One of the features missing from the iPhone's rich feature list is the ability to tether the iPhone to feed a data connection to your computer to surf the internet.
AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph De La Vega in an interview with Michael Arrington of TechCrunch has just confirmed that AT&T would be offering an official tethering option for the iPhone "soon".
The process of tethering allows your laptop to use your iPhone's data connection to surf the internet.
We have seen several hacks and unofficial iPhone apps which have already brought the tethering feature to the jailbroken iPhone.
We also had Nullriver's NetShare iPhone app which briefly brought 3G/EDGE tethering to the iPhone banned from the App Store.
There have also been a lot of speculation that AT&T and Apple were working on tethering plans and some which gave the reason that it was being delayed because AT&T wasn't prepared to meet the 3G demand.
However, after all the drama we finally have official news from AT&T. AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph De La Vega in an interview with Michael Arrington of TechCrunch has just confirmed that AT&T would be offering an official tethering option for the iPhone "soon".
As I had commented earlier, Apple is probably developing an iPhone app that will allow carriers to bundle the tethering plans for the iPhone. Carriers like AT&T are likely to give away the app for free but charge an additional monthly fee for the tethering feature. AT&T traditionally charges an additional $30/month for this tethering option on their other smartphones.
But with superb iPhone apps like PdaNet which is free and iPhone apps like iPhoneModem that charge a one-time fee to bring the tethering feature to the jailbroken iPhone (without the monthly charges), it will be interesting to see how many will be willing to pay carriers the addition $30/month.
What do you think?
[via MobileCrunch]
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What? I already have PdaNet and it works so well I would not pay anymore monthly charges to do this
$30 a month? When we're already paying for unlimited data, and they just upped the monthly fees for the 3G anyway?
Lame.
That's BS!!!! I have a blackberry and an iphone and all I did was find the tethering software for my bb and I was up and tethering. I already pay forty something for bbconnect, and 30 for iphone data!! Very dissapointed in the T
F that! AT&T is an ffing whore, we're paying too much for the services as is, if it wasn't for the $175 cancellation contract fee, i would dump 'em a long time ago.
No thanks… PDAnet works great for me.
how about they give us… umm… MMS!!!! Like everyone else wants for their Iphone!
Although I live in uk this sounds like a joke. We pay too much as it is. Even if o2 offered this I would not bother as I barely get good 3g service on my iphone anyway. All rip-offs, im thinking of getting my wife to call o2 and tell them ive been sent to jail for a violent offence to get out of disconnection charges loooooooool
My work provides me with verizon blackberry. It costs my company $77.00 a month with unlimited data, and tethering can be had for $15.00 extra a month. So AT&T wants $30 a month for 3G tethering that has much less coverage area than Verizon?! F*CK THAT!!
I can't understand how ATT would charge an extra $30. I can hardly access the internet from my house so I would have no use for tethering. They should focus on upgrating the FU network that we are already over charged for. I love my phone but apple needs to drop ATT.
My work provides me with verizon blackberry. It costs my company $77.00 a month with unlimited data, and tethering can be had for $15.00 extra a month. So AT&T wants $30 a month for 3G tethering that has much less coverage area than Verizon?! F*CK THAT!!
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So you think it's worth $92/mo w/tethering on a business plan for your verizon 3g coverage compared with $75/mo w/tethering on a business plan for at&t's 3g coverage (which is not far behind verizon's and is catching up very quickly). Call me crazy but $17/mo is quite a jump in cost considering the small margin of performance gain your getting from verizon (which by the way won't last more than a couple more months)
Also, where the heck are you that verizon supposedly has so much better coverage than at&t?