almost guarantee that the issue on on AT&T's side. Don't hold your breath on getting this one fixed any time soon.

[Charlyee]

Originally Posted by AnthroMatt

When I send an MMS with a picture to any AT&T user, they cannot open the file (jpg, less than 50kb). Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile users have no problems opening and viewing the attached image. Since this only fails when sending to AT&T users, I am not certain the problem is on the Nextel end of things.

The phones the people have are all different too...iPhone, blackjack, Nokia basic flip, etc.

Does anyone here have any idea as to why AT&T users (or at least the 5 of them I send pics to) can't seem to open the pics I send them?

Hmm, I never had a problem receiving mms from Nextel. I just tried it out with my Nextel toting friend from CA Tony E, and sure enough all mms came on schedule as always.

I sent one his way, and he got it promptly also.

[ComicalMoodyDan]

Likely the problem is on the Nextel side. Nextel's SMS/MMS is hit or miss. I've used Boost Mobile and Nextel before. Both times I had service with them I had texting issues and MMS messages were even worse. I also was never able to get Facebook's SMS status updates to ever work with Boost/Nextel.

[AnthroMatt]

It may very well be on Nextel's side, but it is just odd since I have no problem sending to any other carrier, and I also have no problem with Facebook or other similar (Twitter) things. It's happened with different handsets and different SIMs.

[viewfly]

Could be that your handset is not configuring the jpg file correctly for ATT's network, or Sprint 's or ATT network is not configuring correctly from the jpg file. They should, so it could be the handset.

Have you tried another handset you or a friend might have? I assume that you can 'email' the photo to a ATT email account?

These kind of problems used to be the norm years ago.

[AnthroMatt]

Originally Posted by viewfly

Could be that your handset is not configuring the jpg file correctly for ATT's network, or Sprint 's or ATT network is not configuring correctly from the jpg file. They should, so it could be the handset.

Have you tried another handset you or a friend might have? I assume that you can 'email' the photo to a ATT email account?

These kind of problems used to be the norm years ago.

I have used different handsets and SIMs, all with the same result. I haven't attempted to email the photos aside from sending them to regular email addresses that people can check on their BBerry's or iPhones.

[viewfly]

Originally Posted by AnthroMatt

I have used different handsets and SIMs, all with the same result. I haven't attempted to email the photos aside from sending them to regular email addresses that people can check on their BBerry's or iPhones.

Try emailing to the person's ATT mms email address(but not to an iPhone ). See if that goes through. Also I assume you mean that you have tried other sprint handsets?

[AnthroMatt]

OK, I will test that. And yeah...the only people that can't get anything from me are AT&T users. Every other company works fine.

[viewfly]

Originally Posted by AnthroMatt

OK, I will test that. And yeah...the only people that can't get anything from me are AT&T users. Every other company works fine.

Let us know the result. I guess my question is not very clear, sorry. In your profile you have listed 3 phones. A mms from alll three of them will not be received by a AT&T customer?

[Tony E!]

Originally Posted by AnthroMatt

OK, I will test that. And yeah...the only people that can't get anything from me are AT&T users. Every other company works fine.

Very strange, i sent Charlyee an mms with a picture attached from my BB with no problems, with me is the other way around though, sometimes i received an mms but cannot view the image.

[AnthroMatt]

Originally Posted by Tony E!

Very strange, i sent Charlyee an mms with a picture attached from my BB with no problems, with me is the other way around though, sometimes i received an mms but cannot view the image.

I sent her an MMS this morning and she could open it, but both times I sent a picture (I tried two different pictures) she had nothing but a black image field. So she could actually open the file, but clearly it wasn't going through properly.

I put in a call to Nextel support and they are supposed to call me back. I'm not holding my breath.

[AnthroMatt]

Originally Posted by viewfly

Let us know the result. I guess my question is not very clear, sorry. In your profile you have listed 3 phones. A mms from alll three of them will not be received by a AT&T customer?

The MMS from my Sprint phone (BB Curve) will go through fine. The Curve is mainly used just for data/email. I don't even give that number out to family, lol.

It's the Nextel phone (currently using the i580) that doesn't work. But that has been the case with every Nextel SIM or phone I have used in conjunction with my phone number.

