AT&T MMS service

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After AT&T started the new MMS service recently, I noticed when the reception bars are not full, pics cannot be sent with text messages. When I come home, I have 3 to 4 bars and pics cannot be sent. When I am at my work, there are 5 bars (full) and I have no problem of sending pics.

Does anyone have a same problem? I understand MMS has nothing to do with 3G, WiFi or Edge. I am very frustrated with this text/pic capability when the intended pictures cannot be sent when I wish.:Angry:
 
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MMS messages go over either edge or 3g. MMS can not use WiFi to send out.

MMS is a data message and needs the data network to send the MMS out.

if the only place you have a problem sending MMS from is you home, then its going to be an issue with the tower you are served off f at your house.

try a few other places besides your work and see what results you get. if it works fine everywhere except your house, then the problem is that tower near your home, or you have a bad home;D
 
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odenkun
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OK, I read some posts from the other forum that someone said MMS had nothing to do with 3G, WiFi and Edge. Apparently that information was incorrect.

I live in the area where 3G is not available :)Angry: ) and the standard connection in my area is still Edge. At home, I use wireless for my iMac and I get WiFi connection. After I read your comment, I turned off WiFi and tried to send pic thru MMS. No luck. I tried a few different areas of my house, where the status bar showed 4 (it now does not matter, according to what you said). At my work, the connection is also Edge and I can send/receive pic without any problem. At home, receiving pictures thru MMS is not an issue.

I was in Dallas TX the other day and the area was 3G covered. MMS had no problem for sending pictures. Cleveland OH and Pittsburgh PA are the cities that are covered by 3G and they are the nearest big cities from my area. No problem of sending/receiving pictures thru MMS.

Friends have told me that when I talk to them over my iPhone, the conversation breaks in pieces and sometimes very difficult to stay on. It seems I might have a problem in my neighborhood.
 
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yep, sounds like an issue on the tower that covers your house. you may want to call and report your problems to customer service.

ask them to open a Network Incident Ticket, and let them know how long it has been going on.

be sure to specify that you do not have these problems in other areas, this is useful to them so they know the tower near you is havening some type of problem, the engineers and techs may not know a problem exist.

make sure you tell them about the MMS, call quality issues and any other problem you may have related to your problems at your home.
 
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I've definitely sent out messages with only one or two bars, so you definitely do not have to have all your bars full in order to send an MMS.
 
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Here is update.

I sent a question about this subject through AT&T website and got a response from the tech support over the phone on Saturday afternoon. The first rep. tried a few checks and found nothing was corrected so she transferred to the tech service center in Springfield IL.

I pretty much followed the instruction over the phone and this included a backup to iTune. I was told that my neighborhood had a good strength in terms of connection. I still, however, see sometimes 3 to 4 bars depending on where I am at in the house.

Anyhow, the phone with the tech rep. took about 5 hours (on and off since I had to wait for backup), and pretty much my Saturday afternoon was ruined. In addition, after I turned the phone back, a half of my applications were not properly backed up and I lost them. I could not find any of those in iTune at all. I just simply followed the instruction over the phone. This includes all my paid applications as well. My account in iTune shows all my previous purchases so I still have a proof but don't know how I am going to get them back to my phone. I will stop by the local office today.

In short, over 5-hour tech support over the phone really did not help or correct the problems I have. The rep put my case for further investigation.

To recap my problems;

1) cannot send pic message from home. the connection switched to edge but none happens. red exclamation mark comes up all the time.

2) during the phone conversation, the line keeps on breaking up and cannot continue because the other party don't hear me well at all.

Those are the problems I have and I still don't understand AT&T cannot identify the problem after 5-hour tech support call.
 
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odenkun
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Update...

I stopped by a local AT&T store and found out as follows:

1) MMS with picture can be sent even if it is connected with WiFi. The store rep connected to store WiFi and demonstrated. No problem, pic was sent.

2) Two reps at the store told me they do experience similar problem as I have as to pic cannot be sent through MMS. They are iPhone users and said they need to re-try more than a few times. They have brought up this issue to a different level and they suspect it could be the areal issue. No conclusive answer was given.

3) All lost applications (free and paid) were retrieved after my iPhone was reconnected through dock. When downloaded a paid app, a message pops up and tells it has been downloaded, try again?. So I got all my previously paid apps back to iPhone. A case closed.

When I spoke to rep over the phone on Saturday, I was told the max. pic size should be 650KB but I was able to send 1MB picture that was taken by iPhone. Have you guys heard of this 'size' issue?

Thanks,
 
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Here is update.

I was told that my neighborhood had a good strength in terms of connection. I still, however, see sometimes 3 to 4 bars depending on where I am at in the house.
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the rep you talked to is only looking at a coverage map and can verify at all if your coverage is good, or if there is a problem with the tower.

having 3 to 5 bars in your house is not bad at all

try this
*3001#12345#* and tap Call. Enter Field Mode. once you do this, check the upper left of hte screen, you should see your signal strength in -db. you might be around -70 to -90 db. or over -100 db.

if you have anything between -100 and -120 db you have a poor signal quality

im at a -113 db and have 2 bars and have no problems sending MMS.

If the sales reps at the store where you went to are having problems as well, its more than likely a problem for the that market/area you are in. possibly they do not have their parameters set correctly for what is an acceptable level to allow the MMS to go through. Its very common in some of the smaller areas.
 
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odenkun
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I had another lengthy phone conversation with AT&T tech support on Tuesday evening. It took for 3.5 hours and the conclusion was,

My house sucks.:Grimmace:

This is how I interpreted from AT&T rep. What I was told was that all diagnostic tests did not show anything wrong with the phone itself. Rep basically said to me that something in the house (building material or something in the house) is interrupting the signals but could not tell exactly what it was. They have no particular items that they could suggest (like aluminum, wall material, microwave oven etc.) so that's how I was told. I was very tired of telling 4-5 different reps the same issue over and over and after that this is what I got. Later, I talked to the different level of tech support dept and he told me there will be a new device, called Microcell, that would improve the signal reception. It is a small device, similar to a smoke detector, and once it is installed the reception would be better and improved.

AT&T 3G MicroCell™

According to the rep. the device may be available towards the end of December. Until then, there is really nothing I could do. It is pretty sad. :Shouting:
 
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the femtocell will help greatly.

I still think there is an issue with the cell tower that serves your house.

true your home could be a cause for degraded signal, but thats not a problem for any wireless carrier to take care of.

reasons for poor reception in your home besides the stuff your home is made of are as follows.

Trees
cell tower near the edge of reliable coverage from your home
phone bouncing between towers due to poor reception on both 2g and 3g.

Bad settings for the cell tower serving your home ( im still sure this is the main issue) and tech support or customer service is 100 % clueless on these issues. you need to MAKE them open an network incident ticket. this will get engineering involved so they can look at the issue. since it continually happens at your home and not in other areas, this is a valid reason for a NIT ticket.
 

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