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AT&T remains elusive on official date for iPhone tethering

by TJ Luoma Oct 14th 2009 at 9:00AM

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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iPhone users have been waiting for tethering for a long time. More specifically, AT&T customers are still waiting for it. Since the...
 

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cro

$55/month is just hysterical. What about a pay-per-24hour period option? I only need tethering once in a great while when I am stuck somewhere that has no WiFi available. Paying monthly just doesn't make any sense to me.

October 19 2009 at 2:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Asher

AT&T remains "elusive"? Really? AT&T is hard to find? Where are they hiding, I wonder? I assume you meant "evasive"?

Just sayin'...

October 14 2009 at 7:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mr_fastener

I'm confused as an iphn user I already pay for unlimited data usage but now I am supposed to be extorted even more for the same data flow if it is tethered to a laptop. What's wrong with this picture? I won't pay $60/ mo for 5hb so how is ATT losing any more money by denying me the ability to use what was already coded and promised. As a ATT customer for 10 yrs, it does make me rethink my committment to their limiting network.

October 14 2009 at 3:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to mr_fastener's comment
Randy

@ mr_fastener:

I agree with all of your points. However don't be confused. at&t has every intention of nickel & dimeing it's iPhone users. I will be very (happily) surprised if at&t releases tethering and *doesn't* charge an additional fee for it.

October 15 2009 at 10:10 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rashad

I have an iPhone on at&t and I tether for free without jailbreaking, AND I have MMS.

October 14 2009 at 2:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Rashad's comment
now4real954

@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

October 14 2009 at 5:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rashad

I never updated to 3.1, I'm running 3.0 on a 3GS...I used that website to enable tethering in the summer then when MMS was released I installed the profile for it so now I have both.

There is still hope for you if you downgrade.

October 14 2009 at 6:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Randy

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....

October 14 2009 at 1:35 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mi_sat

Six letters: PDANet. Sure you have to jailbreak, but the result is that I've been tethering for a long time.

October 14 2009 at 12:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to mi_sat's comment
Aaron Richard

That's a waste. You can just update the carrier file.

Tethering is supported by the iPhone software. It's literally just disabled.

October 14 2009 at 2:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mike

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.

October 14 2009 at 12:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
MRCUR

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.

October 14 2009 at 12:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Gautam

Wow, and extra cost to tethering? Sounds sad.

October 14 2009 at 12:02 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rob

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!

October 14 2009 at 11:38 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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