AT&T says MMS for iPhone still on hold until Sept. 25

AT&T maintains it has not rolled out multimedia messaging services for the iPhone weeks ahead of the application's promised Sept. 25 introduction, despite myriad reports from users that MMS is now up and running on their Apple smartphones. "Sept. 25 is still the date," AT&T spokesperson Mark Siegel tells USA Today. The obvious assumption is that MMS is available on jailbroken iPhones: "We can't comment on what people might be doing" in order to access MMS, Siegel said.

According to an article in PC World, MMS began appearing on some iPhones on Saturday--users who indicate that MMS is now available on their device are typically running iPhone OS 3.1 with carrier file 5.0.  While iPhone users in Chicago, Los Angeles and Dallas have reported that MMS is now available, other consumers in the same locales contradicted the reports. Still, microblogging juggernaut Twitter already boasts a webpage encouraging iPhone users to post their first MMS.

Apple has warned users against making unauthorized modifications to the iPhone OS, arguing jailbroken devices face instability, disruption of services and compromised security. Apple reports that customers who have hacked their iPhone or iPod touch have battled with frequent and unexpected device crashes, crashing and freezing applications and loss of data, as well as unreliable voice and data services punctuated by dropped calls, slow or unreliable data connections and delayed or inaccurate location data. Moreover, unauthorized modification of the iPhone OS is a violation of the iPhone end-user license agreement, and Apple may deny service for devices with unauthorized software.

For more on MMS for iPhone:
- read this USA Today article