AT&T may shock and surprise most of us as well as their competitors and charge much less than initially expected for an iPhone tethering plan. Additionally, sources report that there is much buzz surrounding iPhone tethering internally at AT&T.
An iPhone tethering plan has been in the works for some time now. We know for a fact that Apple and AT&T have been working on a tethering plan, and we know that AT&T has been extremely cautious when dealing with more pressure being put on their 3G cellular network.
When MacBlogz first got word of some initial tethering details, the price of the entire plan seemed a little high, although not surprising. Specifically, the $30 price-point and 5GB data cap did not go over well with most people. These two points were what most people, as well as us have been concerned about the most.
• Will be +$30/month, new iPhone plans may be rolled out with tethering rolled in.
• 5GB Data Cap (just like Blackberry users) - AT&T will automatically turn off your tethering connection if you use too much bandwidth. Of note, the 5GB cap might get sliced for all users, not just iPhone users, in order to accommodate all new tethering plan customers (bandwidth demand).
Without having to contact my colleagues at AT&T, they got a hold of me to share some more information about the plan. To start things off, it did not show up this week, and a launch date has not been set. Recent reports about degradation to AT&T’s 2G service have nothing to do with AT&T clearing up bandwidth space for their 3G network. In regards to what may seem like a slow down of their 2G network, it should kick up faster than before. “Think of it as cleaning up a messy room,” they explained.
The biggest piece of information we learned was that AT&T is playing around with a $10 price-point. This made my eyes light up and I asked them how they could get away with charging a third of what was initially reported, here’s the response I got. “iPhone tethering is primarily an AT&T offering, but it involves Apple at least wanting or allowing the service, which they do. If it doesn’t function as expected, I know of a few people who may lose their jobs,” my colleague explained. “While you may think it’s as easy as streamlining our Blackberry tethering service over to the iPhone, it’s not. Connection may be tied into iTunes, and Apple is incredibly controlling when it comes to this space.”
If AT&T did charge around $10 for independent iPhone tethering, it’s sure to be a hit. Even those on the fence with purchasing or adding this to their cell phone account may do it out of curiosity. $10 per month is much different than $30 per month. As for an expected launch date, nothing has been even internally discussed yet with his department, but we were informed that people are buzzing about iPhone tethering all over AT&T, so it may be sooner rather than later. I’d be surprised if it wasn’t made available before the end of first quarter in 2009.
53 Comments to “iPhone Tethering: AT&T May Shock Us All and Charge $10”
Why? This so-called ‘charge’ is basically just double-dipping. It doesn’t increase the amount of data you can download to your phone. It doesn’t increase the speed you get the data. It doesn’t remove any limitations on what data you allowed to transfer (ie, VOIP traffic).
Basically, you are paying AT&T extra for the ‘right’ to transfer data between two devices that you yourself own.
Only $10/month. What a deal!
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i think you are missing part of the point.
tethering is about your computer. it’s using your phone as a modem. so yeah, you could end up downloading a lot more data than you would to your phone.
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lol YOU are missing the point. You already own the phone, you own the computer, and you ALREADY PAY FOR BANDWIDTH. Tethering should be free and on most other smartphones is! Enjoy paying $10 for what everyone else gets for free
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You are paying for an estimated amount of bandwidth usage, based upon the capabilities of the device. In general, smartphone users use more data than feature phone users, and pay more for it. In general, tethered data users use more data than smartphone users, and pay more for it.
Tethering is not usually dependent on the phone, but the provider.
AT&T Data: $30; tethering: +$30 (5GB cap)
Verizon Data: $40; tethering: +$15 (5GB cap)
Sprint Data: $30; tethering: unknown - none of the plans seem to allow tethering, but there is mention of a phone-as-modem addon I can’t find
T-Mobile Data: +$25 for 400msgs and unlimited data; tethering: free (bandwidth throttling for “excessive use”)
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$10 is a shit ton better than $30. When they said $30 nobody was happy… When they say $10 nobody is happy. If it was free, people would ask for something else. Be happy when things like are mentioned or talked about, even if they don’t come true.
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Well underneath all this, there is one problem that no one seems to mention.
ATT tethering for 30usd = bad
ATT tethering for 10usd = bad
Cydia PDAnet tethering for FREE = great
Who the hell is gonna wanna pay for something that can be gotten for free???
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If you want some crappy connection listen to this guy.
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PDANet is a great app, not slow at all. I’ve used it, speed tested it, and it’s been flawless on my jailbroken iPhone. Another jailbreak app, iPhone Modem, didn’t work very well at all. PDANet gives a great connection anywhere you have a good 3G data link.
However, PDANet isn’t free, it’s $25 unless you just want to use for HTTP. It does give you a 15 day trial period.
Until Apple figures out how to break all jailbreaking, I’ll just stick to PDANet. AT&T can take their tethering plan to a monkey prom, whether it’s $5 or $50.
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If you are going to have to pay for it then how can it “be gotten for free?”
