Ever since Apple introduced the tethering option on the iPhone in iPhone OS 3.0 almost 4 months ago, iPhone users in the US have been asking AT&T to enable the tethering feature - a simple way to connect your iPhone to your notebook in order to access internet from your notebook.
The hopes have been kept alive since late last year when AT&T was supposedly mulling over an option to offer their users an option to allow tethering for a monthly fee of $30; an expensive alternative to jailbreak iPhone apps like PdaNet that offer users the ability to tether for a one-time fee. After AT&T finally agreed to multimedia messaging and the usage of VOIP services like Skype over their network, it was expected that AT&T would very soon change their stance on tethering as well.
But that is unfortunately not to be as a spokesperson for AT&T has put down rumors that tethering is to be made available soon. According to a statement released on the Wall Street Journal, the spokesperson says:
"Whenever we offer new features, we want to offer the best possible customer experience. For tethering, we need to do some additional fine tuning to our systems and networks so that we do deliver a great experience".
With AT&T's network still a far cry from the 'best possible customer experience' that the spokesperson wants based on user complaints, ideally it can take a long time before tethering will become possible. However, all hope is not lost as according to Ralph le da Vega, C.E.O. and president, AT&T Mobility, tethering should be coming very soon for AT&T users, possibly before the end of this year.
Are you waiting for AT&T to officially launch the tethering plans or have you already enabled it via the hack? Let us know in the comments.
[via The Wall Street Journal]
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why pay for that option when you can just jailbreak the iphone and unlock the apn settings for it for free, and not have to pay for tethering. hum let me saa pay for it or not pay for it that is the question.
F*ck at&t they dont listen to their customers anyway. its all about the money
Yeah I have been able to use it for months now with the hack works just fine for me……
Let's see not pay would be the answer.
odd thing.. when I JB it on FW 3.0, I did the enabling of tethering. I upgraded to FW 3.1 and tethering is still enabled, anyone else experience this?
Does PdaNet still work for 3.0 and above?
pda net still works and also you can update your ipcc profile and enable the tethering feature for free
lol, still no tethering in the us
Up here in Canada we have had it for 4 months now without a problem or a price.
I feel for you guys in the US – from a far the mobile phone industry looks really uncompetitive and I guess this is why things like this happen. How long did it take them to roll out MMS?
Saying that I've just read this – http://www.iphonehacks.com/2009/10/att-will-allow-voip-iphone-apps-to-work-over-3g-network.html – maybe AT&T aint so bad after all
I have tethering enabled on my phone, it works great, I would not pay $30 for it, if it came down to that, I would jailbreak it and use PDAnet if needed.
I've enabled tethering and I use it when I travel with my laptop. I'm already forced into paying for unlimited data, charging for the ability to be able to tether seems like I'd be paying twice for the same thing. I'd jailbreak as I already do.
I have been using the hack to tether my Iphone for 9 months and it works great, whats the problem with AT&T. Just let us have it. I am mad because I updated to FW 3.1.2 and now tethering does not work. I tryed to reinstall the hack still does not work. So if I want tethering I have to downgrade to FW3.1 sucks
I have fw3.1 can i still hack to enable tethering? any help would be appreciated
i also hack my iphone to use tethering, but i;m scared to view a high bill for using this service anyone who knows an app to count your data usage?