[viewfly]

Originally Posted by AnthroMatt

The MMS from my Sprint phone (BB Curve) will go through fine. The Curve is mainly used just for data/email. I don't even give that number out to family, lol.

It's the Nextel phone (currently using the i580) that doesn't work. But that has been the case with every Nextel SIM or phone I have used in conjunction with my phone number.

I've used MMS on Nokia's for years (all Cingular branded), but the one Nokia I bought from the UK, sent MMS fine to another Nokia (Cingular branded), but not to a Cingular branded Razr (same problem as you; went though, but blank image). I had to resize the image manually to get it to work ok.

I'm leaning towards the Nextel phone being the unique problem, if the Nextel BB Curve is working (and other users,i.e. Charylee comments, have had success). It's not that there is anything wrong with the phone, but the software protocol is not being corrected by the network (either Sprint or ATT).

You can bypass this somewhat (as a test) by emailing (from your MMS client and email appl) to the MMS email address of the ATT customer. Not a solution, but a way to understand what is happening. Your email goes to the MMS application of the ATT user.

Some remarks on the difficulties that the MMS standard has. One of the reasons that straight email works better, and will be the planned format for the future, esp for international photo exchanges, were the bigger problems can be. Things are better but not too many years ago, sending between any US carrier was a headache.

Excerpt from Wikipedia:

Challenges with MMS:

There are some interesting challenges with MMS that do not exist with SMS:
Handset configuration can cause problems sending and receiving MMS messages.

* Content adaptation: Multimedia content created by one brand of MMS phone may not be entirely compatible with the capabilities of the recipients' MMS phone. In the MMS architecture, the recipient MMSC is responsible for providing for content adaptation (e.g., image resizing, audio codec transcoding, etc.), if this feature is enabled by the mobile network operator. When content adaptation is supported by a network operator, its MMS subscribers enjoy compatibility with a larger network of MMS users than would otherwise be available.

* Distribution lists: Current MMS specifications do not include distribution lists nor methods by which large numbers of recipients can be conveniently addressed, particularly by content providers, called Value-added service providers (VASPs) in 3GPP. Since most SMSC vendors have adopted FTP as an ad-hoc method by which large distribution lists are transferred to the SMSC prior to being used in a bulk-messaging SMS submission, it is expected that MMSC vendors will also adopt FTP.

* Bulk messaging: The flow of peer-to-peer MMS messaging involves several over-the-air transactions that become inefficient when MMS is used to send messages to large numbers of subscribers, as is typically the case for VASPs. For example, when one MMS message is submitted to a very large number of recipients, it is possible to receive a delivery report and read-reply report for each and every recipient. Future MMS specification work is likely to optimize and reduce the transactional overhead for the bulk-messaging case.

* Handset Configuration: Unlike SMS, MMS requires a number of handset parameters to be set. Poor handset configuration is often blamed as the first point of failure for many users. Service settings are sometimes preconfigured on the handset, but mobile operators are now looking at new device management technologies as a means of delivering the necessary settings for data services (MMS, WAP, etc.) via over-the-air programming (OTA).

* WAP Push: Few mobile network operators offer direct connectivity to their MMSCs for content providers. This has resulted in many content providers using WAP push as the only method available to deliver 'rich content' to mobile handsets. WAP push enables 'rich content' to be delivered to a handset by specifying the URL (via binary SMS) of a pre-compiled MMS, hosted on a content provider's web server. A consequence is that the receiver who pays WAP per kb or minute (as opposed to a flat monthly fee) pays for receiving the MMS, as opposed to only paying for sending one, and also paying a different rate.

Although the standard does not specify a maximum size for a message, 300 kB is the current recommended size used by networks due to some limitations on the WAP gateway side.

Source: Multimedia Messaging Service - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Charlyee]

Originally Posted by AnthroMatt

I sent her an MMS this morning and she could open it, but both times I sent a picture (I tried two different pictures) she had nothing but a black image field. So she could actually open the file, but clearly it wasn't going through properly.

Here are the screenshots of the picture and the file information behind it (w/o the personal info)

PS: The mms I sent was received fine.

[AnthroMatt]

Odd that there is an attachment and the size of the message is 1K.

The first pic I sent you was 23kb, the second was 57kb. So clearly content is being "stripped" somewhere along the way.

