AT&T remains elusive on official date for iPhone tethering
iPhone users have been waiting for tethering for a long time. More specifically, AT&T customers are still waiting for it. Since the WWDC 2009 Keynote Address, where it was announced that iPhone OS 3.0 would support tethering, AT&T has said they would support it... sometime.
Appmodo.com is reporting that iPhone tethering will not be available this year. They suggested that AT&T had previously gone on-record saying "that iPhone tethering would become available 'sometime this year'" -- presumably referring to this quote on CNet.com, from AT&T Mobility chief Ralph de la Vega who said (in November of 2008) that "iPhone 3G users will be able to use their phones as wireless modems at some point next year," which would obviously mean 2009.
The Appmodo story links to an article by Andrew LaVallee, writing for The Wall Street Journal's Digits blog, who quotes an unnamed spokesman for AT&T who refused to say when tethering would be available and said: "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."
Appmodo seems to think this is a change in AT&T's official stance, but LaVallee explicitly refers to it as "the company's prior statement."
When it comes to iPhone tethering, has Appmodo gotten the story straight before? Well, on June 17th they quoted a source who said "The highly anticipated tethering option will also be delivered towards the end of July with pricing around $55 per month..." -- then on June 19th, AT&T explicitly denied the $55 cost via their Facebook page.
On July 9th they quoted the same source saying that MMS and tethering were coming in September, and repeated the "around $55" estimated cost which had already been dismissed on the record. Appmodo added, "Our source is from an undisclosed reputable AT&T employee." So much for that. Granted, we've also been off the mark on tethering rumors, but we're trying not to make such a habit of it.
When will AT&T make tethering available? The answer is that no one outside of AT&T and Apple knows. AT&T isn't saying, but what Appmodo is seeing as a change in the answer, the WSJ says is the same line they've heard before. Given the way Appmodo has been reading the tethering tea leaves, I am highly skeptical that this represents an official schedule change -- sure, tethering might not show up until 2013, but that was just as true last week as it is today.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
lo_fye said 9:35AM on 10-14-2009
Everything about cellular service is more expensive in Canada EXCEPT tethering, which is allowed as part of our regular data plan on Rogers Wireless. Of course, we also don't get free net access at Canadian Starbucks', so this is kind of necessary.
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Afrigginhobbit said 9:36AM on 10-14-2009
$55 for tethering...per month!? Are you kidding me? Dont the Aussies get that for free? Jesus, talk about extortion. Tethering better be either really cheap or bloody free for making us wait a year for a feature we shouldve had when 3.0 came out. This exclusivity deal needs to hurry up and end so i can jump ship to Verizon.
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puhsitch said 7:36PM on 10-14-2009
For Blackberries, I think they charge like $30/month for a tethering option. If they're going to charge (and they will), I hope that they at least keep things consistent between phone platforms...
olivernward said 9:38AM on 10-14-2009
AT&T's constant let downs for their iPhone contingent really are amazing. It's amazing that Apple hasn't taken some sort of stance on the issue.
I'm just glad that in the UK we never had those problems, and that in my new home in Australia iPhone's can be purchased unlocked direct from Apple, for use on any carrier i feel like.
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Martin said 9:51AM on 10-14-2009
You don't really do that to a business partner. I sure hope the gloves come off after the exclusivity ends. I'll chip in for popcorn.
MW said 9:57AM on 10-14-2009
$55/mo, for what will probably be a 5GB cap.
That's $11/GB, or around a penny per megabyte. Thanks, but I'll pass.
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Richard said 11:12AM on 10-14-2009
That's a bargain compared with what they'll charge you when you go over that 5Gb cap. It's approximately $500 per Gb! Oh, and they have no way of automatically cutting you off to prevent you from bankrupting yourself. They do send you a couple of warning mails, but when I got them and followed up with AT&T about what my options were (No, you can't buy a 10Gb cap, or get automatically cut off), I basically stopped using their dongle for fear of crossing the limit. Terrible product. Oh, and of course it accidentally drops your connection when it notices you've fired up Skype.
