Well I’ll be damned.
Apple released iPhone OS 4.0 Beta 4 earlier today and it wasn’t long before developers found the strongest evidence yet that tethering for US based iPhone customers may very well happen sooner than later.
Tethering, of course, isn’t new to the iPhone OS and was first introduced back when Apple released iPhone OS 3.0 in June of 2009.
Enabling the feature, however, is carrier and phone specific, and though AT&T kept on promising that tethering support would be coming soon, those promises went unfulfilled time and time again. Frustratingly, AT&T currently supports tethering for smartphones aside from the iPhone.
But with the latest iPhone OS screenshot specifically mentioning tethering and AT&T in the same breath, we can only hope that this isn’t one big tease and that a tethering option will finally become a reality for iPhone users here in the US.
With this year’s WWDC scheduled to kick off on June 7, an announcement regarding AT&T tethering support may very well be on the agenda during Steve Jobs’ keynote.
May 19th, 2010 at 8:05 am
Read:
You will be able to tether but AT&T is going to charge you for it.
Hopefully cheaper than the 3G plan. I wonder how much battery life drain there will be on iPhone serving data to the iPad.
May 19th, 2010 at 8:26 am
I really… really hope they don’t charge extra for tethering. I already have the mandatory $30/month data plan, why should I be charged more to keep using it albeit as a conduit to another device I own?
May 19th, 2010 at 8:33 am
tmobile MDA supported teathering 4 years ago. The iPhone is a joke to a real user… Can’t save to the SIM? Save anything but audio/video??? keyboard?
May 19th, 2010 at 8:42 am
You can tether now and lots of us do. Just do some Googleing, having to pay extra to use your already established data connection in a different way is crap.
May 19th, 2010 at 8:48 am
This is the main reason I jailbreak. iPhoneModem tethers beautifully and costs a one time 10 bucks.
May 19th, 2010 at 8:55 am
Why bother? I usea verizon wireless card for my laptop and its 10x faster than my iphone. Worse, I live in San Antonio – the HQ of AT&T and the 3g networks sucks!
May 19th, 2010 at 9:54 am
Folks, this is AT&T! The “nickel and dime” company that most likely will charge extra for tethering. Do you really expect AT&T to give anything away for free? They depend on data to make up for lost voice revenue due to the downward pricing pressure on unlimited, prepaid cellular plans. AT&T needs a revenue stream, especially when you can go to http://www.mysimplemobile.com and get unlimited talk and text on GSM for 40.00 per month.
May 19th, 2010 at 10:13 am
Well if it’s free then score one for Jobs (Yah!) BUT if they are just going to charge me another 30$ a month to connect to the internet with the same effen device that is already connected to the internet is just plain rediculous.
I mean we’re all fine for LAN connection at 19$ a month (at home or whatever) but what if we had to pay 19$ a month for every computer and device that connected to our wireless LAN router, everyone would freak! (with good reason). We’ll thats the same damn thing!
May 19th, 2010 at 10:30 am
Actually, as of OS 4 beta 1 the iphone supports bluetooth keyboards. Interesting that I haven’t seen that reported much, but I tried it and it worked great.
May 19th, 2010 at 11:26 am
What makes you think that tethering is carrier specific? Honestly, this sounds like a load of crap, you should be able to tether without any carrier involvement (and you actually can, just jailbreak your phone).
I hope people won’t fall to this trap, at&t shouldn’t get a dime from this
May 19th, 2010 at 11:44 am
It’s carrier specific due to contractual agreements. Don’t be such an unrealiatically idealistic doofus.
May 19th, 2010 at 11:44 am
Odd that it doesn’t tether via WiFi. You would think that would be the logical way to do it.
May 19th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
AT&T charge more for tethering? THE ALREADY DO! iPhone data plan is $30 and to get unlimited data on any other device is $60/month.
May 19th, 2010 at 4:58 pm
If you don’t like there rules either break them or leave. If enough people leave the problem will solve itself. They will cave if enough revenue is lost.
May 20th, 2010 at 6:35 pm
I think this is fake hype. I have iPhone Beta4 installed and that tethering option doesn’t exist on the networking screen. The only options are as follows:
* Enable 3G
* Cellular Data
* Data Roaming
* VPN
* Wi-Fi
There is no tethering option as far as I can see in any of the settings menus.