If I only had this problem with one phone or one SIM card, I'd say that was the culprit. But I can replicate this across phones and SIMs. Of course, being Nextel, all the phones I try are Motorola (since I don't have a Nextel BB). So Moto could be the problem or it could be something on the network side.

I have verified that any Sprint user can get pics from me, and that at the very least a VZW BB can get them, and that a T-Mobile Samsung can receive them as well.

[Tony E!]

Originally Posted by AnthroMatt

Odd that there is an attachment and the size of the message is 1K.

The first pic I sent you was 23kb, the second was 57kb. So clearly content is being "stripped" somewhere along the way.

If I only had this problem with one phone or one SIM card, I'd say that was the culprit. But I can replicate this across phones and SIMs. Of course, being Nextel, all the phones I try are Motorola (since I don't have a Nextel BB). So Moto could be the problem or it could be something on the network side.

I have verified that any Sprint user can get pics from me, and that at the very least a VZW BB can get them, and that a T-Mobile Samsung can receive them as well.

Anthro FYI I didn't have that problem with my Moto i880 either.

[AnthroMatt]

Originally Posted by Tony E!

Anthro FYI I didn't have that problem with my Moto i880 either.

All right, thanks, good to know. I did have this problem when I had an i880.

I wonder if it is because I "ported" this number from Sprint...I wonder if my acct is somehow configured in a weird way? Though I would think that would affect MMS to any carrier, not just one.

Stupid technology!

[AnthroMatt]

Originally Posted by viewfly

Let us know the result.

Using the email address method doesn't work either. I tried it once to my sister's iPhone and once to a friend of mine in NY that has a Nokia.

[Charlyee]

Originally Posted by AnthroMatt

Using the email address method doesn't work either. I tried it once to my sister's iPhone and once to a friend of mine in NY that has a Nokia.

Here are the results using "mynumber@mms.mycingular.com".

The picture came in fine . It was preceeded by a whole lot of text which kept "playing" for about 2 secs and then the picture came.

[AnthroMatt]

Originally Posted by Charlyee

Here are the results using "mynumber@mms.mycingular.com".

The picture came in fine . It was preceeded by a whole lot of text which kept "playing" for about 2 secs and then the picture came.

So this obviously contradicts my earlier post about it not working to the MMS email addy. But I am still puzzled that my friends in NY got no message from me. Maybe it works when it wants to work.

[viewfly]

Originally Posted by AnthroMatt

Using the email address method doesn't work either. I tried it once to my sister's iPhone and once to a friend of mine in NY that has a Nokia.

You can't send an email to your sister's iPhone with a photo attached? Remember you have to send it to her (gmail, yahoo, etc) email account, NOT to "10-digit wireless number@mms.att.net", at least not until iPhone's firmware 3.0 comes out that has an mms client.

It should work to the Nokia to the mms.att.net account though. You might try sending to the Nokia from your PC, and bypass the sprint phone and sprint network completely. If that does works, then it sounds like the sprint phone/network.

[AnthroMatt]

OK...here is an update.

When I use the phonenumber@mms.att.net option, it sends those links, as in the screenshot posted by Charlyee, to peoples' phones that supposedly contain the photo. Charlyee could obviously eventually see the picture. A friend with a BlackBerry and a friend with the Nokia never got the email/mms at all. My friend with a BlackJack got the links, but when they clicked on them they only get a red X instead of being able to see the picture. They forwarded the message containing the links back to me and when I selected the link on my i580, I could see the picture just fine in my web browser on the phone. Again, IMO, this points to the problem being beyond Nextel's control.

Nextel tech support called me back last night, and as expected, they weren't all that helpful, though they may not be able to really do anything about this, and I realize that. They removed and re-added messaging services to my account, but they said they think it is ATT's or the intercarrier MMS services fault since "something" (either a blank image or a non-supported file) is making it through when I just send to the phone number only. The person with whom I spoke said the fact that I can send pictures to every other carrier (and to places like Facebook) without an issue also points to the fault being somewhere beyond Nextel's control.

It shouldn't be a matter of my phone being the problem, since I used to use an i880 and had this same problem, and Tony has already said he had no issues with his i880.

So for now, I just won't bother to send pics to ATT users. Oh well.

[Charlyee]

Intersting, I used to have problems sending/receiving mms from T-Mobile & Verizon. It always worked but would range from 1-24 hrs late.