The simple fact that all cell vendors in the US have the same 5Gb cap should be evidence enough to the FCC that they have a stale, non-competitive market that they need to fix.
Peter Koritschan said 10:50AM on 10-14-2009
Am glad to live in the Czech Republic... internet tethering on the iphone just works, and is included in my unlimited dataplan.... loving it totally..... iphone via bluetooth connected to my macbook pro.... it's pure freedom! :)
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colouroflight said 10:53AM on 10-14-2009
Man, sometimes I feel like AT&T has me in jail.
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drew.borland said 11:00AM on 10-14-2009
AT&T are a bunch of morons. They could be making a ton of money by simply offering it at $55. Yes, that would be expensive, BUT, people who need it would still get it...and the price would be a deterent for most, so AT&T wouldn't have to worry about their network being bogged down (see MMS rollout). Then...over time, when AT&T gets their networks somewhat modernized, they could gradually reduce the price, thus adding market segments along the way. Isn't this idea simple!?!?
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michaelbushnell said 11:13AM on 10-14-2009
I would love to have an iPhone, but will never get one as long as it is on AT&T. Simply too expensive and bad reception to boot.
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Rob said 11:38AM on 10-14-2009
iPhone users in Ireland on the O2 network are also still waiting for any kind of announcement from O2 about tethering but you can be sure that now Vodafone have been given the contract as of Spring 2010 O2 will start sorting that and Visual Voicemail. If they don't Vodafone will and so many will migrate. Me included!
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Gautam said 12:02PM on 10-14-2009
Wow, and extra cost to tethering? Sounds sad.
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MRCUR said 12:16PM on 10-14-2009
I'm not sure it's even fair to say Apple or AT&T knows when tethering will be available. It seems as if MMS was launched once AT&T was finished testing and felt the network was ready for the influx. I personally think the launch was pretty smooth, so I don't mind waiting too much longer for tethering to be available.
I hope for AT&T's sake they get the tethering launch right - I think a very important piece of this launch will be pricing. Hopefully there will be no increase; it's there is an it's above an additional $5/month I certainly won't be jumping on the bandwagon.
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Mike said 12:49PM on 10-14-2009
I don't know why anyone's is surprised with AT&T's non-stance on tethering. I can't get my Iphone to make a simple phone call half the time because AT&T's network is overloaded. They blame it on the high data usage by Iphone users. That's just folks using the handheld data. Imagine what their network would be like if they implemented tethering? It wouldn't matter what your data plan cap would be- the network would never connect, so you wouldn't have to worry about it.
In most places the AT&T network is at it's limit. THey totally underestimated the Iphone load on their system. There's no way they'll kill it even more by implementing tethering any time soon.
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mi_sat said 12:45PM on 10-14-2009
Six letters: PDANet. Sure you have to jailbreak, but the result is that I've been tethering for a long time.
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Aaron Richard said 2:49PM on 10-14-2009
That's a waste. You can just update the carrier file.
Tethering is supported by the iPhone software. It's literally just disabled.
Randy said 1:35PM on 10-14-2009
As an at&t customer of almost 9yrs, I've seen this pattern before. at&t will sit on it. Not speak of it, and when the very vocal minority of iPhone users who know what tethering is have given up and moved on, then at&t will quietly "release" it. At cost of course....
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Rashad said 2:08PM on 10-14-2009
I have an iPhone on at&t and I tether for free without jailbreaking, AND I have MMS.
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SCOTT said 5:06PM on 10-14-2009
@Rashad...share your method...the ben.m.at worked for a while until I upgraded to 3.1 so that I could use the iTunes app organizer...
I now have MMS because of ATT finally giving it to us...but I want to tether too...send us a link or a tutorial on how to do it...please