AT&T Continues to Delay U.S. iPhone Tethering Due to Concerns About Network Performance

[djpaetkau]

So i suppose Texting should be free to? Because if by your defintion since there is nothing additional for it to then should be free to?

That's not remotely the same thing. Texting requires them to use their network every time you send a text message, that costs money (fractions of pennies, but that's what they want you to believe based on what they charge). To use data on your phone, the carrier is streaming data to your device which is what you pay them to do. To use tethering, the carrier is streaming data to your device, and then your device is sending it to another device, so using tethering on top of just regular data takes absolutely nothing more on the part of the carrier than just straight sending data to your phone... and that's why getting charged for tethering is just yet another scam by telecoms.

There are a lot of poor practices by telecoms up here in Canada, but at least I'm glad that we've had tethering since last summer, and Rogers recently announced that it will remain free, as it has always been (though the fact that it was worth announcing, like it's goodwill on their part, is ridiculous, as I pointed out above).

 

[macerroneous]

What we have here, is a failure to communicate

Been tethering since my i Phone was 2 month old via NETSHARE
Been doing it for free. The money these bast**ds charge me for 2 phones, for the service I get, I don't care.

You do realize that you just plastered your name, address, photo, and admission of theft of ATT's services all over the internet, right? Don't bother locking the front door, you're about to get Gizmoded.

 

[paradox00]

So i suppose Texting should be free to? Because if by your defintion since there is nothing additional for it to then should be free to?

Texting is an additional service they provide for you. It would be equivalent to you paying for a premium version of msn or something, or a music streaming service, or voip in addition to data from your ISP. Tethering is something you do for yourself. You turn your phone into a router, but nothing changes on their end. They just keep sending your phone data, there is no additional service provided. The analogy you quoted was correct despite the large font sizes and bold text.

Paying for tethering is like paying for a person to take your money, yet apparently AT&T has trained people to expect to do that. I'll happily pay the $30 a month for 6GB of data and free tethering that cellular provider offers.

 

[SAD*FACED*CLOWN]

Think about it

If you look at the situation without any bias it should be easy to see that Apple not AT&T is restricting the use of Tethering based simply on the FACT that AT&T allows this service through other devices...same scenario with MMS last year...AT&T has ALWAYS had MMS as a feature on the dumbest of it's phones but I'm pretty sure it was held back at Apple's request....AT&T is a complicit partner in anything Apple wants to do...that's why AT&T is the sole iPhone carrier in the US...and verizon's "free" tethering only exists on devices no one wants, it's an incentive to buy those crap phones

 

[ibgarrett]

I'm just wondering how much longer this will be able to go on before a class action lawsuit is started. It seems to me that AT&T has been promising a feature that Apple is able to provide on their phones (as proven in other international providers). The longer the feature isn't enabled, the more it becomes vapor-ware, and I've been a part of some class-action lawsuits that turned out rather nicely for me even though all I did was fill out a little bit of paperwork.

Any lawyers listening/reading?

 

[chrup]

Just Skyped via Tethered iPhone

I just chatted via Skype with a friend of mine in Germany, who is using his iPhone on the German T-Mobile network. He has the iPhone tethered to his new MacBook Pro i7 17'' and was chatting from come café.
I don't hear anything about T-Mobile having to evaluate the internet traffic that this would require to work. I hear nothing about any other provider having issues like that. Only the US at&t network is having issues with the "increased traffic".
I don't believe that story though. at&t is just trying to hang on to their business of charging an arm and a leg for phone calls a little bit longer. That business model is dead though (just look at Vonage, Skype and the like). Soon, a data plan is all you need and the differences between an iPod touch and an iPhone will become a little blurry. And tethering will be one of these "how did we ever live without it" thingys.

 

[boomboom1]

Could anyone explain, in idiot's terms, how to use jailbreak to enable tethering to a laptop?

 

[Trek2100]

I'm more concerned about the surge the 3G iPads will have... AT&T just needs to ball up here.

