Rumor Mill: AT&T to Offer New Features to iPhone Users

Wireless carrier AT&T is reportedly getting ready to add new features to its offering for the iPhone users in the United States. It seems that the operator, which denied the access to a series of features to the iPhone owners, although they were supported by the device, plans on providing at least two new carrier-specific features to them.

According to an article on Apple Insider, AT&T intends to increase the customer satisfaction of its iPhone users, thus planning on making more changes to its network so that they will be able to enjoy more functionalities than before. Moreover, it seems that the new changes have nothing to do with the already announced network enhancements that AT&T plans for the future, and which are aimed mainly at increasing the network capacity so as to eliminate a series of issues that its subscribers experience, including dropped calls, slow Internet speeds or delayed text messages.

The two new features Apple Insider says that iPhone users should be getting ready for would be:
Overage Alerts: A proposed new setting under the iPhone's "Phone" preferences would allow users to customize a push notification - in the form of a badge, message, or sound to be issued when they're in danger of exceeding their monthly anytime minutes.

New Voicemail Options: A new "Voicemail" setting, also proposed as an addition to the touch-screen handset's "Phone" preferences, would provide a means for users to disable the custom Voicemail greeting as well as AT&T's standard Voicemail introduction heard by other users.
Similarly, the same feature would also make it possible for users to automatically bypass Voicemail greetings, AT&T's standard introduction, and other automated instructions when placing calls to other AT&T customers.

It seems that the new functionalities would come as the result of a tight cooperation between AT&T and Apple, and that they are based on customer feedback, at least this is what sources familiar with the situation have stated, reports the news site. Hopefully, AT&T is indeed preparing something new for its users, though it is rather hard to believe it will introduce new features in the near future, considering that MMS has been delayed to September 25, and there are no info on tethering coming to the iPhone users anytime soon.