iPhone Tethering on AT&T: One Year and Counting
By Harry McCracken | Friday, November 6, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Exactly one year ago, on November 6th, 2008, I was siting in the audience at the Web 2.0 Summit when AT&T Mobility President Ralph De La Vega shared good news from the stage: The company would “soon” be permitting iPhone users to tether their phones for use. I assumed he was a reliable source and blogged the glad tidings.
I also assumed that “soon” meant a matter of weeks or a month or two, so it was startling when Apple announced that iPhone OS 3.0 would support tethering seven months later and named 22 carriers who would be ready on day of launch–and AT&T was not among them. The carrier merely said that it would support tethering at some unspecified date–which turned out not to be early August. Most recently it’s said that it needs to upgrade its network and that “We expect to offer tethering in the future,” which falls short of a promise that it will ever do so.
All along, of course, some folks have tethered their iPhones via hacks, software that runs only on jailbroken iPhones, and even a program that was very briefly available on Apple’s App Store. But they’ve risked the wrath of AT&T, since tethering violates the carrier’s current terms of service.
As far as I know, nobody at AT&T has publicly explained what its president was doing whipping up excitement for tethering when allowing it without time-consuming infrastructure improvements would have been imprudent. But it seems likely that it now wants to go to extreme measures not to get anyone’s hopes up until it’s absolutely, positively sure that tethering is ready to go. I hope that day comes soon.
But I also keep asking myself an ugly question: If the company still seems to be having trouble dealing with the quantity of data being consumed by iPhone users who can’t tether, what does that say about the chances that it’ll allow them to hog even more bandwidth via their laptops anytime soon?
12 Comments
Read more:
7 Comments For This Post
5 Trackbacks For This Post
-
iPhone Tethering on AT&T: One Year and Counting | Technologizer « gadgetzen Says:
November 7th, 2009 at 3:48 am[…] the original: iPhone Tethering on AT&T: One Year and Counting | Technologizer Share and […]
-
Bites from the Apple: The Contender reviews, prices | eOpinions Product reviews Says:
November 7th, 2009 at 8:17 am[…] of tethering, Harry McCracken at Technologizer reminds us that it was one year ago this week that AT&T declared that it would support […]
-
pks4» Blog Archive » Linkpost | 11.8.2009 Says:
November 8th, 2009 at 4:02 pm[…] iPhone Tethering on AT&T: One Year and Counting – It’s been a year since an AT&T executive first said publicly that iPhone […]
-
Should I Dump AT&T? And if So, What Next? Says:
January 21st, 2010 at 5:02 pm[…] I wasn’t really surprised: I spend a lot of time in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco, and for the most part, my AT&T iPhone is an outdoor phone there. Indoors, it’s an utter crapshoot whether I’ll be able to make and take calls. I’ve lived with the situation for a year and a half, but I’m growing weary, and I have no idea when or if the situation will improve. (We know that AT&T Mobility President Ralph De La Vegas is not a reliable source of information on what to expect.) […]
-
iPhone class action | BOSS logic Says:
March 25th, 2010 at 8:44 am[…] for the past year have been broken, leaving a lot of iPhone users miffed at Apple and just plain angry at AT&T for worse and worse service. And it didn’t help when Steve Jobs rubbed it in, delivering the […]
November 6th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
We’ve had free tethering in Canada on Fido and Rogers since the iPhone came out. Fido and Rogers don’t have a very strong network. The world, oddly enough, has not collapsed.
Though I suppose that doesn’t rule out AT&T doing so.
November 7th, 2009 at 4:03 am
Nice post!. I think your closing point says it all. So many people including myself have been begging for tethering, that if/when released the network would become so saturated frustration would go through the roof. This may be one of those instances where we should be careful for what we wish for. Down here in Tampa, service is not so bad, however I have read that up in Chicago it’s hard to make it through a call without getting dropped. The worst part is, if we wanted to get an Air Card from AT&T, not only do we have to pay $60 a month, plus buy the hardware, we have to sign a two year contract. The should have a special contingency for those who have iPhones, that if/when tethering ever comes out we could convert to the “iPhone Tethering Plan.”
November 8th, 2009 at 7:56 am
Getting old means I can remember when AT&T was a first class company. Now, if it made major improvements, it would become a fifth rate company. Third World countries have better phone service
November 8th, 2009 at 8:00 am
Isn’t the issue obvious?
The AT&T network is being CRUSHED by users trying to use the 3G network on their iPhones. The service simply sucks!
Even a lying and cheating company such as AT&T won’t take the next steps to destroy their already horrid reputation by adding more demand to the anemic 3G network.
Don’t hold your breath for tethering. Instead, start calling AT&T and ask why you should be paying full price for 3G phone service where a 20% dropped call rate is “within spec”. What a joke!
November 8th, 2009 at 10:29 am
@vamuso- No you don’t have to sign a two-year contract, you just pay full price. Why does everyone only think of the two-year contract price? Come on people, use your brain!
November 9th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
AT&T still thinks they are #1. Fall fast down the Stats. If u want to Tether ur iphone and can’t. here is a solution use addition’s ipone modem 3 on their website. Cost $10 to Purchase. works Great.
November 10th, 2009 at 6:29 am
@Thomas, Actually the rep at the AT&T store and over the phone told me a two year contract is the only option. You may have heard differently, but this is just what they told me when I tried to go in and get service.