What Happens to MMS messages When You Have no MMS plan?

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I’ve mentioned recently that I switched my iPhone to a $10/month plan following expiration of my 2-year AT&T contract.  This is one of many tactics I have adopted to save my family money during sequestration-driven furloughs of Federal Employees.

No complaints so far with AirVoice.  To keep myself from racking up accidental data charges, I run around with Cellular Data “Off” unless I get lost and need to use a GPS map.  One of the many fears I had when switching my iPhone to AirVoice was the loss of MMS messaging- What happens when one of my friends sends me an impromptu MMS photo to enjoy?  Turns out my fears were unwarranted.

It appears that the carrier knows that you don’t have MMS.  When someone sends you an MMS message, instead you receive a text ‘alerter’ message telling you to click a weblink to see the original MMS message:

Once your phone is connected to WiFi (or you’ve switched “On” Cellular Data), you click on the link and get to see the original MMS message in all its glory. You can also click and enlarge the MMS photo on the weblink:

I’m not sure if this works with all permutations of MMS send/receive cell carriers, but it seems to work fine for someone on the AT&T network sending an MMS to a user on the AirVoice Network (which is simply leased MVNO airtime from AT&T).   It looks like the ‘viewmymessage.com’ link is provided by AT&T, but I have no idea if this is driven from the MMS sending end or the MMS receiving end, so Your Mileage May Vary.

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