AT&T says official iPhone 3G tethering plan coming "soon"
AT&T Mobility chief executive Ralph De La Vega has disclosed that a carrier-sanctioned method of using the iPhone as a 3G modem for notebooks will be announced "soon."
De La Vega made the comments during an interview with TechCrunch operator Michael Arrington during this week's Web 2.0 Summit, though he reportedly stopped short of providing any form of pricing information.
The executive's remarks confirm rumors of an official AT&T tethering solution dating back to August. At the time, an iPhone 3G owner fired off an email to Apple chief executive Steve Jobs arguing that it was "ludicrous" that a tethering option is not offered alongside "such an advanced device."
He pointed out that AT&T offers a tethering solution to users of Research In Motion's BlackBerry smartphones for an additional $30 per month, and said he'd be willing to shell out the extra change each month for the same luxury.
In a response, Jobs reportedly wrote back saying, "We agree, and are discussing it with AT&T."
A $10 application called NetShare by NullRiver briefly enabled tethering for the iPhone earlier this year.
The application was quickly plucked from the App Store, however, and later banned permanently by Apple after AT&T expressed concern that iPhone users would exploit its capabilities to tax the carrier's 3G network without forking over additional data fees.
De La Vega made the comments during an interview with TechCrunch operator Michael Arrington during this week's Web 2.0 Summit, though he reportedly stopped short of providing any form of pricing information.
The executive's remarks confirm rumors of an official AT&T tethering solution dating back to August. At the time, an iPhone 3G owner fired off an email to Apple chief executive Steve Jobs arguing that it was "ludicrous" that a tethering option is not offered alongside "such an advanced device."
He pointed out that AT&T offers a tethering solution to users of Research In Motion's BlackBerry smartphones for an additional $30 per month, and said he'd be willing to shell out the extra change each month for the same luxury.
In a response, Jobs reportedly wrote back saying, "We agree, and are discussing it with AT&T."
A $10 application called NetShare by NullRiver briefly enabled tethering for the iPhone earlier this year.
The application was quickly plucked from the App Store, however, and later banned permanently by Apple after AT&T expressed concern that iPhone users would exploit its capabilities to tax the carrier's 3G network without forking over additional data fees.
Comments
AT&T Mobility chief executive Ralph De La Vega has disclosed that a carrier-sanctioned method of using the iPhone as a 3G modem for notebooks will be announced "soon."
Hey, this is fantastic news for all of us out in the rural areas with
nothing but super-slow dial-up and very expensive satellite access
to choose from!
Oh, wait. Those are the same areas that are horribly under-served
and ignored by AT&T's "America's largest 3G network".
And that price (although only mentioned by a random customer,
not anyone official) is ridiculously high. I already pay a fortune
for the iPhone data package and get to enjoy it trudging along on
EDGE. Don't even pretend you're gonna offer me tethering for
$30 more.
Don't even pretend you're gonna offer me tethering for
$30 more.
What about the Google phone? Tethering available on T-mo?
So now just waiting till AT&T gets their act together and itunes posts the tethering app to use at no charge!
Will Apple allow the tethering App to go on-line after they had such a blowout with Nullsoft? Will other improved tethering Apps like iphonemodem go on-line or a new propriety program with some kind of tracking / reporting back to the carrier? We'll get details in due time....
AT&T Mobility chief executive Ralph De La Vega [...]
He pointed out that AT&T offers a tethering solution to users of Research In Motion's BlackBerry smartphones for an additional $30 per month, and said he'd be willing to shell out the extra change each month for the same luxury.
Luxury? I used to do this for free with my old phone. Somebody's obviously making too much money in their "chief executive" position.
Hey, this is fantastic news for all of us out in the rural areas with
nothing but super-slow dial-up and very expensive satellite access
to choose from!
Oh, wait. Those are the same areas that are horribly under-served
and ignored by AT&T's "America's largest 3G network".
And that price (although only mentioned by a random customer,
not anyone official) is ridiculously high. I already pay a fortune
for the iPhone data package and get to enjoy it trudging along on
EDGE. Don't even pretend you're gonna offer me tethering for
$30 more.
