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Rumor: Official iPhone Tethering in the Works

Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 11:05 AM - by

Apple may be working on a plan with AT&T to bring tethering to the iPhone. If the rumors are accurate, that means iPhone users will eventually be able to share their handheld's Internet connection with their laptop -- and they can do it with Apple and AT&T's blessing, according to Gizmodo.

Apparently the word that the two companies are discussing the possibility of letting iPhone owners tether their combination iPod and smartphone, just like BlackBerry users already do, came straight from Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a response to a customer question.

If AT&T does start allowing iPhone users to tether their Internet connection with their laptop, the company will most likely charge for the feature, so expect to pay an extra US$30 or so for the privilege.

Since Apple is involved, don't expect to hear much else from the company about iPhone tethering plans until it is ready to share what they have worked out with AT&T.

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vasic said:

member since 09 Aug 2005 with 279 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Fri Aug 29, 2008 11:46 am

Why $30? Let me rephrase that: Why on Earth $30???

I can understand, to a point, a justification (acually, excuse) for charging extra for tethering other smartphones or cellphones. User may be paying for a data plan, but with an ordinary phone, they're using very little. Once they tether that phone to a laptop, data usage goes through the roof.

With iPhone, story is different. These people use their data plans heavily, surfing web-sites (complete ones, not just crappy WAP kind), downloading iTunes songs, watching YouTube. A laptop connection wouldn't make so much as a blip on the data usage graph.

There is no real justification for this other than pure greed. This isn't a special add-on service. People are already paying heavily for an unlimited data plan; they already have a full internet access. All they want to do is have the option of occasionally getting all that on a somewhat larger screen.

This will be considered a highway robbery if $30 ends up being the charge for this non-service.

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mactoid said:

member since 01 Feb 2005 with 29 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Fri Aug 29, 2008 12:10 pm

vasic wrote:

There is no real justification for this other than pure greed. This isn't a special add-on service. People are already paying heavily for an unlimited data plan; they already have a full internet access. All they want to do is have the option of occasionally getting all that on a somewhat larger screen.

This will be considered a highway robbery if $30 ends up being the charge for this non-service.

Remember...you're talking about AT&T here...you're surprised that they're motivated by greed?

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Aug 29, 2008 12:44 pm

vasic wrote:
Why $30? Let me rephrase that: Why on Earth $30???

The $30 number is completely made up by the author of this article. The only real information that is available is that someone claims that Steve Jobs has been writing in an email that Apple and AT&T are thinking about tethering. Nothing else. An article on MacRumors then added that tethering on other smartphones (that have no unlimited data plans) is available for $30 per month. This has then be changed in this article to "expect to pay $30 per month!"

So if you want to get upset, don't get upset about the rumors. Wait until AT&T announces something, then you might have a reason to be upset. Or maybe not.

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