When will a real tethering option come?

[Davidkoh]

What do you guys think, we all heard rumors about real tethering plans for the iPhone from AT&T. Other carriers in other countries allready say you can do that with your iPhone data plan, but there is yet to be a way to do this via the USB cable or such. We either gotta jailbreak or use "Netshare" if you grabbed it (I did and it's slow, only 1.2 MBit in speed).

Do you guys think Apple will release some kind of firmware to tether the iPhone via the cord? This is what I feel is the only thing lacking. I got this unlimited data plan but cannot use it for my laptop. I hope they release this soon, otherwise I gotta buy me an 3G USB modem to use my sim card in while on the road.

 

[rolex54]

the speed will not be much better than the jailbreaking method, apple will prolly use the same method everyone else has...
It all depends on the 3G speeds that you have currently... 1.2MBit is actually pretty good.

 

[SFStateStudent]

I'm expecting the tethering next year, but I'm not a big tethering fan at present, since my MBA sees limited use outside of places that I have free WiFi. Maybe later down the road, but I'm at two campuses Mon-Fri so it's not an issue for me at present...

 

[Davidkoh]

the speed will not be much better than the jailbreaking method, apple will prolly use the same method everyone else has...
It all depends on the 3G speeds that you have currently... 1.2MBit is actually pretty good.

The jailbreak method gave me 2.8 MBit... The netshare gave me 1.2.

That's the thing, netshare is slower then jailbreak, and I dun really want to jailbreak The upside of the USB cord thing would be you only need to power 3G, not wifi. So you could probobly make it draw power from the USB cord.

That's the reasons I want an official support:

1. Easier set up with some real software (plug and play)
2. Faster speed than NetShare (probobly same speed as jailbreak)
3. Less power usage due to the USB interface used for data transfer (could possibly charge it while using too)

I'm hoping for this at MacWorld tbh I would buy some extra USB cable if needed, as long as it was cheaper than a 3G modem.