Over two years ago a BestMVNO site reader informed me that they were locked out of the part of their iPhone's settings menu that would allow them to setup an APN. They noticed that the issue occurred when they tried to use a SIM card for an AT&T MVNO, but it did not happen when they inserted the same SIM card into an Android phone. For those of you who don't know, when you don't have the right APN setting for your phone, you can't do such things as connect to the internet or even send or receive MMS picture messages. So in essence, you aren't able to get what you pay for.
At that time it was not known why this was happening. I speculated that perhaps Apple had some sort of agreement with AT&T to try and push customers towards service with AT&T directly or with specific AT&T MVNO's that may have been more profitable for AT&T. I had also wondered if there was no agreement at all, and perhaps Apple just wanted AT&T to pay up to unlock the settings profile for its customers. I reached out to both companies for comment, and never heard back from either.
Yesterday, that same reader from a few years ago pointed out to me a specific comment that AT&T MVNO H2O wireless recently made in a forum in regards to recent changes they had made to try and fix some long known issues.
One such issue was that the company was finally able to get conditional call forwarding working. This is something that likely only impacted a minimal amount of subscribers. The real "cat out of the bag" moment came however when H2O Wireless left this curious message:
iPhone MMS (Pending) - Currently in negotiations with Apple.
Currently in negotiations with Apple?
What???
While we don't know for sure exactly what that means, Apple has a long track record of milking everyone and everything out of every last cent that it possibly can. Take what it did with Spotify for instance. Apple charged Spotify subscribers who signed up for the service through iTunes $12.99/month whereas if the subscriber signed up directly from Spotify, they'd only pay $9.99/month. It wasn't just Spotify that Apple did this to, Tidal also faced the same problem. This all stems from the fact that Apple charges a 30% commission on all in-app purchases made through the iTunes/app store.
So based on that statement from H2O Wireless and Apple's track record, it does appear that Apple may be charging at least some MVNO's or carriers for the "privilege" of having access to the iOS settings menu that allows them to configure an APN. This would explain why many AT&T MVNO's still don't have MMS working with Apple, because they won't pay to play. If this is in fact the case, I say good for them for not caving into Apple. Of course at the same time, it must be hard for them to not be able to service that potential customer base.
There could of course be other reasons that are not financially based as to why Apple still has the settings menu locked down for many AT&T MVNO's, although they are certainly hard to imagine.
(Updated: 7/20/2017)- A recent comment left by someone who says that they are an employee of another AT&T MVNO, has stated that Apple wanted them to purchase a large number of iPhones priced in the low seven figure range in exchange for providing the correct APN settings to the MVNO's iPhone using customer base. Even with the agreement in place, iPhone users on iOS 9 or below would still be unable to receive MMS!
What makes this whole thing even more ridiculous if true, is that this happens with UNLOCKED iPhones!! How is it even legal to sell a device as being "unlocked" when it can't really be used on all carriers because it is in fact partially locked down?
i see the point that is trying to be made but it misses things. it comes from the perspective of google is good and apple is bad, when in fact they are just different approaches. apple keeps control over apn settings, whoop de doo. apple also had imessage that is different than sms, and they can unlock devices via updates pushed to the phone and since those things are not magic, it seems pretty clear that they want to retain control over apn settings.
by all means by a non apple device if this is upsetting to you, but to hate them over is just silly and a waste of your time.
also that $12.99 vs $9.99 spotify crack is just stupid. spotify set that price on itunes to cover fees… they could have eaten those fees as being in the apple store means access to lots of customers and less marketing and less accounting for them… but spotifiy decided to just pass it along to apple customers… and spotify, being embarrassed after having done it, removed it from the apple store back in 2016… yet people are still talking about it a year later, lol
It looks like the issue is not limited to ATT MVNOs. Recently some cheaper T-Mobile MVNOs and former Srpint MVNOs seem to have the same exact issue. Tello announced after switching to T-Mobile that iOS users suddenly did not have access to certain features and users on Hello Mobile complain about many of those features not working on iOS. (Though some report not getting 5G or LTE as well using iOS on Hello Mobile. Apprently if you use the PWG SIM from HM, PWG seems to work – but HM branded SIMs don’t work.)
Just another example of why I don’t buy Apple products.
You also used to be able to make your own APN certificates. https://www.imore.com/manually-set-iphone-ipad-carrier-apn-iphone-configuration-utility
This is exactly why I have never purchased an Apple product and I never, ever will.