iPhone MMS arrives on September 25th

Yesterday, we wrote that an AT&T employee had leaked that iPhone OS 3.1 would be released in September. Today, AT&T released a press release stating that the Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) will be coming to the iPhone on AT&T on September 25th.

The service will become active through a software update for the iPhone, which will most likely be iPhone OS 3.1. AT&T have recently heard allegations that their networks are too slow and unreliable to handle the heavy traffic, but one of the reasons that it’s taken so long is so they were sure their networks would be ready from the start.

The unique capabilities and high usage of the iPhone’s multimedia capabilities required us to work on our network MMS architecture to carry the expected record volumes of MMS traffic and ensure an excellent experience from Day One. We appreciate your patience as we work toward that end.

While the press release covers MMS, there’s still no word on when we’ll be seeing tethering for the iPhone. The feature was announced with iPhone 3.0, and is available in other countries, but is still not active in the US. AT&T are expanding their networks and coverage, and so it could still be some time before we hear an announcement for iPhone tethering. Still, let’s be happy that in a few weeks MMS will be active. That’s something at least, right?

Read [AT&T Press Release]