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Apple and AT&T Discussing Official Tethering Option for iPhone?

I, too, refuse to buy an iPhone until this is resolved. Seriously Apple, hire a grammar expert! ;)

With the 10$ increase and this, the German iPhone raters appear to look better and better. They already allow tethering (but ironically no IM).

I can understand why they'd charge more... Claiming unlimited data is easy on an iPhone. They already know that the actual use will never be close to that of a landline. Allow tethering, and people are going to use it for everything. Some might even cancel their landline. If they were realistic and marketed the data with a 5GB cap, they wouldn't care what way they are used up. But that just doesn't sound as good as unlimited, does it? As a consequence even the lightest user has to pay up...

That's actually why I prefer the one limited tarif in Germany. Screw unlimited. I rather pay only for what I use.
 
kingtj said:
No, but I think the carriers make plenty of money off their customers already, and place far too many limitations on the things they advertise as being "unlimited".

$60 a month for data cards they get away with because those are complete, stand-alone subscriptions. You don't need to have a cellphone or phone number assigned with the carrier to activate a data card with them. Most of their customers for that are businesses, willing to pay whatever they have to pay (within SOME reason) to ensure a sales force has remote access to a centralized database back at the office, or things along those lines.

By contrast, "tethering" is merely redirection of data you're already allowed to receive on your cellphone. If carriers are *really* so concerned that their cell networks can't handle the load - they should quit advertising the data plans as "unlimited"! Make it clear that, for example, the iPhone data plan includes up to (I dunno? 1GB enough for you?) per month at no additional charge. Or better yet, just turn off their data until the next billing cycle if they exceed the monthly usage allotment -- and prompt them to pay an extra fee to buy another X amount of MB to continue.
Click to expand...

And again I will mention that the phone companies have run many scams through congress and that we as taxpayers have already paid for services that we have not received.
Here's one site that shows a little history:
http://www.verizonpathetic.com/historylesson.html
 
gnasher729 said:
Nobody knows what tethering for the iPhone would cost. $30/month is the cost for other smart phones, which likely don't have an unlimited plan.

On the other hand, the monthly fee for your "unlimited" plan is calculated under the assumption that you are an average iPhone user, and that an average iPhone user would use much less data than the average computer user. If you were to cancel your broadband connection and use iPhone + tethering instead to download 5 GB Linux distributions then AT&T wouldn't be happy with that.
.
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I don't think it is Linux distributions that would bother them.
 
arn said:
No, it will certainly be $30/mo extra.

Other smartphones also have the $30/mo unlimited data plan that the iPhone has. In addition to this, you can tether for $30/mo in addition. $60/mo total.

arn
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I wouldn't assume that. AT&T modified their price plans to accommodate the iPhone, so you never know what may happen. I agree though that it probably won't be free.
 
ryanwarsaw said:
I don't think it is Linux distributions that would bother them.
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AT&T doesn't care what you download. They care about how much you download. Comcast similarly is now imposing a 250GB limit on cable customers. You can download all the porn, software, music and Linux distros that you want. What they care about is the price per GB.
 
It's still an awkward solution, how long would it take the iPhones battery to run down if you're doing any kind of meaningful transfers through it?

Meh, give me a MB/MBP with a 3G/3.5G/4G/WiMAX chipset in there! :)
 
supremedesigner said:
$30 dollars sounds almost like having your own internet plan at home. Too pricey.

Let me get this straight.... tethering acts like "apple airport", right? Thanks.
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No, most likely it will be done properly with the iphone acting as a "modem" and the mac/pc connected through a cable or bluetooth.
 
It would be a lot nicer to just include it in the iPhone's data plan. However, $30 is a lot less than buying a pcmia card and plan separately (those usually run about $50 a month, right?) And the iPhone's 3G so speeds should be pretty good.
 
From Apple's standpoint ...
It would be in Apple's best interest to allow AT&T to provide a tethering option for an additional $30 per month because it would disallow business users from saying "I use a Blackberry because the iPhone does not offer a tethering option." So, for Apple, it would be a benefit to allow AT&T to provide a tethering option for an additional $30 per month.

From my standpoint ...
$30 more per month! I'm already paying $80 per month! If my grandfather knew I was paying $80 a month for a cell phone bill, he'd roll over in his grave!
:apple:
:apple:
 
What i can't understand is why Apple hasn't nuked Netshare (yet)

I guess they could wait until ATT squeals, but that's probably not going to happen as not a lot of bandwidth is being stolen with the apps limited exposure
 
I love the way that if you put together a nice looking future device that may or may not be real everyone screams 'photoshop'.

But when someone posts something allegedly from steve jobs (complete with grammatical errors) they all believe it 100%, even though anyone with a keyboard and a copy of textpad could have produced it.
 
I sent Steve an email and he wrote me back!

He said that anyone who doubts it's really him is a slime bucket.

(you can tell it's him from the wording)
 
grammar check

I hope apple ad AT&T don't disable netshare if they get an official tether option. I have netshare as a last ditch option if I am completely out of range of wifi and *need* to do something on my laptop. I will not be using it on a regular basis. The iPhone can handle 97% of my I Internet browsing.
 
You know what is the problem?? The problem is that because of AT&T influence on Apple decisions, we are suffering WORLDWIDE!! (I'm in Italy). It's because of AT&T that we can't have NETSHARE! (or similar software). And that's crazy, because OUR carriers would allow us to use tethering, there's no distinction between data plans for phones and for tethering! The only way is to jailbreak the iphone, but I'm not gonna void my warranty so soon!

At least they could allow Netshare on foreign App Stores (Italian, French, ecc.)....
 
I like Steve's quick reply to email. He is always to the point.

I believe it is him only because he sounded like the Quick Reply feature in Mobile Me was something minor that he made a big deal about. And it would be consistent with all the other rumored email from Steve Jobs.
 
so now we see why they pulled the app that could do it, ATT didn't invent the tethering program, and therefore didn't get the revenue.


nlivo said:
Incorrect, that's just a very simple punctuation rule that most don't know can be broken.
Click to expand...

yeah, all grammar rules can be broken, but it is still redundant phrasing/punctuation.
 
whooleytoo said:
It's still an awkward solution, how long would it take the iPhones battery to run down if you're doing any kind of meaningful transfers through it?

Meh, give me a MB/MBP with a 3G/3.5G/4G/WiMAX chipset in there! :)
Click to expand...


The problem is that in this way you have to use 2 sim cards and pay 2 bills! One for iphone and one for your mb!

Ps:
Ever heard about usb-pen-like tiny 3.5G modems? Just plug one of them in your mb and you are done...usb powered...
 
I may go for an additional 10 a month but not 30. Besides there is no additional cost to AT&T. I browse a lot on my iPhone and most of what I do is on my iPhone now days instead of my laptop. Outside of editing documents on my laptop, all else I can do with the iPhone.

I will not go for 30 extra, no way.
 
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