How much would you pay to use your iPhone as a wireless modem, sharing its 3G network connection with your MacBook so you can get online with a nice big screen and actual keyboard? How about $55?
Appmodo reports that AT&T plans to offer tethering toward the end of July, according to a source inside the company. But it'll be steep at $55 per month. The source also claimed that MMS service would arrive in mid July, which is a little more specific than the "later this summer" still on AT&T's official iPhone page.
The MMS news, if true, is fine. AT&T has already said it doesn't plan to nickel and dime users by charging extra for MMS -- if you pay for text messages on your plan, MMS is included in that.
To put it in perspective, $55 per month is more than I pay for my home Internet service, which is used every day without fail, often for hours and hours. Since I've had NetShare (a tethering app that was briefly offered in the App Store before being pulled) on my iPhone, I've used it five times. Five times in a little less than a year. Of course, the official tethering service from Apple and AT&T would be a smoother experience, so perhaps I would use it more, but enough to justify $55 per month, on top of my regular iPhone bill? Probably not.
The best solution, in my opinion, would be an a la carte option, where you could buy a day pass, or even a week pass, for a reasonable fee. It's very unlikely many iPhone users would rely on tethering as their go-to method for getting their MacBooks online, so it doesn't make sense to charge them like they are. Especially since they've already figured out how to do it, albeit unofficially, for free.
What do you think AT&T should do? How much would you be willing to pay for tethering? Comment away while we wait for the official word from everyone's favorite iPhone carrier.
jiubreyn
May 14, 2010 at 6:39am
This is ridiculous, $55 a MONTH for tethering? iPhone owners already spend nearly $100 for the data/voice plan they have right now, to add an additional $55 is just plain ridiculous. If they fixed their already overly crowded networks to provide consistent service, maybe, just maybe, $55 might easier to swallow.
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bstossel
June 23, 2009 at 2:16pm
Back in mid-march...just before my 2nd daughter was born, my wife and I dropped Sprint after 8-years because of lies, empty promises and eventual admitted hatred of us and went AT&T for all our services (U-verse TV, Internet & Phone + Cellular). We read about their reliability both network and support. The truth is, I was coming from an HTC Touch Pro trying to decide whether to go HTC or iPhone. THe main features that pushed me back to HTC was the MMS and Video capabilities the iPhone lacked. However, the AT&T store rep said to if I could be patient, iPhone OS 3.0 would be out for the 3G this summer and those features would be available. So I got an iPhone.
June 17th came and went...no MMS (yet) or video. But a new iPhone has those features. Only a customer for 90 days and the manager at that store admitted that they had issues with that person and she no longer worked there. However, they had it handed down from above that no trade-ins from 3G's to 3G S's were allowed. He noted the incident on my account and said to call Customer Support.
Customer Support not only told me flat out that they didn't believe me, but said they would be happy to allow me to trade-in my 3-month old 3G and pay just $399 for a new 3G S. Meaning, I would be forced to pay a total of $600 for the iPhone I was promised i would be getting...may as well be regular price:(
End of the day...I am just as furious with AT&T as I am with Sprint and am doubting why I left SPrint in the first place. While I am now a Mac Convert thanks to the iPhone, this change in my IT lifestyle was all based on the promises of a new OS that would allow the features that a new Dad on the move needed. Thanks AT&T...still just as worthless and greedy as any other communications company on the planet. Hope these next 21 months go fast so I can dump AT&T and go back to the Can & String method of communication=p
skassis
June 22, 2009 at 9:03am
as long as the tethering is as fast as my current Comcast internet, i will cancel Comcast and pay AT&T no more than $30 per month for tethering internet. i'll sure be happy when President Obama brings all US citizens FREE high speed internet, making it a part of the infrastructure of America. hurry please.
Imagine Engine
June 20, 2009 at 9:16am
It's unfortunate that AT&T can't find a way to make a profit while at the same time provide a sustainable HSPA network. Here in Canada Rogers charges $30.00 for 6 GB of data which allows tethering on the iPhone 3G/3GS and they don't block MMS. Our HSPA network here went from 3.6 Mbps to 7.2 Mbps. AT&T on the other hand appears to not be upgrading their network to increase data transmission speed or to handle any congestion in the network that may occur.
skadiwolf
June 19, 2009 at 1:24pm
While switching to the iPhone 3GS from my original iPhone I was offered a data plan for $45/mth instead of $30 that I was told would later include tethering. So...just an added $15/mth seems to be accurate! :)
allenhuffman
June 19, 2009 at 11:20am
Well, at least this is $5/month cheaper than going to Verizon and getting a MiFi for $99 and their $60/month plan (or $40/month for 250MB)...
ritland
June 19, 2009 at 10:12am
If AT&T does not have the capacity on their networks to handle large increases in traffic, it has to price the service high enough where only a small segment of the users who value it the most will buy it. If they priced it too low, they would run out of bandwidth. My guess is that the data usage from a user on a Macbook will be significantly higher than that same user on an iPhone if you take into account playing online games, downloading larger apps, file sharing, etc. Besides, what does AT&T have to gain by offering tethering? They already have the iPhone market locked in, so I doubt that any one will not chose an iPhone over tethering and thus decreasing AT&T's user base. Mover, as far as income generation, if tethering fees cant make up the cost of upgrading the capacity of the network, then its a money losing proposition.
tomzink
June 19, 2009 at 10:12am
The real truth behind all of this is that AT&T doesn't have the capacity to handle the data that the iPhone and its users want to draw from it. Interview one of their engineers, and if he's truthful he'll reveal the widely know fact that ATT is doing everything it can to get people off the network and onto WiFi. $55 a month has nothing to do with a fair price for tethering, and everything to do with discouraging users from tethering.