As we discussed yesterday, I have an unbranded device and I don't believe any of the others are. I am not sure why branding would cause mms problems but I will just assume it is yet another reason to get an unbranded phone.

[AnthroMatt]

Originally Posted by Charlyee

Intersting, I used to have problems sending/receiving mms from T-Mobile & Verizon. It always worked but would range from 1-24 hrs late.

As we discussed yesterday, I have an unbranded device and I don't believe any of the others are. I am not sure why branding would cause mms problems but I will just assume it is yet another reason to get an unbranded phone.

This is true, all the other phones are branded AT&T devices.

[Tony E!]

Originally Posted by Charlyee

Intersting, I used to have problems sending/receiving mms from T-Mobile & Verizon. It always worked but would range from 1-24 hrs late.

As we discussed yesterday, I have an unbranded device and I don't believe any of the others are. I am not sure why branding would cause mms problems but I will just assume it is yet another reason to get an unbranded phone.

Ok now that brings me to wonder if in fact AT&T users with branded devices can receive mms with photos attached from my Nextel phone, will confirm that in a moment.

UPDATE:

Ok i just sent an MMS with a picture attached from my Nextel BB 8350i to a BB Bold AT&T branded and the recipient got it almost instantly.

[viewfly]

Originally Posted by Charlyee

Intersting, I used to have problems sending/receiving mms from T-Mobile & Verizon. It always worked but would range from 1-24 hrs late.

As we discussed yesterday, I have an unbranded device and I don't believe any of the others are. I am not sure why branding would cause mms problems but I will just assume it is yet another reason to get an unbranded phone.

Actually what and how the carriers setup their phones is the main reason for the problems. So 'branding' has a lot to do with.

I sent my friend a photo from my iphone to his mms email account. He received the photo fine (not web browser to link to ). He sent it from his mms client to his gmail, and then back to me. It all went fine, and all within aTT. The original picture was 450k, but it got reduced to 165K by the network.

Again, send the photo from your PC email to a phone mms account.

[Charlyee]

Originally Posted by Tony E!

Ok now that brings me to wonder if in fact AT&T users with branded devices can receive mms with photos attached from my Nextel phone, will confirm that in a moment.

UPDATE:

Ok i just sent an MMS with a picture attached from my Nextel BB 8350i to a BB Bold AT&T branded and the recipient got it almost instantly.

Tony, thanks, so I guess we can rule out branding then.

Originally Posted by viewfly

Actually what and how the carriers setup their phones is the main reason for the problems. So 'branding' has a lot to do with.

I sent my friend a photo from my iphone to his mms email account. He received the photo fine (not web browser to link to ). He sent it from his mms client to his gmail, and then back to me. It all went fine, and all within aTT. The original picture was 450k, but it got reduced to 165K by the network.

Again, send the photo from your PC email to a phone mms account.

Matt, have you tried it from your PC? Although in all fairness this kind of defeats the purpose of mms which to me is spontaneous sharing. It still would be interesting to see if it works.

There are still too many unknowns, eg. why does it work with Tony irrespective of what phone he uses? Why don't all the AT&T customers get the mms the same way from Anthro? Why does it only happen with AT&T customers for Anthro? The inter carrier mms service could be at fault but then why doesn't Tony have the same problem?

The two difference so far that I see are that they are in different locations and that Anthro's number was ported in and I believe Tony's is a new numder, right?

[AnthroMatt]

OK, I sent a couple emails from my gmail to ATT people. I forwarded a copy of a message I had sent myself from my phone once, and then to the other recipient I created a brand new email.

If the first one fails, then I might think it is something in the code in the message from Nextel that seems to be giving me the problem, though I am not certain why that would affect me and no one else (unless the number porting is to blame). Nextel also has multiple message centers, and perhaps the one I am on is the problem. Though if I remember correctly, messages don't get routed through the same message center every time, which is one of the causes of Nextel's well known messagin delays.

Oh, and viewfly, I don't think I answered your question about the iphone...my sister gets the messages on her device fine when I send them from my phone to her email (gmail) address.

[AnthroMatt]

UPDATE

OK, so the MMS I sent from my phone to my PC, then forwarded to my friend with the BlackJack at his @mms.att.net address went through without a problem.

UPDATE # 2
The plain email to ATT MMS also went through without a problem, which didn't really surprise me considering the forwarded email made it through.