Topics: Mobile

3G iPhone Tethering Plan In The Works?

Posted by Eric Zeman, Sep 2, 2008 02:25 PM

I've railed against the 3G iPhone's lack of tethering abilities in the past. Seems I am not the only one. A customer e-mailed Apple CEO Steve Jobs about the issue, and Steve e-mailed him back. What did he say? "We are discussing it with AT&T."

I am a heavy user of mobile data on my phone and on my laptop. Right now, I have two separate plans, one for each. It would be a lot nicer if I could have just one plan, using my phone to serve as the modem for my laptop rather than having to carry around both my phone and a wireless modem.

Many people have offered reasons why AT&T and Apple haven't permitted this to date. One suspected reason is that if your average iPhone user suddenly started hooking his/her device up to a laptop and surfing the web, AT&T's network might have issues supporting them all. My guess is AT&T would vigorously defend its network.

One guy shared my displeasure with the lack of tethering on the iPhone, and e-mailed El Steve-O. He wrote, "AT&T offers data plans for BlackBerry that include tethering for an additional $30 per month (a total of $60 per month for the BlackBerry+tethering plan). It seems ludicrous that the same thing isn't offered with the iPhone. I understand the desire to prevent tethering with the current data plan, but I am willing to pay more money to allow tethering! With such an advanced device, why can I not do so?"

A fair question, in my mind. Jobs e-mailed him back, from his own iPhone, no less. He is reported to have said, "We agree, and are discussing it with ATT."

I hope that really is the case. I'd love to be able to ditch one of my data plans altogether, or even halve one of the bills. Saving money is always a good thing.

But then I am forced to think about all the connectivity issues I've experienced with my 3G iPhone. It has been bad. I can barely get e-mail to download at times, and Safari is darn near useless most of the time. I doubt I could rely on the iPhone to be my wireless modem.

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