Why can't I send a multimedia message (MMS) from the Apple iPhone?

Why can't I send a multimedia message (MMS) from the Apple iPhone?

Believe it or not, the answer is equal parts simple and agonizing. AT&T has stated they will support MMS on the iPhone 3G S at some point during the summer of 2009, after the June 19th release date.

apple iphone 3G S mms

According to reports, the company must first manually replace the "opt out MMS code" on every iPhone user account to allow MMS. New activations are subject to the same procedure, as accounts will initially include the "opt out MMS code" to lock out multimedia message service.

Existing customers with first generation iPhones will never be able to use MMS, even if they have installed iPhone OS 3.0. The iPhone 3G will only support sending photos, not video. Apple really wants you to upgrade, and AT&T will do everything in its power to reduce your bandwidth usage on its network.

AT&T allegedly plans to replace all of the codes around the same time. This makes sense, since existing customers might feel slighted if total newbies were sending them multimedia messages they couldn't receive on their own iPhone.

The "opt out MMS code" replacement procedure at AT&T could require several steps to make MMS fully accessible for all iPhone 3G/3G S customers.

Looking for a job? Maybe AT&T is hiring people to enter the "opt in MMS code" millions of times. No word from the company on when MMS on the iPhone will finally be operational.

Comments

From Apple Web Site:
"MMS support from AT&T coming in late summer. MMS is not supported on first-generation iPhone. Sending video via MMS is not supported on iPhone 3G."
- Apparently iPhone 3G will be able to send / receive basic photos with audio attachments, but no video attachments.

Thanks for your comments Deerfield... forgot about photo MMS on the iPhone 3G

I have an iphone 3GS and bought it in March of 2010 so I'm pretty sure that's not a first generation iphone. Well I had the option to send MMS before I got the latest update and now I dont even have the little camera on the left hand side of the text bar and when I go in to settings to turn on the MMS , that's option isn't even on there. I thought the update was supposed to be advanced. PLEASE HELP!

I have the same problem! When I did the 4.0 upgrade the camera icon disappeared. Were you ever able to figure it out? If so please share the info.

Thanks