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In the meantime, I’ll continue to use PDANet for free on a jailbroken phone. I’d rather use a legit option, but I don’t have much of a choice right now otherwise.
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Or you could get a Samsung Omnia and do it for free.
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But then you’d have to get a Samsung Omnia.
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Wow
http://testingthetesters.blogspot.com/
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I was dissatisfied with this article because I had to read it through and infer what tethering means. I am certain that my writing professors would agree with me. Sorry, but thumbs down on the article for that reason.
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Luckily this is not a writing class, but a tech blog where the most basic technical jargon (i.e. tethering) is not easily lost on the vast majority of it’s readers.
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Im sorry jasper, but “tethering” is a rather common word in this area, and most people that would have need for it would know what it means. It is like if an engineering article used the word “capacitor”… I am sure you have heard the word, but do you know what it means?
If you ask your professors, it has a lot to do with the audience reading the article. Using the word without defining it is fine in this particular case.
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anyway… when in doubt, just google it. was it really all that hard to look up to begin with? most likely took you less time to figure out what it was than to write your post.
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I’m with Jasper … I came from an outside source and have no clue what tethering means either ::shrug::. Probably very interesting to those that only need updates; useless as a public article.
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What the hell is tethering???
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Definition of tethering - http://tinyurl.com/8kdwdq
Seriously people.. it isnt all that hard….
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http://mobileoffice.about.com/od/usingyourphone/f/tethering.htm
“The first definition of tethering refers to using a cell phone as a modem for your laptop or PDA. Creating a connection either with cables or wirelessly “tethers” your cell phone to your other mobile device. “
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aww, I liked my definition better.. letmegooglethatforyou is the greatest resource ever, because it shows people that it is seriously just a google search away… seriously, if you were to type “tethering” into the address bar while using firefox, it would define it right away.
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Um… Jasper is right. I know what tethering is but an article should be written with a broad audience in mind. what if I wanted to send this link to my mom? she has an iphone but probably doesn’t know what the hell tethering is. it’s journalism 101. all you need is a sentence.
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I am an MIT graduate, founder of my own technology company and reside on the BOD of several others. I have a graduate degree and recently completed my D.Tech at Stanford. What is tethering?
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“Tethering” is one of the many words one can use as a search engine query term.
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Well, to be fair, until I actually got a smartphone for myself, I never needed to know what tethering was in the first place. Just because an article is on the internet and two clicks away from Google doesn’t mean you can relax journalistic standards. I could take this argument to its logical extreme and re-write this article to substitute applicable terms found only in the Encyclopedia Dramatica or in Esperanto. It’s a well-written article, but the editor should have caught this point.
That being said, I can’t justify paying for tethering service on a monthly basis (okay, a one-time software fee per device I can understand). Even if I was a business that purchased iPhones for my mobile employees, I could just tell the guys in IT Support to jailbreak the company iPhones during company time. AT&T will make some money off of this offering, but not as much as they’d like- they’re trying to sell a geek-feature to a community of geeks who can out-geek corporate geeks any geek-day of the week.
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LOL, classic.
I would think the application would be much better if it acted like a router.
The iPhone has WiFi & 3G, so similar to a PC with two connections, you should be able to setup a software router.
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Ah ha, sorry, it looks like the PDAnet software does act like that, so it would be very easy to have an official app act like that.
So, I’m confused by the tethering term when used with this.
Will it be a true tethering where you can use only one PC/laptop (wired or wireless) or will it act as a router?
Does PDAnet allow more than one PC to connect wirelessly?
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HTC Titan on Sprint SERO: $30/month for 500 daytime, unlimited night/weekend minutes. Unlimited texts and picture messages. SprintTV. GPS. Unlimited Internet @ ~ 1 Mbps. Windows Mobile makes it trivial to tether the phone to the PC (it’s built-in to the OS as “Internet Connection Sharing”), and with a faster CPU the bandwidth goes to 1.5 Mbps. Using WMWiFiRouter, phone can bind 3G to WiFi and Bluetooth and act as a router, enabling multiple clients to attach to it. I even attach my Touch to it and use fring for VOIP goodness. Even if I could get this on ATT with Iphone, I think it would cost around $150/month. Sprint does it *all* for $30.month. No wonder carriers love Iphoners… they are willing to spend so much money for what should be basic services.
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This is why Sprint lost $326 million in the third quarter of 2008.
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I would think the application would be much better if it acted like a router.
The iPhone has WiFi & 3G, so similar to a PC with two connections, you should be able to setup a software router..
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It’s fairly easy to tether a smartphone to your computer and then set up your laptop to rebroadcast the connection to other computers. In essence, this turns your PC into a router by setting up an ad-hoc computer-to-computer network from your PC.
There is a video tutorial on how to do this on CNet, and I’ve successfully used it with a Verizon Blackberry and a PC. I believe there are instructions for Mac OS X on the video as well.
