Skip to Content

Rumor watch: AT&T tethering plans may be announced this week

by Michael Rose Jan 5th 2009 at 8:00AM

It's been under the rumor banner for some time now, but we've been told by a trusted source that the long-awaited AT&T iPhone-as-modem tethering plans (preliminary details in MacBlogz' post from November: 5 GB data cap, $30/month supplementary cost) may be ready for prime time during Macworld Expo this week. The tethering announcement might not rise to a keynote-worthy level; it could simply be publicized as a press release during the show.

While $30 is a steep charge on top of an iPhone data plan, it's still cheaper than the $60 you'd pay for an EV-DO or HSDPA card plan for mobile data; for some users it may make more sense than a standalone device. Granted, you can already tether a jailbroken iPhone, but that may get you stomped on by the traffic cops rather promptly.

Another tidbit from our source lends credence to the MegiPod rumor (a larger form factor for an iPod touch device) floated by TechCrunch last week. No timeframes were discussed, so the late 2009 on-sale date is still in play. It's not clear how the hypothetical unit would achieve this feat, but the suggestion is that it would have "full application compatibility" with currently available iPod touch apps ... puzzling, as it implies either resolution-independence for the apps or some pretty impressive scaling tricks to accommodate the larger screen size.



View Tags

Related Stories

Categories

Rumors Internet iPhone

It's been under the rumor banner for some time now, but we've been told by a trusted source that the long-awaited AT&T iPhone-as-modem...
 

Add a Comment

Sign in »
*0 / 3000 Character Maximum

24 Comments

Filter by:
Gary LaPointe

Is that 5GB with the phone data or an additional 5GB? I would think I could use a lot with the phone being in hand all the time....

Gary
http://GarySaid.com/

January 06 2009 at 12:56 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mark

Seriously? 5 GB for $30???? I don't understand how you Americans can put up with such unjust mobile rates... here in Finland I get truly unlimited data for 9 Euros (about 13 US dollars) a month from Elisa, one of the 3 GSM networks here. And I not only use it for mobile data use, but as my main internet connection - I don't have a land line based internet connection, only mobile, and regularly pump 100 GB+ of data over my mobile connection each month. Its so funny hearing Americans talk about all the restrictions they have to put up with from the operators there, especially with those insane operators which use CDMA and don't even let there users buy there phones unlocked on the open market... crazy. I'm happy with my factory unlocked iPhone (bought in Belgium, where its illegal to sell contracts or lock phones) and my MacBook Pro, and the unlimited internet that feeds into them!

January 05 2009 at 10:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Mark's comment
Jordan

From Wikipedia:

Around 5.3 million people reside in Finland, with the majority concentrated in the southern part of the country. It is the eighth largest country in Europe in terms of area.

... and compare to

At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with about 305 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and third largest by land area and by population.

That might explain why the costs to operate a wireless network could be a bit higher.

January 06 2009 at 1:16 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Gloveman

I think i'll stick to my Cricket 3g Modem for now hehehe.

January 05 2009 at 8:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
DomPaul

PDAnet on Cydia is the best solution out there right now. As long as you aren't an idiot about it you will be fine. If you go from 500MB data one month, to 4GB data the next month that could raise some questions... Also, if you use torrents over the tether you deserve to get caught :-)

January 05 2009 at 8:18 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tripp

I'm curious to know how the tethering will work.
Will there be an app to do it?

January 05 2009 at 3:34 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tired_

If Apple's doing a software update to accommodate this, I wonder if other providers will offer it as well (Rogers, I'm looking at you).

January 05 2009 at 1:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
A

Thank God I got Netshare before they tore it out of the store. My question is, if they offer the plan for 30$ per month will ATT put pressure on Apple to kill Netshare??

January 05 2009 at 12:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to A's comment
Dave

I managed to grab NetShare for my iPhones as well, but forget NetShare. If you're willing to jailbreak your phone, there's a much better solution, for free, that actually gives all services without all the proxy hacks and stuff.

Checkout PDANet for the iPhone on Cydia.

As the article I read recently that pointed out that app said: "PDANet is reason enough by itself to jailbreak your iPhone."

January 05 2009 at 2:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mike

What data plan do you have? I have unlimited. I'd like to see AT&T charge me for more than 5GB usage.

GPRS WAP UNLTD DOM - CMB1
UNLIMITED

I don't know where the 5GB limit came from, but that might be a red flag for AT&T that you tether. I tether everyday with PDANet in the background (no proxies like Netshare, etc), but I generally only use about 800MB/month.

January 05 2009 at 9:39 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jbrown510

Imagine if you could easily switch wireless providers. Imagine then how much cheaper this would be. Imagine if you couldvget voice service from on company and data from another.

Of course the corpratist regulatory structure in the US does allow this... And AT&T and Tmo being on different frequencies prevents it as well.

Long live the FCC! Protector of the people's airwaves.

January 05 2009 at 11:31 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to jbrown510's comment
Murphy Mac

It's amazing how quickly and definatly the telecoms have been allowed to rebuild their empires.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Bells

January 05 2009 at 11:44 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Murphy Mac

That was supposed to be "defiantly" - not a butchered-looking definitely...

January 05 2009 at 2:33 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
L3

FREE, please.

January 05 2009 at 11:29 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
oakie

"While $30 is a steep charge on top of an iPhone data plan, it's still cheaper than the $60 you'd pay for an EV-DO card plan for mobile data"

last i checked, at&t didnt use EV-DO. they used UMTS with HSDPA/HSUPA while the iphone is HSDPA only.

EV-DO is a CDMA technology.

unless of course you're comparing tethering an at&t iphone versus a data dongle and plan from verizon or sprint. and that kind of comparison would be weird when at&t offers a data dongle and plan of their own.

January 05 2009 at 10:58 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to oakie's comment
Michael Rose

I'm aware of the distinction and that AT&T offers its own card; I should have said 3G card to keep it generic, but I've added HSDPA to clear that up. The $30 vs. $60 comparison is valid in either case.

For my money, if you're going to pay for a separate card, you might as well get it from a carrier that offers actual 3G speeds in more places. :-)

January 05 2009 at 11:05 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Buy an ad here

Hot Apps on TUAW

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.