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AT&T CEO Confirms iPhone Tethering Coming "Soon"

Thursday November 6, 2008 11:18 am PST by Arnold Kim
MobileCrunch reveals that during an interview at the Web 2.0 Summit, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph De La Vega confirmed that AT&T would be offering an official tethering option for the iPhone "soon".

Tethering is the process by which you allow the iPhone to act as a 3G modem for your laptop. This would allow you to share the iPhone's cellular connection with your laptop.

A 3rd party tethering option called NetShare briefly appeared in the App Store before it was removed by Apple. AT&T traditionally charges an additional $30/month for this tethering option on their other smartphones. MacRumors has separately heard that this tethering capability is expected to be built into the 2.2 firmware.
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JG271
42 months ago
Good news! Tethering is great, a friend of mine has a 3g phone that acts as a wireless access point.

However, I hope the tethering option will be free...
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cbrain
42 months ago
Interesting. Hope we get this in the UK (and at a low cost :D).
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SkippyThorson
42 months ago
PRAISE THE SWEET LAWD!

When I go over to my friends house on the outskirts of town where no one has wifi and they don't either, it would be great to have a 2 minute session to look at a picture or to download a file or something. I've been waiting for this for I don't know how long. Amen. They listen! :)
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Le Big Mac
42 months ago
Of course, tomorrow there will be an announcement that they didn't really mean it, and maybe one day there will be tethering. And then a website that says "tethering is here" but gets pulled within 6 hours. And so on.
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happydude
42 months ago
yeah, but how much will they charge?! $30/mo is way too expensive for me when i'm already paying that for the iphone's data plan. i think it should be included as is - will just help drive sales of the iphone and bring new customers to at&t. everyone wins!
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dukebound85
42 months ago

yeah, but how much will they charge?! $30/mo is way too expensive for me when i'm already paying that for the iphone's data plan. i think it should be included as is - will just help drive sales of the iphone and bring new customers to at&t. everyone wins!


i agree. i dont need it thaaaaaat bad for 30 a month
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plumbingandtech
42 months ago

yeah, but how much will they charge?! $30/mo is way too expensive for me when i'm already paying that for the iphone's data plan. i think it should be included as is - will just help drive sales of the iphone and bring new customers to at&t. everyone wins!


I bet it will be priced for business customers, but i would LOVE if ATT tried and dropped the price for more of a consumer audience.

maybe tiers?
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notintheleast
42 months ago

yeah, but how much will they charge?! $30/mo is way too expensive for me when i'm already paying that for the iphone's data plan. i think it should be included as is - will just help drive sales of the iphone and bring new customers to at&t. everyone wins!


I agree. If it's going to cost me another $30 a month, then I'll just keep using PDAnet for free.
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pcguru83
42 months ago
I'll stick with PDANet, thanks. :)
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Luke1robb
42 months ago

MacRumors has separately heard that this tethering capability is expected to be built into the 2.2 firmware.


Now when you say built into the 2.2 firmware, wouldn't that imply free or simply there as an option that has to be turned on?
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