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AT&T CEO Confirms iPhone Tethering Coming "Soon"

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Apr 12, 2001
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MobileCrunch reveals that during an interview at the Web 2.0 Summit, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph De La Vega confirmed that AT&T would be offering an official tethering option for the iPhone "soon".

Tethering is the process by which you allow the iPhone to act as a 3G modem for your laptop. This would allow you to share the iPhone's cellular connection with your laptop.

A 3rd party tethering option called NetShare briefly appeared in the App Store before it was removed by Apple. AT&T traditionally charges an additional $30/month for this tethering option on their other smartphones. MacRumors has separately heard that this tethering capability is expected to be built into the 2.2 firmware.

Article Link: AT&T CEO Confirms iPhone Tethering Coming "Soon"
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2008/11/06/atandt-ceo-confirms-iphone-tethering-coming-soon/
Good news! Tethering is great, a friend of mine has a 3g phone that acts as a wireless access point.

However, I hope the tethering option will be free...
 
PRAISE THE SWEET LAWD!

When I go over to my friends house on the outskirts of town where no one has wifi and they don't either, it would be great to have a 2 minute session to look at a picture or to download a file or something. I've been waiting for this for I don't know how long. Amen. They listen! :)
 
Of course, tomorrow there will be an announcement that they didn't really mean it, and maybe one day there will be tethering. And then a website that says "tethering is here" but gets pulled within 6 hours. And so on.
 
yeah, but how much will they charge?! $30/mo is way too expensive for me when i'm already paying that for the iphone's data plan. i think it should be included as is - will just help drive sales of the iphone and bring new customers to at&t. everyone wins!
 
happydude said:
yeah, but how much will they charge?! $30/mo is way too expensive for me when i'm already paying that for the iphone's data plan. i think it should be included as is - will just help drive sales of the iphone and bring new customers to at&t. everyone wins!
Click to expand...

i agree. i dont need it thaaaaaat bad for 30 a month
 
happydude said:
yeah, but how much will they charge?! $30/mo is way too expensive for me when i'm already paying that for the iphone's data plan. i think it should be included as is - will just help drive sales of the iphone and bring new customers to at&t. everyone wins!
Click to expand...

I bet it will be priced for business customers, but i would LOVE if ATT tried and dropped the price for more of a consumer audience.

maybe tiers?
 
happydude said:
yeah, but how much will they charge?! $30/mo is way too expensive for me when i'm already paying that for the iphone's data plan. i think it should be included as is - will just help drive sales of the iphone and bring new customers to at&t. everyone wins!
Click to expand...

I agree. If it's going to cost me another $30 a month, then I'll just keep using PDAnet for free.
 
Sounds like this will be for 3G iPhones only?
(I'm guessing 2G speeds would be too slow for tethering?)
 
that's funny, I've been tethering for months. What else is coming soon? Running water? Electricity? Truth in advertising?
 
Luckily I was fast enough and bought netshare when it became available on the appstore for the second time. :D
 
Luke1robb said:
Now when you say built into the 2.2 firmware, wouldn't that imply free or simply there as an option that has to be turned on?
Click to expand...

That's what I thought. If it's not free then I'm just gonna forget it. Not worth the extra money, but it would be an amazing feature for me. I'm too cheap.
 
Rojo said:
Sounds like this will be for 3G iPhones only?
(I'm guessing 2G speeds would be too slow for tethering?)
Click to expand...

Actually, the tethering on the v1 phones wasn't too bad. You won't be watching video, but you can do email and surf acceptably on the road.
 
sonicwind said:
that's funny, I've been tethering for months. What else is coming soon? Running water? Electricity? Truth in advertising?
Click to expand...

This is for the iphone, and legally, without a fear of ATT catching you and ending your service.

I hope you can see the difference.
 
Possibility of getting a netshare option now

DaveTheGrey said:
Luckily I was fast enough and bought netshare when it became available on the appstore for the second time. :D
Click to expand...

Is it possible to get a netshare-like application on an iphone now. I mean I know Apple has AdHoc, so couldn't someone create a copy of netshare and distribute it to 100 people or so?
 
No way will they release this WITHOUT an additional $30 per month for tethering. $60 for what is not rally unlimited data sucks.
 
I used to do tethering on a Treo 650 on Verizon. May have been a good day, but the speed was enough for me to play WOW (least run around).

It'll be nice if this is included because I'm sure not gonna pay more than I am now.
 
Why does tethering require an additional charge? It seems to me that if you don't go over your bandwidth limit, it shouldn't matter whether you use Safari on your phone or your laptop to access the Internet.
 
I agree that the $30 is a lot for something that I would only use maybe a few weekends a year while I am out of town or maybe stuck somewhere without internet. It is not like I would be downloading stuff, just VNC or SSH to work server to manage it.

- James
 
Maybe a limited data version for less than $30/month? I'd love the option to tether, but realistically I'll do it pretty rarely. I'd pay maybe $10/month for a gigabyte a month of tethering data, or something like that.

I wonder how it will affect AT&T's ability to detect/track and/or crack down of illegal tethering? Will they begin to actively pursue illegal tethering?
 
I guess somewhat good news...

I've used PDANet on my jailbroken iPhone and it works great. Unlike NetShare it allows all IP activity to work, not just a http proxy. The last update (1.40) allows my laptop to work over VPN.

If ATT is going to charge $30 a month I'll pass... It is something I only use every few weeks. Certainly not worth the $30 a month for me.
 
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