I believe that it's only a matter of time before AT&T Mobility offers iPhone 3G users the ability to tether their iPhones to any other Internet-centric device that they carry.
For the past week, courtesy of the Nokia Blogger Relations Program, I've been carrying a Nokia E71 mobile phone in addition to my iPhone. The sole purpose of carrying this E71 is so I can use it as a 3G tethering device for my MacBook Pro and my iPhone.
I'm doing this using a prepaid AT&T GoPhone account that I picked up at the AT&T Mobility Store that's half a block from my office in Manhattan. Andy Abramson, a friend who writes the blog VoIPWatch and runs the Nokia Blogger Relations Program, told me that using a 3G phone in conjunction with a GoPhone account was not only possible, but cheap in comparison with what I would pay for AT&T wireless data services delivered on a 3G-compatible ExpressCard plugged into my MacBook Pro.
I pay $19.99 per month for "unlimited" MediaNET data service which performs on the E71 device at 3G speed. This service may or may not have a soft data cap of 5 Gigabytes per month. I don't think anybody really knows if the cap applies when you buy data service on a pay-as-you go basis.
The key to getting the E71 to work as a tethering device is to use JoikuSpot, an ingenious Series 60 application which converts my E71 to an ad hoc WiFi hotspot. JoikuSpot comes in free and premium versions. I bought the premium license so that I could use non-web services such as email, IM, and SSH. All of these services work fine for me.
I use JoikuSpot approximately 10 hours a week, while I ride New Jersey Transit trains on the Northeast Corridor Rail Line.
JoikuSpot is quite similar to the application called NetShare from Nullriver that briefly appeared in the iTunes App Store. The only issue with NetShare is that using it in the United States is an explicit violation of the Terms of Service in effect on AT&T billing plans for the iPhone 3G.
I have come out against using tethering applications such as NetShare on the iPhone 3G when writing on my own blog, Operation Gadget. The issues I cited as reasons not to tether an iPhone 3G were power consumption and limited battery capacity.
I am still somewhat afraid of depleting my iPhone's battery in a single trip from Hamilton, NJ to New York, but less so because I see that power consumption on my Nokia E71 is fairly modest.
My point in telling this largely non-iPhone story is this: I think that eventually AT&T can be forced to offer contracts for the iPhone that permit tethering. I believe that NetShare or another app like it will inevitably become popular with certain groups of iPhone users. The question is, when will this happen and what should the additional cost be, if any?
As I said earlier, I pay AT&T $19.99 for monthly unlimited MediaNET service. I am more than willing to pay AT&T $20 per month for the right to tether a 3G device to my MacBook Pro during my daily commute. I think that is a totally reasonable charge. That upcharge would boost my bill to $105 to 110 per month if it were added to my existing iPhone.
I hope that other handsets such as the Nokia E-Series and N-Series families, RIM BlackBerrys, and Windows Mobile devices are bundled with tethering software and data plans that permit tethering, and that these services are marketed as a competitive advantage against the iPhone 3G. The reason I support this is because it will hasten the day when tethering is a legal option for American iPhone users.
I wish there was some way for iPhone users to facilitate this data plan evolution themselves. However, I think civil disobedience will have little effect so long as so many new iPhone customers keep walking through the door of Apple and AT&T stores.
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I don't understand why everyone brings up battery capacity as an issue for iPhone "tethering" (NetShare is actually a proxy server and not a tethering application). If you're doing this, you presumably have a laptop with you, so you can plug the phone into it and power it from the laptop the whole time.
Well you could plug the iPhone into your laptop using the USB connector and turn off automatic syncing in iTunes. Otherwise the iPhone would shut down NetShare as soon as the USB connection was made.
In the application I cited, using the 3G connection on the train while commuting, I would find having the iPhone connected to my laptop via USB unwieldy. I want to put my phone in my pocket or in my bag while on the train, whether it's acting as an ad hoc WiFi access point or not.
I prefer to plug my iPhone into my MacBook Pro at my desk at the office for charging and syncing. This way I can leave the office to go home with the iPhone fully charged in case I need to use it extensively.
Anyone who commutes long distances in and out of NYC would probably agree that you hope for the best in terms of how long your commute home will take each day.
This is the single thing that is stopping me getting an iPhone. I live in Europe where tethering over 3G is pretty standard - I use a T-mobile web'n'walk service on my E61 that gives me 3Gig a month of data transfers to whatever device I want. Like you I use this on trains and whenever there isn't a convenient WiFi available. I'm used to this and do not wish to lose this functionality which is what would happen if I got an iPhone. The UK supplier, O2, offers functionality similar to this for other phones, and they all work very well with Leopard. Except the iPhone, Apple's own product. This is just crazy and must be sorted.
I don't understand the sudden emergence of this "tethering" verb. The iphone is unusual -- unlike any other mobile sold over the last decade or two -- for being designed to prevent you from using it as a modem to connect to the internet, either by bluetooth or via a USB or other type of cable. Many of us have been using a mobile connected by bluetooth to connect to the internet since at least 2003, and before that using serial cables since around 1997 (yes, CSD at 9600 baud got you your email). We never called it "tethering", it was just mobile dial-up. Now suddenly, making the iphone work as every other handset has for a long, long time for some reason requires a new verb. What is this all about?
If you look at ATT Mobility website you can see that they offer tethering for other smart phones for a$30/month add-on. Since the current iPhone 3G ATT pricing is identical to other smart phones, I assume it will be the same $30/month to add it on the iPhone.
I am already paying AT&T premium prices for unlimited data, while I would like to use my iPhone as a backup connection when my home DSL connection dies, $240 a year additional is way too much, and $360 per year ADDITIONAL is plainly outrageous for a personal phone plan that already has "Unlimited" data. Together with the SMS surcharge that has doubled over the last five years .10 to .20 ea., It really seems to me that the carriers are in collusion with regards to their inflated rate plans. I think there needs to be more legislative regulation to keep the spiraling costs down.
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