AT&T Nervous About Upcoming iPhone MMS Launch?

[Charlyee]

Wednesday September 23, 2009 02:52 PM EST
Written by Eric Slivka


DSLReports claims to have received word from a source noting that AT&T is extremely nervous about the impending launch of MMS for the iPhone scheduled for this Friday. Early testing of the service has apparently already placed a strain on the company's MMS servers, resulting in a test outage yesterday and a last-minute rush to beef up capacity beyond the measures already taken.

AT&T and its MMS partners are already seeing "record traffic during peak hours of the night" with just the users selected for testing.

That early testing has been a little rocky, with AT&T seeing a fairly significant test outage yesterday that has them rushing to beef up their MMSC messaging servers. Estimates among those working on the project are that traffic on AT&T's wireless network will be about 40% higher all day on Friday as iPhone users fire pictures and video at one another.

The source also revealed AT&T's plans for rolling out the service on Friday, with deployments scheduled in groups to begin at 10:00 AM Eastern time and new groups being activated on an hourly basis after that in order to slowly ramp demand and gauge service performance.

"Starting at 10AM Eastern (on the 25), AT&T will send out a mass text to a group of iPhone users telling them that MMS now works on their phone," says one source familiar with AT&T's MMS plans. "They will keep doing groups of phones on the hour throughout the day" assuming all goes well, says the source.

Source:

[Yankees368]

hahaha. I can see the headline in 3 days already:

"AT&T MMS servers offline, ETA for re-launch unknown" Look, unless AT&T did some MAJOR overhaul of their MMS servers in the last year, it's simply not going to work.,

[Mobile Mike]

When AT&T got the iPhone exclusivity, little did they know this "golden egg" had some strings attached...

Now they're paying the price for the success of the phone.

[Charlyee]

How is this for a scenario?

AT&T Severs Crash > Complete data outage for multiple days > Apple furious > Breaks contract > Takes iPhone to Verizon > Verizon customers complain about data problems > Forums flooded by complaints > Verizon unhappy > AT&T customers smiling.

Disclaimer: Not meant as a dig to iPhone users, AT&T & it's customers, or Verizon & it's customers.

Palm850/v0100 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11)

[Jay2TheRescue]

The truth of the matter is this would have happened, no matter what carrier Apple sided with. The best scenario wouldhave been if Apple released it on all carriers at the same time, that way the load would have been distributed over several networks. Then again, maybe all carriers would be having these problems.

-Jay

[Yankees368]

Originally Posted by Jay2TheRescue

The truth of the matter is this would have happened, no matter what carrier Apple sided with. The best scenario wouldhave been if Apple released it on all carriers at the same time, that way the load would have been distributed over several networks. Then again, maybe all carriers would be having these problems.

-Jay

Oh I really disagree with that. In my experience (remember, yours might be different), the AT&T MMS servers have sucked for a long time. The iphone has had no impact on this yet, as I experienced this a year ago. If they did not make any significant changes, do no expect MMS to work at all.

Maybe it would have worked better on another carrier, one who already had a working MMS server beforehand.

[hf1khal]

Originally Posted by Charlyee

How is this for a scenario?

AT&T Severs Crash > Complete data outage for multiple days > Apple furious > Breaks contract > Takes iPhone to Verizon > Verizon customers complain about data problems > Forums flooded by complaints > Verizon unhappy > AT&T customers smiling.

Disclaimer: Not meant as a dig to iPhone users, AT&T & it's customers, or Verizon & it's customers.

Palm850/v0100 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11)

LOL. That is a good one and imagine if this happens.

Originally Posted by Jay2TheRescue

The truth of the matter is this would have happened, no matter what carrier Apple sided with. The best scenario wouldhave been if Apple released it on all carriers at the same time, that way the load would have been distributed over several networks. Then again, maybe all carriers would be having these problems.

-Jay

Jay this has been brought up about the iphone with certain network experts who actualy said that the iphone data usage will do just that to any provider if the mass was the same. Other providers that sell the iphone have not had the big success in selling the iphone like at&t had and that is why they are not having such a big issue like at&t

Originally Posted by Yankees368

Oh I really disagree with that. In my experience (remember, yours might be different), the AT&T MMS servers have sucked for a long time. The iphone has had no impact on this yet, as I experienced this a year ago. If they did not make any significant changes, do no expect MMS to work at all.

