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I Broke Down and added AT&T's Tethering Service

braddick

braddick

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 28, 2009
3,953
1,070
Encinitas, CA
I enjoyed having MyWi on my jailbroken 3GS (with Spirit) and was lucky to pick up the Handy Light tethering app a few days ago but today decided to just bust it out and get the tethering package with AT&T. Handy Light is a bit of a hassle to constantly be setting up every time I wanted to connect and sometimes it just wouldn't work at all.
The AT&T store rep pulled up my account and was able to see that I've used less than 1GB of data over the last few months- many times, much less, so having a 2GB cap won't bother me.

The ease now of simply turning the tethering feature on via my iPhone and having it simply work is worth the extra $15. a month.

For those who are using this service, do you recommend tethering via the USB cable or bluetooth? I tried the bluetooth and it seems to work well but am open to suggestions.

Before I get the "cool story bro" I know my thread won't mean much to many but honestly, if you're on the fence it is worth checking out. If you're not using tons of data I can't see the disadvantage of 'downgrading' from unlimited to 2GB and the extra fee for tethering might be worth it to you.
 
braddick said:
I enjoyed having MyWi on my jailbroken 3GS (with Spirit) and was lucky to pick up the Handy Light tethering app a few days ago but today decided to just bust it out and get the tethering package with AT&T. Handy Light is a bit of a hassle to constantly be setting up every time I wanted to connect and sometimes it just wouldn't work at all.
The AT&T store rep pulled up my account and was able to see that I've used less than 1GB of data over the last few months- many times, much less, so having a 2GB cap won't bother me.

The ease now of simply turning the tethering feature on via my iPhone and having it simply work is worth the extra $15. a month.

For those who are using this service, do you recommend tethering via the USB cable or bluetooth? I tried the bluetooth and it seems to work well but am open to suggestions.

Before I get the "cool story bro" I know my thread won't mean much to many but honestly, if you're on the fence it is worth checking out. If you're not using tons of data I can't see the disadvantage of 'downgrading' from unlimited to 2GB and the extra fee for tethering might be worth it to you.
Click to expand...

cool story bro,


the thing i hate about regular tethering is that mywi turns your device into a mobile hotspot so anything can use it, doesn't have to be bluetooth or USB.. which is so much better then the regular tethering
 
Ryeno said:
riveting tale chap
Click to expand...


To this I say, what is the point of a forum if you cant post in it?

OP, I have been on the fence with this as well, but seeing as tethering isn't absolutely essential to my job at this point (I have an iPad as well) I am holding out to jailbreak for MyWi again.

But if I needed it now, I would def downgrade and add the AT&T tethering. Let us know how speedy it is over USB!
 
braddick said:
I enjoyed having MyWi on my jailbroken 3GS (with Spirit) and was lucky to pick up the Handy Light tethering app a few days ago but today decided to just bust it out and get the tethering package with AT&T. Handy Light is a bit of a hassle to constantly be setting up every time I wanted to connect and sometimes it just wouldn't work at all.
The AT&T store rep pulled up my account and was able to see that I've used less than 1GB of data over the last few months- many times, much less, so having a 2GB cap won't bother me.

The ease now of simply turning the tethering feature on via my iPhone and having it simply work is worth the extra $15. a month.

For those who are using this service, do you recommend tethering via the USB cable or bluetooth? I tried the bluetooth and it seems to work well but am open to suggestions.

Before I get the "cool story bro" I know my thread won't mean much to many but honestly, if you're on the fence it is worth checking out. If you're not using tons of data I can't see the disadvantage of 'downgrading' from unlimited to 2GB and the extra fee for tethering might be worth it to you.
Click to expand...

Most iPhone users use about 500-600MB of data per month. I usually use between 500MB and 1GB per month, but a few months in the past year I've used over 2GB. Once I even used over 4GB in a month when heavily tethering. Just because you don't in the past, doesn't mean you won't ever go over the 2GB point and if you do, its very expensive
 
Hey, props to you for doing it the right way. Hope it works well for your needs.
 
I too have been on the fence on this. I know the minute I have this feature, I'll most definitely go over the 2GB cap. Now that I see others in the same situation, I feel a little at ease with my decision to go forward and get the tethering feature...thank you for posting this OP.
 
Thanks guys.
I'd point out if you are getting close to your limit AT&T sends out a type of warning text.
As far as expensive, it is an additional $10 for each 1GB.
I do wish AT&T offered a type of rollover plan for data like they do with minutes. It would be so easy to bank extra GBs and not ever worry about possibly going over.

AT&T gives you 30 days to try it out and tethering can be dropped from you plan without penalty. Of course I loose the unlimited forever.
 
Handylight works great for me. Setting it up everytime takes no more then a min. I would never cancel my unlimited data. If I did not have handylight I would just wait for the jailbreak like I was doing before.
 
The thing that annoys me the most is they charge you the $15 for the "RIGHT" to use your own data allowance via tethering. The LEAST they could do would be to toss on another gig a month for the purchase.

It's just wrong to charge someone for how they use the data they've already bought.

