★ MMS & Tethering: Just More to Complain About

iPhone users love to complain about everything they don’t have. It’s not really iPhone users but instead I see it as those that use iPhones are the ones that complain about a lot of things like their hatred for Microsoft Exchange or why they think Twitter should just start monetizing already. There’s a group of people within the iPhone user community that have been complaining about the lack of MMS aka, PictureMail since the iPhone was released back in 2007. The group got smaller and smaller until Apple mentioned at WWDC ’09 that MMS was finally coming to the iPhone but said AT&T wasn’t ready for it yet. The users got pretty upset.

This trend of hating AT&T continued until they finally announced that MMS would be available for iPhone users on AT&T at the end of September. Yay! Let’s take a moment and look at a few things that pretty much make MMS obsolete and why adding this feature now doesn’t mean much to iPhone users. First, let’s talk about MMS and what it is.

MMS Stands for Multimedia Messaging Service and is used to describe photos, audio or video that’s sent cell phone to cell phone using the cellular network. Many of the dumbest phones like those free phones AT&T gives you by signing a contract can send & receive MMS messages without any problems. There’s a price to pay as AT&T’s website lists.

On the “Messaging FAQs“:

Purchasing

Q. What is the cost for Picture & Video Messaging?

A. You are charged $0.30 for each message you send and receive unless you are on a Messaging package or a data package. When a single message is sent to multiple recipients, the sender is charged one message for each recipient and each recipient is charged for the message received.

Q. What is a Messaging Package?

A. It is an allotment of messages that are priced lower than the per-message charge. With a Messaging Package, you can send or receive text, picture, video and instant messages for the same price. Picture & Video pay-per-use rates are priced differently than text messages.

Q. How do I add a Messaging Package to my account?

A. There are a number of ways you can subscribe. To learn about each of the Picture & Video Messaging packages and sign up, go to the Shop Services page.

Existing customers can also log in to My Account and go to My Features. If Messaging is available for your account, it can be added here. New customers can add this feature as a part of ordering a phone online. You can also call Customer Care at 1-800-331-0500 or dial 611 from your wireless phone.

Q. What is the pricing for international Picture & Video Messaging?

A. It’s $0.50 to send an international message. Sent messages are not pulled from your bucket of messages. International picture & video messages received will either pull from your message bucket or be charged a normal per-message charge.

Q. What is the pricing for using Picture & Video Messaging while roaming?

A. There are no additional charges for sending and receiving picture & video messaging while roaming in the United States. If roaming internationally (where available), picture & video messages sent are $1.30 each and do not pull from message buckets.

So it looks like you’re going to pay between 30 cents and $1.30 just to send OR receive a message so even if John sends me a photo while I’m in London, I now have a $1.30 fee on my bill. That’s absurd and just like text messages that cost 10 cents a piece, I can’t tell AT&T to never allow MMS to my device. So when John has too many drinks while in Vegas and I wake up to 35 new MMS messages, those range from 30 cents to $1.30 and there’s nothing I can do about it. Unless I have an unlimited messaging plan from AT&T.

AT&T’s Messaging Unlimited Plan:

Text messaging

* Private, to-the-point communication
* Just type the message, pick a wireless phone number, and send

Picture and video messaging

* Share a smile, a cute moment, or that thing you just have to buy
* Snap the photo or video with your camera phone, pick a mobile phone or email address, and send

Instant Messaging

* Chat real-time with IM on your phone
* Use AOL® Instant Messenger, Yahoo!®, and Windows Live Messenger®

So, for the low cost of $20, I can send & receive unlimited messages to and from my device. Ok, that’s a little more fair but let’s keep something in mind. If you’re an iPhone 3G user, that’s $20 on top of the $30 you’re already paying for 3G data service and the $49 that you’re paying for the 450 Anytime Minutes just for making calls.

My math may be a little off here but $49+$30+$20+$15 (fees & taxes) = $114 a month.

So $20 isn’t a lot of money for the ability to send and receive an unlimited amount of text & multimedia messages. What’s important here is that with 3G we didn’t need this feature. We could send unlimited Twitter DMs via 3G or unlimited emails and we could send photos to friends, TwitPic, Facebook & Flickr FOR FREE using 3G which we’re already paying for. Better yet, don’t pay for 3G and just find an open Wi-Fi network and now you’re truly paying nothing to connect with people.

I have a wild guess that when MMS is enabled for iPhone users, they’re going to start getting these messages and 30 days later their first post-mms bill is going to be $20 more than usual and they’ll go to a store very pissed off only to learn that they need this $20 a month package in order to get unlimited MMS messages. Sure they’ll go for it since they can’t stop friends from sending them these messages but I’m pretty sure most people will keep doing things the way they have for a while and that’s to just email / tweet content to friends.

MMS is great but it costs more and even if you have a fancy unlimited messaging plan (like me), sending MMS messages to friends that don’t have a plan is only costing them more money. Just out of respect for my friends, I’ll refrain from sending MMS messages out to them because I don’t wan to be the reason they have an elevated AT&T bill next month.

Back to the core reason I wrote this post – We love to complain and we love to have every feature possible and sure we’ll pay heavily to have it but at the end of the day, we’ve survived 2.25 years without MMS and I feel we’re finally going to get it and it’s not going to make our lives any easier. Tethering for iPhone is going to be expensive and I think people will complain about the price and so goes the cycle of begging for a feature, getting it and then complaining about it.