Filed under: Rumors, Internet, iPhone
Rumor watch: AT&T tethering plans may be announced this week
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.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Rob Roark said 8:13AM on 1-05-2009
Out of curiosity, has anyone doing a jailbreak/Netshare tether actually gotten busted by ATT or their carrier for doing it? I use it, but very, very rarely because even in po-dunk North Carolina, Wi-Fi saturation is high enough to make it little more than a convenient last resort.
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Meld said 8:30AM on 1-05-2009
The 5GB datacap is ridiculous.
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MRCUR said 8:38AM on 1-05-2009
The iPhone data plan is $30/month, the iPhone tethering plan is (supposedly) $30/month on top of the data plan charge. I'm pretty sure that comes out to $60/month ($30+$30)...which happens to be the same cost as the $60/month data plans AT&T has for 3G cards...
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DistortedLoop said 2:02PM on 1-05-2009
I think you miss the point. I pay $68/month for a CDMA card for my laptop. That's on top of the $30 my iPhone data plan costs me. I'm sure a lot of people are in the same boat.
If the data service of a tethered phone is anywhere close in speed and reliability of my Sprint card, I could save $38 per month with a tethering option. I'm pretty sure that's a substantial savings, and real bargain...
Emax said 8:56AM on 1-05-2009
You can't compare this price to the 3g card prices. You need to compare it to the tethering plan for other phones.
If you just have the card 30 isn't too much. But if you have a phone and data and txt and tethering it's a major rip off at 30 extra a month, esspecially with a cap.
Well see if this turns out to be a major rip off or a good value.
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MRCUR said 9:26AM on 1-05-2009
But tethering for other phones is also $30/month, on top of whatever other data plans you already have. Look at the BlackBerry BIS plan, it's $60/month for unlimited (personal) data and tethering.
Nathan said 12:10PM on 1-05-2009
All of AT&T's tethering and data-only plans have a 5GB data cap, with additional data coming at $0.00048/kB.
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colouroflight said 9:45AM on 1-05-2009
$30 just to get stuck with a 5GB cap is ludicrous.
I hope this drives people who want to tether (or just want high-quality, free apps) back to the jailbreak community.
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oakie said 10:58AM on 1-05-2009
"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.
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Michael Rose said 11:05AM on 1-05-2009
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. $60 comparison is valid in either case.
For my money, if you're going to pay for a separate card, you might as well get it from a carrier that offers actual 3G speeds in more places. :-)
L3 said 11:29AM on 1-05-2009
FREE, please.
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jbrown510 said 11:31AM on 1-05-2009
Imagine if you could easily switch wireless providers. Imagine then how much cheaper this would be. Imagine if you couldvget voice service from on company and data from another.
Of course the corpratist regulatory structure in the US does allow this... And AT&T and Tmo being on different frequencies prevents it as well.
Long live the FCC! Protector of the people's airwaves.
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Murphy Mac said 11:55AM on 1-05-2009
It's amazing how quickly and definatly the telecoms have been allowed to rebuild their empires.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Bells
Murphy Mac said 2:34PM on 1-05-2009
That was supposed to be "defiantly" - not a butchered-looking definitely...
Altyus@mac.com said 12:11PM on 1-05-2009
Thank God I got Netshare before they tore it out of the store. My question is, if they offer the plan for 30$ per month will ATT put pressure on Apple to kill Netshare??
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DistortedLoop said 2:06PM on 1-05-2009
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."
Mike said 9:45PM on 1-05-2009
What data plan do you have? I have unlimited. I'd like to see AT&T charge me for more than 5GB usage.
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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.
Tired_ said 1:20PM on 1-05-2009
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).
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Tripp said 3:34PM on 1-05-2009
I'm curious to know how the tethering will work.
Will there be an app to do it?
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DomPaul said 8:18PM on 1-05-2009
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 :-)
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