Rumor: Apple and AT&T working on tethering deal
But now the rumor mill says that last one might just have been removed because Apple is planning a tether solution of their own. Gizmodo claims that one of their readers is corresponding with His Steveness himself (a fact we find obviously dubious, but hey it's Friday of Labor Day weekend, so we'll give 'em a pass). You'd think that Steve Jobs would reveal the fact that AT&T and Apple were trying to offer a tether solution through a slightly better venue than a quickly jotted "Sent from my iPhone" email, but remember how we first heard about the SDK -- the man knows how to stick important pieces of news in strange places.
The original emailer mentioned tethering for the fee of an extra $30 a month (which seems exorbitant considering that Netshare did it for a one-time charge), but then again, AT&T's networks are going to get even more waterlogged should something like this come down. So odds are if Apple does work out a deal, it's not going to be cheap.
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A few weeks back on the Talkcast, we had an interesting little discussion about just where Apple's boundaries were on the App Store -- so...
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I don't know ATT's rates, but I was just on Sprint's web site, and it looks like they don't allow tethering (at least it's specifically and clearly excluded from any of their advertised pricing plans).
So as a Sprint customer, I would have to have a phone plan, AND a second plan for a data card or USB dongle. The plan for 5Gb of traffic on Sprint's network is $59.
Pricing aside, if The Steveness wants to roll out tethering, all he has to aim for is a price below that $59 mark -- and with the added convenience of Bluetooth (please don't make us unholster our phones; this should be like magic, so long as I'm within three or four feet of my MacBook, I wanna be connected), they just cut down the stuff I have to carry by one device (i.e. no PC Card or USB dongle).
That said, the $59 price-point is aimed at business users; I'm sure that if Apple is going to continue to aim for the consumer market (sorry guys, the iPhone enterprise management tools are hardly out of beta stages), the price is going to have to be significantly more attractive.
Here use this:
http://www.iphonemodem.de
It would be disappointing if they wanted to charge monthly for something like that. You are already paying a premium over other users.
August 31 2008 at 12:57 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyPaying a premium over your typical RAZR or W300 user, maybe, but the $30 extra for tethering is pretty standard among BlackBerries.
It'd be awesome if Apple and AT&T allowed tethering for free, but that's not how they do it for BlackBerry plans. You pay an extra $30 per month (for a total of $60 per month) for the [legal] ability to tether. I'm only asking for AT&T and Apple to match what is already offered for BlackBerries. If they want to do cheaper and better--great, but that's not a realistic expectation.
$60 for two devices (iPhone+computer) is still cheaper than doing them separately ($30 for iPhone and $60 for air card on computer). I'd gladly pay that and cancel my current EVDO air card--I'd come out ahead.
Oh, and go ask the original source (Gizmodo) if they have the headers for the "rumor" email. That should settle whether it's legit.
Paying a premium over your typical RAZR or W300 user, maybe, but the $30 extra for tethering is pretty standard among BlackBerries.
It'd be awesome if Apple and AT&T allowed tethering for free, but that's not how they do it for BlackBerry plans. You pay an extra $30 per month (for a total of $60 per month) for the [legal] ability to tether. I'm only asking for AT&T and Apple to match what is already offered for BlackBerries. If they want to do cheaper and better--great, but that's not a realistic expectation.
$60 for two devices (iPhone+computer) is still cheaper than doing them separately ($30 for iPhone and $60 for air card on computer). I'd gladly pay that and cancel my current EVDO air card--I'd come out ahead.
Oh, and go ask the original source (Gizmodo) if they have the headers for the "rumor" email. That should settle whether it's legit.
It would be in Apple and ATT's best interest to add tethering shortly after demand for the iPhone 3G begins to flag. I am happy with my 1st generation phone but would probably immediately get a 3G if tethering were available.
August 30 2008 at 8:27 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI tend to agree the cost is excessive but frankly I'm not surprised. The problem simply is the lack of competition in the 3G space.
The other reality is that it has become obvious that AT&T has capacity issues already. That is I've detected capacity issues unrelated to iPhone bugs (I hope) when I'm in the city. We are not talking the droped calls issue but rather slow networking for periods of time.
Did AT&T mid judge demand for 3G services. That is very hard to say for sure. The current roll out has been described as phase one and frankly hasn't been all that bad for a completely new technology roll out.
Could coverage be better? Frankly I don't think so. It is not like the hardware goes up all that easily between the physical and political issues. Besides even with my old phone, running on a differrent carrier, I regularly ran into no coverage zones.
No all that being said I do believe that AT&T is more concerned about profits rather than investment in it's future. That doesn't imply good things about their long term viability. I do hope they overcome what ever it is that has them not recognizing what a gold mine the world wide 3G standard could be for them.
Dave
Anyone else sick of AT&T charging the heck out of us? I've been a Cingular/AT&T user for years now and as a loyal customer, you'd think I'd get a break. Now this: I want the ability to tether my iPhone to my Mac but I sure as he** will not pay $30/month.
Apple, get your head out of your ace and move on from AT&T.
The Moxie Mo
http://www.moxiemoshow.com
Who should they move on to? T-Mobile? Sprint? Verizon?
All carriers are made of the same ingredients:
1 cup towers
2 cups marketing
1 teaspoon customer service
3 gallons of fail
I was with AT&T for years and switched to Sprint to get the Samsung A900, to which I was able to tether my MacBook Pro, the cost - $30 per month. And you know what? I was glad to pay it because it worked well and I did not have to add any time to my contract, and I did not have to carry ANOTHER piece of portable equipment, the "air card" to get the connection. Then the iPhone came out and I quickly switched back to AT&T so I would gladly pay $30 to tether again. I would prefer FREE - but hey it is a business.
August 30 2008 at 1:27 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply@paul
yeah I'm in Manhattan too. Sometimes what I do is turn of 3G for a bit. EDGE will sometimes load faster.
AT&T: How about fixing 3G so that it actually works where people are? I'm in midtown Manhattan- the center of civilization- and I can barely get a webpage to load within 30 seconds, many times I need to reboot my iphone. So much better than EDGE?!?! Your network sucks and we should all file a class action suit for false advertising!
August 30 2008 at 10:08 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHere in the UK on o2 we get free wifi with the cloud and BT openzone, which works in pretty much all city centres, pubs and cafés. It'd be great if we could get wifi tethering because the free wifi doesn't stretch to my mac
August 30 2008 at 5:39 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyCloud would like to claim so but it's over a year since I saw a cloud hotspot (and that didn't actually work). City centre wifi is pretty much nonexistant outside London.
3G of course is ubiquitous, hence the runaway success of 3G dongles for laptop use. It's bizarre not having a proper bluetooth stack on the iphone... not just for tethering but for sending contact details, pictures, etc. - I carry a second phone do to all the things that the iphone can't do, which kinda sucks.
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