Watch Make your laptop a hot spot from CNET TV:
http://cnettv.cnet.com/2001-1_53-28619.html
The $10 price seems much more reasonable. Verizon’s tethering plan is only $15 on top of the $30 Blackberry data plan. So, total data cost is $45. AT&T’s originally proposed $30 is pretty crazy, especially if they are going to cap it at 5 GB.
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Oh, the instructions are for sharing a wired Ethernet connection, but it works fine for a tethered connection as well.
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A router approach is NOT easier. I just tried this on my iPhone. These were the steps:
1. Plug my iPhone into my laptop USB.
2. Go to network settings on my iPhone and flip the tethering switch to “On”.
The moment I flipped the switch on the phone, Windows automatically detected a network device, installed the driver and started using it. Tell me how that can be easier using the phone as a router?
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“Recent reports about degradation to AT&T’s 2G service have nothing to do with AT&T clearing up bandwidth space for their 3G network. In regards to what may seem like a slow down of their 2G network, it should kick up faster than before. “Think of it as cleaning up a messy room,”
So they admit that due to their lack of care their 2G network is a mess attributing to the general slowness of their 2G network. I wonder what their 3G room looks like, with all the complaints about their 3G networks, the messy room might actually be a messy warehouse.
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So just to be clear about tethering, does AT&T charge monthly for the iPhone wifi capability? Cause I think it’s bullshit that I’m paying to connect to my OWN internet service that I’m already paying for.
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Yes, you are correct - there is no charge for wifi capability.
In fact, there are many AT&T hotspots that are now free for you. (Starbucks included.)
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Folks:
AT&T is treating the iPhone as any other smartphone in it’s lineup, and rightfully so. It is, after all, a smartphone. It has corporate email exchange, data capabilities, etc… just like any of it’s other PDAs (Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Palm devices…)
I’m so SICK of hearing about how it’s too expensive! Look at the other plans - iPhone users pay NO MORE than ANY OTHER SMARTPHONE with AT&T! Blackberry? SAME. Palm Centro? SAME. Motorola Q, HTC Pro, Samsung Blackjack? SAME, SAME, SAME.
Tethering on any of those devices is NOT free (unless you download a program like PDAnet, or do a hack. “Official” Tethering on those devices is $30, capped at 5 gb. Therefore, “Official” Tethering on iPhone - will most likely be - ready? $30! Surprise. (DOH!)
If you want it to be free - jailbreak it and hack it. You’ll find ways for it to happen.
In the meantime - please, I ask - seriously, stop whining and realize you have a PDA device that lines up with the others. In fact - it’s better. Be happy it’s not more.
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What he said.
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Um… Jasper is right. I know what tethering is but an article should be written with a broad audience in mind. what if I wanted to send this link to my mom? she has an iphone but probably doesn’t know what the hell tethering is. it’s journalism 101. all you need is a sentence..
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I would think the application would be much better if it acted like a router.
The iPhone has WiFi & 3G, so similar to a PC with two connections, you should be able to setup a software router…
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If I ever can’t use PdaNet any more, I’ll go ahead with this.
Especially if it’s $10/month. I just hope the iPhone not charging while tethering issue gets resolved because it drains my iPhone so freaking fast. If it would charge while tethering, then I could just plug my USB cable into my iPhone and get a good 4 hours of computer use on a charge. 
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I for one am one of those on the fence. I have a macbook, an iPod touch and would very much like to have the iPhone. However, I do not wish to pay a $30 monthly charge. If At&T drops it to $10 I’ll be at the store the very next day to purchase and upgrade my phone.
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@jasper i really doubt you’d send this article to someone who doesn’t know what tethering is. if they don’t know they likely don’t care enough about the price difference
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Or you can use PdaNet as explained http://hacksandhints.techievarta.com/2009/02/06/tethering-iphone/. This gets 2.3Mbps which is ok for most purposes.
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I’m just curious as to whether or not anyone has been charged anything extra or has been hassled by AT&T after having tethered their iphone with PdaNet? I just started using it and I’m a bit paranoid.
Thanks!
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I was wondering the same thing. Has anybody been charged for using PdaNet and how long have you been using this application?
Thank you!
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In case tethering is very important and $$ is an issue … Any unlocked Windows Mobile device includes internet sharing application, which allows connecting your PC to the device and use it as a network card. This works over both BT adn USD … but it is a windows device … however, the later HTC’s ones are reasonable choice.
And I agree that these services must be for free. Compared to what you pay and what you get to Europe it really sucks in the USA
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AT&T to release tethering option today (6/8/09), or so a rep tells me: http://www.seosean.com/blog/iphone-att-to-release-tethering-option-today
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There’s no reason to use PDANet : http://www.ditii.com/2009/06/18/guide-to-enable-tethering-on-iphone-3-0-worldwide-carriers/
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The tethering plan should not be more than $10, since iPhone users are already paying $30 a month for mobile internet ($35 with 200 text messages). $10 tethering would bring the total for data to $40 a month, and would justify the overpriced mobile internet monthly charge.
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