Indeed! AT&T has never been pro-active when it comes to their network. They sit back until they are forced by either their competition or customer base to make improvements. 3g iPads will just be another excuse for not implementing features we would like to see like TETHERING! Yes, they are ramping up 3G speeds to 7.2 mbps and I've seen a dramatic increase in download speeds, whoo hoo.. I've never had a problem with AT&T but their lag time behind other companies is apalling. I would like to get the iPad 3G but am holding off to see what happens to the network and what AT&T does about it. If the iPad 3G causes problems I'll get the WiFI version. My last gripe is that iPhone owners, who are already paying for a data plan through AT&T, should get a reduced rate. If I'm using the iPad for internet, etc., I'm not using the iPhone except for an ocassional phone call. Okay, soap box melted for the day

 

[SAPPete]

Sick and tired of AT$T and their crappy network and crappy customer service. Dropped calls / failed calls / no data coverage all around the South Bay. Even if performance wouldn't degrade even further when making tethering available, it'd be painful, but I really would like to have that option.

Looking forward to the next iPhone, but not if it means renewing my AT$T contract. $200/month for 3 iPhones in the family for a crappy network, how much extra for tethering ? Got some KY with that ?

 

[rroach3753]

I cannot believe that at&t is playing this game. They already allow millions of other devices to tether on their network. I have a Razr V3 and a Samsung A727 that will tether as well. Both of which are 3G devices and I did not add any type of tethering plan to my account. What's the big deal? If we wait for at&t to improve their network, we'll never get tethering!

 

[JediZenMaster]

Wow how ridicious of AT&T to want to make a profit. After all they are a buisness. Who would of thought that they were out to make money. I know they can just offer free Voice service as well.

And im being sarcastic guys the number of people who want something for nothing amazes me. I work and don't expect free rides and neither should anyone else.

I hope AT&T charges 30 dollars for tethering if not more. Cry on Cheapskates Cry On!

 

[zombitronic]

Wow how ridicious of AT&T to want to make a profit. After all they are a buisness. Who would of thought that they were out to make money. I know they can just offer free Voice service as well.

And im being sarcastic guys the number of people who want something for nothing amazes me. I work and don't expect free rides and neither should anyone else.

I hope AT&T charges 30 dollars for tethering if not more. Cry on Cheapskates Cry On!

Nobody is asking for something for nothing. Paying for tethering would be paying AT&T something extra for nothing extra. I don't believe that you understand the technological redundancy of tethering.

 

[SAPPete]

Wow how ridicious of AT&T to want to make a profit. After all they are a buisness. Who would of thought that they were out to make money. I know they can just offer free Voice service as well.

And im being sarcastic guys the number of people who want something for nothing amazes me. I work and don't expect free rides and neither should anyone else.

I hope AT&T charges 30 dollars for tethering if not more. Cry on Cheapskates Cry On!

Good on you for missing the point entirely.

a) I use my iPhone to surf to website xyz

b) I tether my iPhone to my laptop to surf to website xyz

What's that "something" that AT$T has provided additionally in b) ??

 

[twoodcc]

well i hope at&t is working hard on this, and that this is released soon

 

[JediZenMaster]

Good on you for missing the point entirely.

a) I use my iPhone to surf to website xyz

b) I tether my iPhone to my laptop to surf to website xyz

What's that "something" that AT$T has provided additionally in b) ??

I Get what your saying. Your wanting to pirate service and here is what i mean. I Used to work for the cable company and this would be consider a form of pirating.

Basically if someone has a Cable Modem they just add a splitter on to the coaxial cable and it splits the line and then those people would have expanded basic which is like 30 or 40 channels. Because a cable signal is still sent thru the line. And when i would deal with those customer. They would say the same thing you are about Tethering how they were paying for a Service already. It still didnt justify what they were doing.

It's still theft of service. My mother didnt raise a thief but i guess some people were raised to do other things

 

[urchin11]

Lame Excuse

Poor ATT, despite all the woes ATT claims, they were 3rd in amount of data on thier network, behind Verizion and Sprint.

http://voip-phone-systems.tmcnet.co...rries-most-mobile-data-traffic-sprint-att.htm

If things are so tough for them Apple should not have let them take on the iPad. At least until they finally come thru on promised performance.

 

[DELLsFan]

I Get what your saying. Your wanting to pirate service and here is what i mean. I Used to work for the cable company and this would be consider a form of pirating.

You got nothing and didn't even answer his question.

SAPPete was trying to illustrate that surfing a website on his iPhone and surfing that same website on his laptop via a tethered iPhone amounted to receiving the same service from AT&T. While not entirely accurate, it's close enough for me to agree in principle.