EDIT: Personally, I'd never give up my unlimited net for tethering, but I prize the unlimited data pretty highly.
 
-aggie- said:
The problem is 2GB is not much if you’re going to tether.
Click to expand...

The time I got up to not even 1GB was the month I did have Cydia MyWi tethering on my 3GS. That was right before I retired that phone and replaced it with the iPhone4.

To be fair to your argument though I don't download music and don't generally watch YouTube videos either. If it is simple emails and web browsing so 2GBs should be enough. I also have access to some wifi hotspots.

For heavy users you're right- it would be easy to go over and all of a sudden $15. turns into $25. or more.

I'm hoping AT&T will adjust the limit for these plans in the future.
 
I don't tether often enough to warrant the extra 20 dollars a month especially when typically I would be tethering my iPad which I can't do with AT&T tethering anyway.

I will jailbreak and buy mywi when/if I need it, the new features sound awesome actually.
 
jlake02 said:
The thing that annoys me the most is they charge you the $15 for the "RIGHT" to use your own data allowance via tethering. The LEAST they could do would be to toss on another gig a month for the purchase.

It's just wrong to charge someone for how they use the data they've already bought.

EDIT: Personally, I'd never give up my unlimited net for tethering, but I prize the unlimited data pretty highly.
Click to expand...



You make it sound like an absolute racket. And I agree!

But since the 2GB plan is actually $25, they have you for $10 extra, not $15.


I say, charge me $25 and let me use my 2 gigs for the iphone or tethering. Or... Charge me $45 with tethering and allow me to keep my unlimited data.
 
2GB isn't much. Folks apparently aren't using their phones much or relying on WiFi. While on vacation, away from WiFi and with awesome Verizon 3G coverage, I was able to use 1GB a day downloading a couple of hours of video each day (catching up on news and markets). And that was not tethering. Downshifting to 2GB and tethering... just asking to blow that limit. Thats what AT&T is counting on.
 
Does the tethering plan require a contract or is it month-to-month like the iPad data plans?

I could really see utilizing this until the JB comes out if it was month-to-month.
 
dmelgar said:
2GB isn't much. Folks apparently aren't using their phones much or relying on WiFi. While on vacation, away from WiFi and with awesome Verizon 3G coverage, I was able to use 1GB a day downloading a couple of hours of video each day (catching up on news and markets). And that was not tethering. Downshifting to 2GB and tethering... just asking to blow that limit. Thats what AT&T is counting on.
Click to expand...

I think a lot of people use wifi...and some of us don't do much video downloading, which is a massive resource hog. I've never broken 200 MB in a month; unless the iP4 just plain uses a ton more data than the original iPhone, I'm probably the perfect candidate for the $15 plan.

And I'd gladly tether legally for the very very very few times I'll need it, but it doesn't support wifi tethering. That makes it useless for tethering my wifi only iPad. So jailbreak/MyWi, here I come!
 
MacKai said:
Handylight works great for me. Setting it up everytime takes no more then a min. I would never cancel my unlimited data. If I did not have handylight I would just wait for the jailbreak like I was doing before.
Click to expand...

Dang, why didn't I know about this Handylight sooner? Looks like it's been pulled and there's now just a scam version capitalizing on the name
 
I'm waiting on MyWi for tethering. With hulu+ coming soon. I'll be streaming even more than I do now, not counting all the other data apps.

I don't have to tether for the time being which is good.If my company paid for it I wouldn't mind. When I traveled even when there was free Wifi I tethered my phone. I feel it's more secure than putting my laptop on a an open hot spot. I mean even my cousin who is by no means a computer guru has been able to get passwords and stuff while staying at a hotel. Even at work when there were certain things I wanted to check on, like jobs and things along that line. I'd tether just to keep that data off the company internet usage.

AT&T I feel should have atleast tossed in another 1gig min for the price they're charging.
 
We just got power back today from a massive storm that hit us recently. We were without internet though so I stepped down from my unlimited plan( it is an extreme rarity I break 300 MB per month without an exception of a road trip or no power/internet happens so 2 GB is fine by me) and got tethering for the time we had no internet. We are also going to NYC this weekend so tethering would be quite useful for the drive back down( taking the train up). It will also be useful when Comcast acts like their usual self and our internet decides to go down for no good reason. So tethering is a good backup source for internet.
 
goobot said:
cool story bro. you could just jb activate it on the 3gs, back up, restore back up on your 4, and ya.
Click to expand...

In reference to this post are you saying that you can use a jailbroken iPhone 3GS with MiWi back it up in iTunes and then restore it on a non-jailbroken iPhone 4? Does it actually backup the apps you have on a backup file, I thought it just saves the App's UID and then downloads it during the restore.
 
If you're happy with the service you're getting for the use of your own money then far be it from me to put you down. I just really don't understand the extra $20 dollars a month to be allowed to use a feature, and have to use your data, and not having the cap increased in the slightest. I can get 4GB of data for the price someone pays for 2GB and basically the right to use those 2GBs.
 
The cap might not bother you now, but as the iPhone technology advances, you'll start using more and more data until you'll eventually want more past that 2GB.
 
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