iPhone Users Worldwide Are Hot for Tethering

Lonnie Lazar ()

iphone_3_os.jpg

Not content to sit back and enjoy the many feature upgrades of iPhone 3.0’s official release, iPhone users worldwide exchanged various methods for enabling tethering on their phones Thursday, pulling an end-around on carriers who failed to have tethering plans in place for Wednesday’s release of the new firmware.

Even prior to the official release of the new operating software for Apple’s popular mobile devices Wednesday, 9 to 5 Mac had published detailed instructions for enabling tethering, which AT&T – iPhone’s exclusive carrier in the US – does not at present officially support.

In response to questions about tethering with iPhone 3.0, Mark Siegel, AT&T’s Executive Director of Media Relations told Cult of Mac Thursday “anything to do with the software and what it can or can’t do is an area that Apple needs to comment on.” He had no further comment from AT&T regarding tethering on the iPhone, other than to reiterate that “We will offer a tethering plan in the future but have not set a date at this time.”

Tethering is a process that allows two devices to share an internet connection over a carrier’s data network, seen in many cases as preferable to using insecure public WiFi connections. Carriers typically offer tethering plans that increase a customer’s monthly spend from between $15 and $30 per month for the access to extra data, which can be limited to 500MB on the low end of the price range, up to unlimited extra data at the high end.

AT&T at present already charges iPhone customers $30 per month over and above the cost of a calling plan for “unlimited data,” which many believe is exorbitant in the light of how much data a user typically accesses with normal browsing and emailing on the phone.

DON'T MISS
AT&T Kills Unlimited Mobile Data Plan In Favor Of Two New “Limited Data” Plans, Provides U.S. Tethering Details

Be sure to let us know in comments below if you’ve downloaded the config files necessary to enable tethering on your phone, whether tethering is an important option for you to have, and what you’d be willing to pay to have it legitimately.

14 comments »

About the author

Lonnie Lazar

Lonnie Lazar is a writer-musician-web designer-attorney. He writes about Apple for Cult of Mac and Mac|Life, and about VoIP and telecommunications for Voxilla. Follow Lonnie on Twitter @LonnieLazar, join the Cult of Mac on Facebook, and find Lonnie's photos on Flickr.

(sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address)| Read more posts by .

Posted in iPhone, News |

  • Matt

    Oh heck yeah I enabled tethering. Its AT&T’s own dumb fault for not having a plan ready. And honestly? There shouldn’t BE a plan. It should just work. I’ve been tethering with phones since 2003 or so- all for free. If the data is “unlimited” then it doesn’t matter where that data is coming from. And I would be fine with just a one time $100 tethering enable fee.

    I understand they have to upgrade their network, but the iPhone is a HUGE money draw for them. The have a ton of new customers because of it. So they should give this as a perk.

  • JD

    Other than the fact more people know about, tethering has been available thru means of Jailbreaking for as long as the iPhone has been around. They are fully JB’ing the phone but same thing, insert a line of code/commands that lets the iPhone talk to the network. This is really old news just being made more public since Apple has built it into the new software.

    AT&T however still milking it’s customers for $30 bucks a month as long as it can saying they are not ready, or the network can’t handle it etc… I guess if when you have a captive customer that loves the iPhone they can screw them over as long as they want.

    It will be a great day when Apple is no longer tied to the ball and chain that is AT&T holding it back.

  • mahraja

    yes i did enabled the mms & the tethering on my iphone her in Kuwait
    my carrier is called Zain , my iphone 3G is officially unlocked

  • Cameron

    “‘Mark Siegel, AT&T’s Executive Director of Media Relations told Cult of Mac Thursday “anything to do with the software and what it can or can’t do is an area that Apple needs to comment on.’”

    What a completely ignorant statement. This is coming from the director of media relations? What an idiot! You mean Apple should comment on the fact that they have both MMS and Tethering ready to go, but AT&T completely dropped the ball and doesn’t support it at launch? This man should be fired.

  • http://rednelobsblog.com DJ Bolender

    yes, i enabled tethering. it as easy, it took 5 minutes. at&t needs to build this in. right now, for me tethering is extremely slow. i only use it when im in the backseat of the car. it’s extra slow.

  • ItsGene

    What I’d be willing to pay to use it legitimately? The $30/month I’m already paying for “unlimited” data, of course.

    If AT&T would like to stop marketing the plan as “unlimited” and be more truthful about it — say, openly marketing it as a 5GB/mo plan @ $10/mo, then I’d be willing to pay a small extra fee for more data. But I can’t see why tethering should be an extra charge, as they’re simply selling us the same thing twice. How did we allow these big corporations to get away with these tactics? Can you imagine if we bought, say, a pillow for $40, then were charged another $50 if we wanted to turn it over and sleep on the other side of it?

  • Botello

    Took me 5 seconds to enable tethering in my 3g and it’s faster than my neighbors wireless.

  • http://www.kreativni.hr Davor Pasaric

    Anyone with wireless not working after 3.0 update?

  • http://www.eunomia.com.ar/blog Moriz

    I managed to tether mi iPhone 3G using a link in this post. Here are the instructions for tethering with Movistar in Argentina (also works for Claro) pretty easy. http://www.eunomia.com.ar/blog

  • Will

    You can actually install it from the iPhone itself in on simple step by going to this site http://help.benm.at/help.php. It just loads a profile to your phone and just works. Simple simple simple

  • jeff

    you can bet your @ss i enabled it. Unlimited is unlimited, unless AT&T wants to lose like comcast did with its ‘unlimited’ plan, they had better just play nice. Millions of people switched to AT&T (me included) because of a device, but when it comes to my money, I will gladly switch to T-mobile and pay them my money. AT&T is dropping the ball, Apple is clearly approaching a breaking point, and as a tech minded consumer….up yours AT&T, I could MMS with my LG phone 5 years ago, the most advanced device on this planet can’t until 3rd quarter 2009???? Not acceptable, period. I will continue to purge your network for every tear its worth….

    /incessant rant

    sorry, struck a nerve

  • Kay

    I will pay nothing for it. I’ll buy a free iPhone in italy or belgium.

  • Chris

    I enabled it. No regrets. AT&T will lose lots and lots of customers if they don’t change their business practices. Why is unlimited SMS/MMS a different billing line item from the “unlimited” data plan?

    I hope the iPhone is made available on other carriers and soon.

  • Gorilla72

    Enabled it. Used to use a client on my N95 to turn phone into WiFi HotSpot, now enabled Teather on iPhone. Also have it jailbroken to make programs that are WiFi only think they are on 3G (SlingBox). What part of Unlimited Data am I missing? So does that mean when I have Unlimited Text messaging it means I really can only use 1,000 or some number they choose? In fact, that’s a good example. If they try to charge for Tethering, call them and say… “I don’t understand, So on my Unlimited Texting, how many Text’s can I sent?” Then when they say “well, as many as you want..”, then reply “Ok, but I have Unlimited Data, but it’s not Unlimited? Does not make any sense to BOTH have the word “Unlimited” in the plan, but yet one plan truely is and the other is not? Where’s your Manager!” <– Someone try this..

    Fight the Machine!