I believe AT&T unlimited data plans should include unlimited data; whether via iPhone, PC Card, or tether of an iPhone to a computer or iPad. I also soundly reject your pirating analogy. Other devices sold by AT&T are able to tether to a computer without incident and additional cost. Are these devices pirating / stealing bandwidth? No, they aren't.

Despite years of exclusivity and millions of dollars fleeced, AT&T still discriminates against iPhone subscribers specifically with the intent to charge as much from them as possible. It has nothing to do with 3G network resources since they have no qualms about doling it out via PC Card and iPad plans. It has everything to do with monetizing - milking yet another feature of Apple's cash cow.

 

[WhirlinGraphics]

Solution:

1. Get rid of the "Unlimited" data plan.
2. Introduce reasonable data plans e.g. 1GB, 2GB, 5GB, 10GB
3. Allow users to tether using the new plans.

This is how it's done here in Australia.

This way it's your data and you can choose what to do with it.

Or how about keeping it unlimited but controlling the throughput?
300k, 1mb, 3mb

This is how coffee shops and such keep one user from slamming their shared network. They have a very large pipe but only let you drink from a straw. Many users are connected to a single cell tower so you limit how much they can pull at one time.

 

[coolbreeze]

lol, been tethering for months with my E71. iPad 3G? Why add the extra cost. With the Joku app on my Nokia, I'm good thanks.

 

[OceanView]

Screw AT&T, I'm going to Sprint 4G.

 

[OceanView]

What's funny here is that I can pop my SIM out of my iPhone 3G, and put it into my old Motorola RAZR, and *presto* I can tether that to my iBook.

How? care to explain how its done?

 

[iEdd]

How? care to explain how its done?

Just Google "%s modem" or "%s tethering", where '%s' is the model number of the phone. It's a very basic feature to pass-thru internet from a phone to a computer with USB.

This is Apple crippling the iPhone to appease AT&T, there is nothing different about your service - it cannot detect* or stop tethering in any way. You can similarly pop your sim into a netbook or 3G modem and that will work too.

*Although large amounts of data transfer would arouse suspicion.

 

[zombitronic]

....pirate....pirating.....justify....theft....My mother didnt raise a thief....

I buy an uncut loaf of bread [data plan] from the grocery store [AT&T]. I take my bread home [iPhone]. I can eat my bread [web], toast it [apps], butter it [streaming video]; the grocery store doesn't care.

But now I want to share my bread with my wife and daughter [other devices]. Imagine my surprise when they tell me that this isn't the kind of bread that you can cut [tether]. But I swear that I just saw my neighbor [a different phone] cut his bread, and he got the same bread from the same grocery store.

-----

I buy a data plan from my ISP, Time Warner [AT&T]. They provide a modem [iPhone] with an input/output to their end [3G, EDGE], and an input/output to my end [Bluetooth, WiFi]. I can use a single computer to use this connection or, if I set up a router and switch [tethering], I can use many computers [other devices]. Either way, this is all managed on my local home network. I don't get any additional service from Time Warner when using more devices. All the data is still going through, and limited by that initial modem [iPhone].

-----

Nothing about this is stealing, pirating, thievery, etc... I still only get my initial connection. By dividing this connection, in no way do I get any additional service, speed, or data.

 

[Trek2100]

I Get what your saying. Your wanting to pirate service and here is what i mean. I Used to work for the cable company and this would be consider a form of pirating.

Basically if someone has a Cable Modem they just add a splitter on to the coaxial cable and it splits the line and then those people would have expanded basic which is like 30 or 40 channels. Because a cable signal is still sent thru the line. And when i would deal with those customer. They would say the same thing you are about Tethering how they were paying for a Service already. It still didnt justify what they were doing.

It's still theft of service. My mother didnt raise a thief but i guess some people were raised to do other things

You still don't get it. If you are tethering you are only using the internet on 1 device. Why would anyone want to try and use the internet on the iPhone at the same time as the iPad? Your analogy is incorrect. When you use a splitter on your cable coax you are feeding 2 different TVs. That is; watching 2 shows on 2 different TVs at the same time however, when I had cable the installer put a splitter on the coax and fed it to 2 different TVs. There was no additional charge so where is the piracy?

 

[johnmcboston]

I just loved the interview a few months ago with AT&Ts CEO (i think) who said they were contemplating different ways of managing the internet traffic overload. And then in the same article said there was no rush to move to a 4G network as it didn't really offer much benefit. When in reality 4G could handle all this internet traffic (and tethering) with great ease