Inside iPhone 3.0: Tethering

While I trashed Vodafone NZ's pricing in a previous post, in at least one way it's far ahead of U.S. telco giant AT&T: internet tethering using the iPhone is already possible over Vodafone's network without resorting to lengthy, kludgy, and unsupported hacks. Who knows how long tethering will stay supported here, or how long it will take before Vodafone remembers to charge extra for it, but for now, tethering is go in the Southern Hemisphere.

Tethering works over both USB and Bluetooth. Using USB to tether simply requires enabling internet tethering in the iPhone's settings, then plugging the iPhone into an available USB port on your computer. The Mac will automatically recognize the tethered iPhone, and your connection will be up and running.

Bluetooth tethering obviously requires enabling Bluetooth on both your iPhone and computer, and then selecting "Connect to Network" from the Bluetooth drop-down menu. Once again, the rest of the setup is automatic -- it really doesn't get much simpler than this.

The speed of the internet connection appears to be comparable to the iPhone's standard mobile speed using USB, but Bluetooth was only about half as fast. I didn't remain tethered for long for fear of gulping down my meager monthly data cap, but for the time I used it, tethering worked with no issues whatsoever.

For my money, having tethering available in little ol' New Zealand long before the U.S. will have it puts AT&T in an even less flattering light -- while AT&T has far more users spread over a much larger area than Vodafone NZ, AT&T also has more towers and more money to pour into their infrastructure.

Any other international iPhone users managed to get tethering working on their networks? Sound off in the comments, and be sure to let us know what network you're on.

Read on for a pictorial guide to enabling tethering over Bluetooth.

Step One: Enable Bluetooth and tethering in the iPhone's settings

Step Two: Connect to the iPhone over Bluetooth

There is no step three

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While I trashed Vodafone NZ's pricing in a previous post, in at least one way it's far ahead of U.S. telco giant AT&T: internet...

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david

This will enable tethering but will stop visual voicemail from working. You must switch one setting back and forth to have both tethering and visual voicemail.
Just go to Settings--General-Network-Cellular Data Network.
Then change the APN under Visual Voicemail from wap.cingular (used for tethering) to acds.voicemail (used for visual voicemail).
Problem solved!

July 15 2009 at 12:27 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

lazarov77

everyone check out help.benm.at!!! activate tethering with one click

June 26 2009 at 2:55 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Richard

I have tethering working great with Optus over bluetooth.

1. Get the Tether Me file (http://tetherme.lstoll.net/) or look up tether me in google

2. Install the file as instructed

3. Restart ur phone

4. Enable tethering

5. Set up the iPhone as a bluetooth device (use Any device option) and leave Use device as a network port selected.

6. Go to network preferences and add Create a new service. Select Bluetooth Pan

7. Enjoy tethering over bluetooth!

June 19 2009 at 1:51 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

mamartin

Rogers (in Canada) tethering is up and running!

June 18 2009 at 5:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

justbn

Can you tether and share the iPhones WiFi? Example, you want to use AT&T WiFi hotspot for free - which you can do on the iPhone. Can you then tether to the iPhone and share that WiFi connection on your Mac?

June 18 2009 at 1:35 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

kirankonathala

I posted a step by step with screenshots over at http://www.ilikemyiphone.com/2009/06/18/unofficial-guide-enable-iphone-3g-3-0-free-tethering-on-att-from-safari-step-by-step/

Hope some one can befit from it, it took 2 minutes for the hack! ATT fails and users win! Woahhh!

June 18 2009 at 11:53 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Johnny

Rogers - speedtest.net says 2.5mbps down
it was pretty fast, even playing video....

- Rogers 6gb/month plan -

June 18 2009 at 11:26 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Joseph

Im in Canada on Rogers, it works.

Question: Do we have to pay extra for tethering or does it use our 6GB monthly plan because Ive been F#cked by Rogers billing for bogus things before.

Thanks.

June 18 2009 at 11:23 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Joseph's comment

Johnny

I called Rogers with the question - CSR said it's against your existing data plan.

Although, I'll still keep it to a minimum this month until I see my bill....just in case.

June 18 2009 at 11:29 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Carlos

Tethering works great for O2 Germany. It is included in the data plan, that costs 21 EUR per month and has a 10 Gb limit.

June 18 2009 at 10:33 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Tolik

NEED HELP, I did all the steps to unblock the tethering in USA on att&t network on my iPhone 3G 3.0, but when i connect it via USB to my MacBookPro I still get the new connection thing up, when i the connection thing opens up I get a "Ethernet Adapter (en2)" and cable not connected, and all the field are empty.

Somebody please help

June 18 2009 at 9:50 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply