“Without having to contact my colleagues at AT&T, they got a hold of me to share some more information about the [iPhone tethering] plan. To start things off, it did not show up this week, and a launch date has not been set. Recent reports about degradation to AT&T’s 2G service have nothing to do with AT&T clearing up bandwidth space for their 3G network. In regards to what may seem like a slow down of their 2G network, it should kick up faster than before. ‘Think of it as cleaning up a messy room,’ they explained,” Aviv Hadar reports for MacBlogz.
“When MacBlogz first got word of some initial tethering details, the price of the entire plan seemed a little high, although not surprising. Specifically, the $30 price-point and 5GB data cap did not go over well with most people,” Hadar reports. “The biggest piece of information we learned was that AT&T is playing around with a $10 price-point… If AT&T did charge around $10 for independent iPhone tethering, it’s sure to be a hit. Even those on the fence with purchasing or adding this to their cell phone account may do it out of curiosity.”
More details in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This would be huge! For example, we pay around $60/month for our Verizon EVDO service (ExpressCard/34 modems in our MacBook Pros). Yes, we do have NetShare on our iPhones, but it’s just not as seamless or reliable as we need it to be. So, we’re still popping in those EVDO cards and paying Verizon every month. Even if AT$amp;T charged $30/month for iPhone tethering, it would cut our mobile expenses in half! So, you can imagine the salivating that rumors of $10/month iPhone tethering have caused here; you can practically skate through the halls.
find it hard to believe.
hope it is true.
but even if it is, the service is not for me at this time.
Let’s just hope Rogers in Canada would consider the same thing, but I doubt it.
…if it’s for you or not?
My only reason for not jumping to the iPhone is AT&T;. I don’t have a problem paying $199 for the iPhone.
I enjoy paying $32 including Tax from T-Mobile. 300 Minutes is all I need. Internet Access is a bigger priority for me than phone.
AT&T;will do much better if the price their current base iPhone plan at $49.99. Both Apple & AT&T;will benefit. Apple will further benefit if they unlock iPhone. This AT&T;exclusive thing blows & AT&T;isn’t the best either.
I would probably use once a month, but for $10/mo, I am in
I’ll believe it when I see it.
I’m still using my Verizon XV6800 (A WM5 “smartphone”) simply because it works remarkably well with WiFiRouter to become an EVDO WiFi portal for my Macbook Pro, and the price is right). It’s a good WiFi portal on a sub-standard smartphone for the right price.
When I can do the same for the same or less cost with an iPhone, I’ll be really interested.
And, could you image if you only needed to pay for your data once? If once the data gets to the device you own, you could freely retransmit the data to other devices you also own?
Count me in for $10.00/month. I don’t need it that often, but it is probably the most missed feature that I had with my Treo on Sprint. $30.00 is too much unless you use it VERY heavily, but $10.00 is a very reasonable price that I will definitely pay for. I’ll only get EDGE, but I can live with that for now. I’m waiting on the next generation iPhone before I upgrade. That will let AT&T;spread out some more 3G coverage. Apple was smart to wait on 3G, the coverage is still pretty thin in most areas even after the “expansion”.
“Who cares…
…if it’s for you or not?”
Would you rather I of say something even more stupid like
“First Post”?
Besides. I did see the value in the service. And someday I might need such service.
I don’t see it happening.
AT&T;isn’t that smart!
What is the justification behind charging additional amount of money in order to allow a customer to use the unlimited data plan for which he’s already paying more than anyone else ($30, vs. $20 per month for other ordinary phones/smartphones)?
Before iPhone, people used to buy data plans if they were using their (ordinary) cellphones for WAP web, e-mail or IM. Obviously, the data usage of those users was significantly lower than if they were to use that same data plan with a laptop. Therefore, for tethering, AT&T had a reasonable (plausible) excuse for charging extra for attaching a laptop to that data plan.
