AT&T and Apple sued for lack of MMS capability

Frankly MMS is a dinosaur of a technology and won’t be around in 5 years.  It also enables Telcos to charge you for something that should be free.  You can accomplish everything MMS does on mobile email so long as your recipient has email on their phone.  Sure, not everyone does now, but they will…soon.

That being said, Apple and AT&T are being sued because the iPhone has yet to get MMS in the US – though it has been touted as a feature by both Apple and AT&T.  AT&T has promised this feature (and tethering) by late summer.  We are pretty Meh on the whole issue but were pretty sure a lot of you feel strongly about this.  Here’s the long version:

A class action started in a Louisiana district court alleging that Apple and AT&T touted the iPhone as supporting MMS (multimedia messaging service) but have not as yet provided the service. The plaintiffs allege that Apple "advertised heavily that the new version of iPhone, the 3G, as well as the even newer version the 3G-S would allow MMS. Apple’s print and video advertisements in and on television, the internet, the radio, newspapers and direct mailers all touted the availability of MMS." AT&T advertised the same functionality, the filing says.

But since the launch, in the USA, such functionality is not yet available. The court filing says the AT&T Answer Center page said: "Customers who are sent a MMS message and own a non-MMS capable device will receive a text message instead of an actual MMS message." But, the filing alleges: "AT&T is not a carrier which offers MMS! Of course, AT&T is the only carrier in the United States used by the iPhone. In other words, AT&T’s towers do not support MMS." Apple, says the filings, has revealed that AT&T has never upgraded its towers so as to support MMS functionality. "The only excuse offered by AT&T and Apple is a mouseprint disclaimer on the website, in barely readable font, which reads ‘MMS Support from AT&T coming in late summer’". The class action suit alleges the Louisana suit will consist of at least 10,000 individuals. The action is brought both under the Louisiana Unfair Trade Practices Act and other Louisiana civil codes.