Is Tethering Finally Coming for AT&T iPhone Users?
By Ed Oswald | Wednesday, May 19, 2010 at 2:14 pm
After promising that tethering would arrive for iPhone users all the way back when iPhone OS 3 was released, a new option in iPhone OS 4 Beta 4 seems to suggest that AT&T will finally get on the ball this summer following the official release of the OS.
MacRumors is one of several sites to publish screenshots of a new option within the Network section of iPhone’s settings which seem to suggest tethering will finally be a reality. Tapping “Set Up Internet Tethering” pops up a message stating that customers can either call or visit AT&T’s website in order to set up the feature.
Gregg Keizer at Computerworld contacted AT&T to ask about the status of tethering, but got nothing more than the that company had “nothing new” to share. Confusing, if you ask me. Why can’t the carrier just come clean on its plans? We’ve only been waiting for a year now, no?
It’s not like AT&T doesn’t do tethering at all–if you have a Blackberry, you can add the functionality to your plan for an extra $30 per month.
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May 19th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
I’d want to be able to do it ad hoc. My mother’s house has no Internet service, and it would be useful for me while I’m there.
May 19th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
The carrier can’t come clean. They work for Apple. Apple will reveal all at their conference when they announce the new OS.
May 19th, 2010 at 5:48 pm
You can’t read too much into this. iPhone OS v3 was ready for AT&T tethering and iPhone OS v4 has to be ready for it whether AT&T is or not.
In AT&T’s defense, their iPhone data plans are truly unlimited, while on the other hand, many carriers who offer tethering run a meter on you. iPhone OS limits bandwidth usage by not downloading iTunes movies or big apps, and by switching to low-bandwidth video streams on 3G, but Mac and Windows do not. So an iPhone tethering customer could really use a lot of bandwidth.
> The carrier can’t come clean. They work for Apple.
No, they don’t. Tethering is a carrier feature. The carrier profile enables or disables tethering. It’s the same as the carrier can offer you various text plans. It’s between the user and carrier.