iPhone 3GS Tidbits: Pay As You Stop, MMS Support

Talk about your"bad news/good news" scenarios…

iPhone users recently got the following text message: "AT&T Free MSG: A new software upgrade for iPhone will be available
on 6/17. This upgrade may affect your data service. Please visit
att.com/iphone or call 800-901-9878 for a representative. If you
download the software and are not on an approved iPhone data plan, your
data service will be interrupted."

What that means is, with the pending official release of OS 3.0, the Death Star is pulling the plug on GoPhone-style support — although in reality, they never really, y'know, officially supported it:

• If you are a Pick Your Plan Customer with the required unlimited Data
  Plan for iPhone, you should not experience any interruption in your
  data service due to downloading the iPhone OS 3.0 Software Update which will be available on June 17.
• If you are a Pick Your Plan Customer who does not currently have the
  required unlimited Data Plan for iPhone, you will experience an
  interruption in your data service. To avoid this interruption, you
  should call 866-499-7888 to have the required Data Plan for iPhone
  added to your service.
• Pay As You Go rate plans are not approved for AT&T iPhone
  customers. Customers currently using an iPhone with a Pay As You Go
  rate plan should call 800-901-9878 so they can move to an approved rate
  plan with the required unlimited Data Plan for iPhone.

So what's the good news?  "AT&T will make multimedia messaging (MMS) available at no extra cost to customers with a text messaging bundle."

Hunh.  Compare and contrast this with T-Mobile, whom — as we reported recently — have no qualms about supporting unlocked iPhones on their network.  Perhaps the House of Jobs should rethink extending AT&T's iPhone exclusivity…