Tethering Workaround?

[SayCheese]

Hi all,

Does anyone know if it is possible to take the 3G sim out of the new 3G iPhone and then put it into another phone?

What I am hoping to do is once I put the 3G sim in the other phone, use the other phone as a modem for the Macbook Pro and then get 3G speeds when I am out and about. I will probably only do this once a month if that.

I do some semi-pro photography but not enough to justify the cost of a dedicated USB Broadband dongle that some mobile companies do these days.

 

[TonyHoyle]

In theory yes, but it's dead against the T&C.

The dongles are pretty cheap though.. Picked up a payG one for £80 a while back and they're probably cheaper now.

 

[Phil A.]

You need to be very, very careful if you do this - there have been plenty of stories on the Internet of people doing this with data plans that don't allow tethering (which includes the iPhone in the USA) and they have been stung for thousands of dollars of data charges when their service providers find out. Don't think you can't get caught, because you can...
EDIT
I see you are in the UK: There have been rumours that O2 will allow tethering of the iPhone so you might not have to even get another phone. However, you need to double check exactly what O2 will and won't allow before doing it, or it could be an expensive cost saving exercise

 

[SayCheese]

Cool, thanks people.

I can't see how O2 can tell if the 3G data is being downloaded/uploaded via the iphone or another phone. However I wouldn't put it past them to have some way of finding out.

 

[TonyHoyle]

Sheer volume, normally. The assumption is tethering == lots of data. Windows Update has been known to cost people a fortune in data, by itself.

I suspect they port monitor for certain programs like p2p etc. as well.

 

[Niiro13]

Cool, thanks people.

I can't see how O2 can tell if the 3G data is being downloaded/uploaded via the iphone or another phone. However I wouldn't put it past them to have some way of finding out.

I can't see them either....but that's if you use the SIM in another phone to use Internet on that phone.

Since you're using it as a modem for a computer...they can definitely tell by the amount of data being used and other ways.