AT&T has begun sending text messages to iPhone subscribers reminding them that multimedia message services will be turned on starting Friday, September 25. As if they had forgotten.I received the message from AT&T earlier today. It reads:

AT&T Free Msg: Picture & video messaging (MMS) will be available for iPhone on 9/25. While we prepare your account for MMS capability, the current "view my message" experience will be turned off but your ability to send and receive text messages will not be affected.

As we all know, AT&T has lagged behind many other wireless network operators around the world in offering MMS on the iPhone. MMS is the industry term for picture and video messages -- something that nearly all phones on all other networks are capable of doing. Apple provided the feature with its OS 3.0 software, which went live in June, but it still has to be provisioned as a service from AT&T. AT&T only announced several weeks ago that September 25 would be the date it turns on MMS for the iPhone.

AT&T said, "We know many of our iPhone customers are eager for an update on our rollout schedule for Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). We've been working for the past several months to prepare our systems and network to ensure the best possible experience with MMS when it launches. MMS will be enabled through a software update on [September 25].

We know that iPhone users will embrace MMS. 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."

MMS arrives on Friday. Be on the look out for it.