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AT&T Nervous About Upcoming iPhone MMS Launch?

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.

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31 months ago
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-Nervous-About-Smooth-iPhone-MMS-Launch-104606

AT&T Nervous About Smooth iPhone MMS Launch
Source says that 10AM Eastern on Friday is the magic hour...
12:05PM Wednesday Sep 23 2009 by Karl Bode
tags: business · bandwidth · wireless

Insiders involved with AT&T's belated launch of iPhone MMS support tell us that everybody's highly anxious about the launch, as the carrier rushes to beef up infrastructure in order to handle the added strain the functionality will impose on the carrier's systems. Earlier this month AT&T announced that the functionality would be dropping September 25 (aka this Friday). Some users started seeing MMS functionality working last week as AT&T and its partners finalized testing, and most users are being sent an SMS on the coming change.

"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.

According to the source, AT&T is "very" nervous about the launch and is requesting their MMS aggregator partners provide hourly updates on any message delays or problems. 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.

Given the amount of grief AT&T's been given concerning their network lately, the company needs a smooth MMS launch to stay on the good graces of annoyed iPhone users. AT&T's taken a beating in recent months for belated MMS and tethering functionality, rocky 3G connectivity and coverage, and crippled applications.

AT&T subsequently launched somewhat of a PR offensive aimed at convincing the press and public the company was doing everything in its power to beef up network infrastructure, including additional backhaul links and towers, as well as a migration to 850 MHz spectrum in heavily congested markets.
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31 months ago
The network is already pretty crippled it seems.
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31 months ago
It'll add strain to the network for a few days then it'll settle as the novelty wears off. Can't see the fuss about mms to be honest.
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31 months ago
Like most have said, it's a novelty that will strain the network for a couple of days and then all will be normal again. MMS for me anyways, is nothing but old tech. I'd rather upload my video/pic to flickr and have everyone see it than to send a low quality video/pic to one person. I might use it once in a blue moon but I am not drooling over it.
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31 months ago
I can't imagine how long it would take to send an MMS. It already takes about ten seconds to send a regular text.
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31 months ago

I can't imagine how long it would take to send an MMS. It already takes about ten seconds to send a regular text.


It takes maybe 5 seconds, tops, for me to send an MMS.
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31 months ago

It takes maybe 5 seconds, tops, for me to send an MMS.


Wow, could be a connection issue in my area.
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31 months ago
Wait so does this mean we will be getting the carrier update over the air ?
If no need for Itunes than that would be great since I will not be at my PC until the end of the day.
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31 months ago

Wait so does this mean we will be getting the carrier update over the air ?
If no need for Itunes than that would be great since I will not be at my PC until the end of the day.


I've been wondering the same thing, but I think we would need one because the option to add an image is not in the text app. It would be nice if they did do the update through wireless.
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31 months ago

Wait so does this mean we will be getting the carrier update over the air ?
If no need for Itunes than that would be great since I will not be at my PC until the end of the day.


Where did you get that impression? You'll go to iTunes and get a carrier update, as before.
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