However, iPhone changed all that (as we have seen in many reports to date). iPhone users use their data plans quite a lot. With a full web browser and a full e-mail client, users surf web, look at their Google maps (plenty of real-time data streaming), watch YouTube (more streaming), send e-mails (with lots of attached pictures) and download 5MB per song iTunes files. The data usage with a laptop couldn’t possibly be that much different than that of an average iPhone user.
AT&T is demonstrating extreme greed here. $10 per month for no additional actual service is exactly $10 more than what its worth. They are just allowing us to do exactly what we’re already doing, only on another device. There is practically NO greater burden on AT&T’s infrastructure from this.
Greed. Greed. Greed… I’m not paying.
I already pay for “unlimited data.”
I am paying a lot for my Plan now and plopped down a hefty sum for my 3G iPhone, so even if tethering was only $5 a month it would be too much for no more than I would use it.
AT&T;is reasonable..
Document Imaging Software
Skate through the halls? I know you have wall to wall carpeting so that’s gross!
I think the monthly fees are to high already. $30 a month for SMS.
Now another $10 for tethering. To high. AT&T;wants more business, lower the monthly fees! SMS should be $1 as it is part of the 3G data service. In fact it should be included like it used to be.
I was under the impression that Rogers allowed tethering, they just don’t provide any info on how to do it. Which figures!
@ Coolfactor
Rogers doesn’t need to offer the same thing because you can do it now. All you need is Netshare, which unfortunately has been pulled from the App Store.
I use it at times if I don’t have direct access to the internet or Wi-Fi when I am on the road. Obviously it is slower via 3G and worse on Edge. But NetShare lets me connect indirectly via Wi-Fi on my iPhone and it works extremely well.
Note that the Data Usage is credited to my 6 GB Data Plan that I got with my iPhone 3g in July for $30 Canadian. So far, my data usage has never exceeded 325 MBs a month, and my total usage is just a little over 1380 MBs after 6 months.
Unlike AT&T;’s unlimited Data Plan, tethering will be charged separate. Rogers on the other hand set limits and allows you to get
@ Macaholic
Why the friggin attitude? Why should Rogers provide any information for something that is not now available? And why should they care? It is available via their data plan that we bought. There is no extra charge.
For those of us who were smart enough to pick up NetShare in the beginning, the instructions are on the iPhone. They are quite clear and for those that needed more, AppleInsider was good enough to post them a very comprehensive set of instructions on August 1, 2008 are in fact still available today. http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/08/01/ten_step_guide_to_sharing_your_iphones_connection_with_netshare.html
I suggest an apology is in order.
And I suggest that people who mention NetShare as though there’s some way to get it need to tell the rest of us (who didn’t have iPhones before they pulled it) how to get it, or stop talking about it as though it’s something everyone has.
And you’ve got some spam in this thread…
@ DanielM
What attitude are u talking about?
I think it is reasonable for my service provider to provide instructions as to how to do something that they allow to be done. They provide them for other things. Apologise to who and for what? Rogers? I hardly think so.
As for attitude, why don’t u take a flying fsck at a rolling donut?
check out this… http://www.ithreesixty.com/about-i360
So you think that Rogers should provide instructions on how to jailbreak the iPhone. And why the hell would they do that?
I was so close to buying a USB 3G modem from AT&T;this past week. Glad I waited – besides $60 more per month is starting to be a drag on my budget. So I’d welcome even $30/month. If this report is correct, I’ll jump on it right away (and so will everyone else).
AT’&’amp;T without the single quotes will get you AT&T without the ;
When the iPhone is $50/month with all of the bells & whistles, I may consider it to finally be of adequate value.
Until then, I’ll spend my discretionary money elsewhere.
I’ve been using a Blackberry for roughly 4 years in, so I’ve already long since gone through the ‘gimmick’ and ‘enamored’ phases. Its just a tool and if my employer didn’t pay for it, I’d not have it, since its utility isn’t not worth me paying for it myself at the rate that AT&T;charges.
Odds are more likely that I’ll get a Touch. Zero monthly fees.
-hh