Sorry, but I won't buy ATT data conn, as I fell for that once before with their map showing total coverage of the populated areas in Orange County, CA.
less than 3 blocks from Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, forget 3G, and many times EDGE service was non-existent to barely usable, and about 80-90% of the time it was unusable.
Paying for coverage like that is like throwing money to the wind; it doesn't care.
ATT doesn't care. When you talk to their 'friendly folks' at their retail stores you get a blank stare or maybe they try to tell you that tall buildings and power lines disrupt the service, etc.
Whereupon I said "My Verizon cell data connection stays around 1 GB/sec in the same area, and it NEVER drops out, not even once." The ATT people just stopped talking at that point, and obviously wanted me out of their store and out of earshot of customers listening to me.
ATT has some SERIOUS signal problems, and I really don't care why. Verizon does it, and until ATT gets SERIOUS and solves the signal issues, they can NOT have my money.
BoC
I'd like an app that tethers laptops to use the free Wi-Fi access recently given to iPhones.
What laptop doesn't already have WiFi?
What?!!!! Pay an extra fee to use the data component you've already paid for?
cell phone users have been paying less for unlimited data than laptop uses. The reason is that carriers charge half as much for unlimited cell phone data access than they do for unlimited 3G USB/EC card data access is because you use less data on a cell phone.
Ignoring this market for this long is nothing short of ludicrous. How does Ralph explain to AT&T stockholders that people are clamoring for a product only you can deliver - - and you simply don't offer it?
This is a product that defintley lends itself to bandwidth limits / tiers. I just hope they're reasonable.
Ignoring this market for this long is nothing short of ludicrous. How does Ralph explain to AT&T stockholders that people are clamoring for a product only you can deliver - - and you simply don't offer it?
I think the idea of paying for tethering is lame. I already pay for my data plan, I should be able to use it however I want! If there were a third party solution for this, AT&T woulnd't even know I'm tethering, and it would just look like a lot of data going in and out of my iphone. Too much data for your 3G network to handle? Too bad, bring the level of service up to something reasonable un-sucky and maybe I'll give a damn about that aspect. I would love to tether my iphone to my MB Pro for wifi-less laptop internet wherever, but there's no way I'm paying them a thin dime for it. Do jailbroken iphones already have a solution for this by chance? My iphone is not jailbroken, but I might look into it if it'll get me free tethering over the existing data connection I already OVERpay for.
I think the idea of paying for tethering is lame. I already pay for my data plan, I should be able to use it however I want! If there were a third party solution for this, AT&T woulnd't even know I'm tethering, and it would just look like a lot of data going in and out of my iphone. Too much data for your 3G network to handle? Too bad, bring the level of service up to something reasonable un-sucky and maybe I'll give a damn about that aspect. I would love to tether my iphone to my MB Pro for wifi-less laptop internet wherever, but there's no way I'm paying them a thin dime for it. Do jailbroken iphones already have a solution for this by chance? My iphone is not jailbroken, but I might look into it if it'll get me free tethering over the existing data connection I already OVERpay for.
I don't agree with this. A 3G network is not the same as a cable modem. The problem is they try to lump people together into one bucket, as the cable modem does.
People fear tiers because they assume the starting price will be too high. I expect the worst from Time Waerner cable. If they were to start tiers of bandwidth use I'd expect my current monthly charge of almost $50 to be the starting point. Because I expect the worst from them, as they've conditioned me to behave.
But a tethering plan that started at $10 seems reasonable, as long as it had some bandwidth. I don't even know how much I'd need, because I've never tracked it. And that's another reason people get antsy about limits. We don't know what we need.
A long long time ago people who owned Xerox copiers got mad about paying for each copy they made on a machine they owned. But that was how the maintenance agreements worked. The argument was why should the guy making 1000 copies every month pay the same as the guy making 100,000? When you're the guy making 1000 copies things look very different.
With bandwidth, people who frequent these sites probably lean toward heavy use, and we're afraid we'll be charged way too much. Which could happen.
Bottom line, I don't expect tethering to be free. They sold you a contract for your phone, not your computer.