AT&T has made good on its promise to bring the multimedia messaging service to the iPhone.

The feature, which has been available since June for iPhone users on other networks, went live on Friday in the US, where AT&T is the sole authorized carrier for the device. That means US-based iPhone users will finally be able to embed pictures, audio, and other goodies into the messages they send to other handsets.

Over the past month, AT&T has drawn considerable heat from iPhone users for a plague of dropped calls, slow download speeds, and spotty network performance. One can only wonder if the new ability to attach bandwidth-clogging files to messages will only compound the problem. At time of writing there were no such reports, though readers who know otherwise are invited to notify your reporter here.

To begin using MMS, you'll need to connect your phone to iTunes to receive an update. A dialog box should tell you the update is available, but if it doesn't, you can always click on the "check for update" button on the panel to the left. When you're done, you should have carrier version "AT&T 5.5" running on iPhone version 3.1.

Sorry, but first-generation iPhones don't qualify. ®

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