Maybe it would have worked better on another carrier, one who already had a working MMS server beforehand.

I do not think Jay was talking about MMS only but was talking about the iphone in general.

On an end note, I hope at&t gets it right this Friday (I will not be around to experience it)

[RadioFoneGuy]

I hacked my Iphone 3G for MMS 3 months ago and its never failed or my HTC Fuze or Tilt.

My MMS goes thru immediately, but im not in LA or New York which are the major problem spots.

[hf1khal]

Come to think about it, I think Friday will not be the bad day as many users will be at school or work. Then give the time for people to get home and do the update via iTunes and iTunes servers could crash by late Friday night. The days to watch out for will be Saturday and Sunday and lets hope that the network will not be as busy during the week. A Friday slow roll out will be a perfect setting for the mass use on the weekend with less network congestion as compared to the weekdays.

[Jay2TheRescue]

Yes, I was referring to the iPhone in general, not just MMS. As far as AT&T MMS sucking, I really would not know. I send/recieve less than 10 per year. I don't text either.

[RadioRaiders]

If AT&T's "friendly user trial" caused the servers to crash, why are they going to go ahead with the launch? They can resolve the problem in only a few days?

Anyway, regardless of if they solve it or not, you know it's going to be a load of negative media against AT&T, as there will be at least one iPhone user screaming his/her MMS didn't go thru, and 1,000 reporters there to cover the (non-)event

[Fire14]

Originally Posted by Yankees368

Oh I really disagree with that. In my experience (remember, yours might be different), the AT&T MMS servers have sucked for a long time. The iphone has had no impact on this yet, as I experienced this a year ago. If they did not make any significant changes, do no expect MMS to work at all.

Maybe it would have worked better on another carrier, one who already had a working MMS server beforehand.

I have to say I never had an issue with MMS with AT&T & I do think no matter which carrier got the iPhone they would have experienced the same problems that AT&T has been, maybe not in some extremes in all areas but I can see where the phone would strain other networks too including Verizon with their large base of customers like AT&T.

[AJE]

I just hope this MMS launch doesn't hose the whole network. I don't send MMS so if just that doesn't work then I am not too concerned. Of course I will update and try it though

[Critic]

Originally Posted by Charlyee

How is this for a scenario?

AT&T Severs Crash > Complete data outage for multiple days > Apple furious > Breaks contract > Takes iPhone to Verizon > Verizon customers complain about data problems > Forums flooded by complaints > Verizon unhappy > AT&T customers smiling.

Disclaimer: Not meant as a dig to iPhone users, AT&T & it's customers, or Verizon & it's customers.

Palm850/v0100 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11)

Alright, sure it's a hypothetical, but the reality is that Verizon isn't getting the iPhone as long as they're running a CDMA network, and Apple has no incentive to build a CDMA iPhone for a single market.

Also, if people are upset about battery life issues with the 3G(S), imagine how they'd feel if it were on CDMA... (One bar on AT&T = sure, you might not hold the call; One bar on VZW = watch your phone die in 45 minutes. And no, I'm not being snarky - this happened with both my old Treo and my V710.)

I know there was a rumor floating about, once upon a time, that Apple approached VZW first and that VZW shot them down, but a) that ship has long sense sailed; b) back in 2007, VZW would never have let Apple retain full control of the OS/UI, and c) VZW DEFINITELY wouldn't have allowed Apple to control the iTunes & App stores.

AT&T may have underestimated the appeal of the iPhone's data features, but I agree with the other posters (and with Charlyee's hypothetical) in that you'd see an almost identical situation with nearly every other nationwide wireless carrier. If the complaints weren't about voice and MMS (AT&T), they'd almost certainly be about insanely short battery life (VZW/Sprint), poor building penetration (Sprint - they're only on 1900), limited coverage (TMobile) or even MORE expensive rates (VZW). The moral of the story - you can't please everyone.

I fully believe that you won't see a carrier-free iPhone until multiple carriers (I'm thinking AT&T and VZW) flip the switch on national LTE networks.

[bobolito]

Originally Posted by Critic

Also, if people are upset about battery life issues with the 3G(S), imagine how they'd feel if it were on CDMA...

AT&T 3G is WCDMA so it's more a battery drainer than GSM. CDMA is no more battery hog than WCDMA.