"Official" IPhone tethering from AT&T at $55/month | Hacker News Reader

"Official" IPhone tethering from AT&T at $55/month

appmodo.com

11 pointsosipov23 comments

So according to http://www.facebook.com/ATT?v=app_7146470109, tethering will not be $55 additional per month. I've not seen an official announcement from AT&T (I don't consider appmodo to be "official" and they don't link to anything).

Anybody have an official link?

The tone doesn't "sound" very official, but isn't this the official AT&T Facebook page?

Fuck AT&T.

I normally wouldn't upvote a comment like this, but I think it concisely illustrates what everyone who reads this submission must feel.

Why can't AT&T et all get it? I would gladly pay on a per GB basis if it was offered on a comparable rate as the 'unlimited' plans. Those plans usually cap you at 5GB to prevent 'abuse' to the network, so you get 5GB for $40/month-ish, or or $8/GB. Is there anyone who wouldn't be willing to pay for a real unlimited plan where this was the rate?

(I'm not sure if any companies are offering such rates. Please let me know if they do.)

"Why can't AT&T et all get it?"

They do. They've hooked up with Apple.

I don't know a single person who has anything nice to say about AT&T, what with illegal spying, crappy service, poor pricing, and what not. Yet when it comes to the iPhone, everyone's swooning and all sins are forgiven.

'et all' refers to the other players in cellular service, so the question restated is "Why can't AT&T and other providers get it?"

I do agree with what you say about AT&T's sins being 'forgiven' by offering the iPhone, but that is a function of a market monopoly. I have an iPhone and I use it on AT&T. Coverage is decent in my area including 3G, and I don't mind the price. That said, if Apple offered the phone through multiple carriers then the consumers would be in a better spot because they could choose which carrier to sign with.

' ... so the question restated is "Why can't AT&T and other providers get it?"'

Some do. I'm quite happy with T-mobile. No interference (so far) about the G1 tethering app (Proxoid). Really good customer service.

"I do agree with what you say about AT&T's sins being 'forgiven' by offering the iPhone, but that is a function of a market monopoly. "

The weird thing is, I don't think I've heard any iPhone users express any misgivings about using AT&T. The interest in the phone is overwhelming. Yet users have a choice: pick a different phone.

AT&T has a "phone I really REALLY have the hots for" monopoly, not a smartphone monopoly. People shouldn't support a questionable service provider and then gripe about how they behave just because the available market choices are not quite as they would prefer.

It truly has become tiring. I already pay $96/mo for what amounts to a data plan, considering I almost never talk on the phone. And now they want another $55/mo to give me the luxury of maybe getting my money's worth (in some Universe)?

Edit: Even if this turns out to be untrue, "Fuck AT&T" still very much stands.

This is an example of why Ma Bell was broken up in the first place. The monopoly they have on the hardware is clearly being abused by them and the consumer pays the price. I pay this price for phone, data AND Tethering on my Treo with another carrier. The only Reason AT&T can do this is they have the whole market for iphones.

Up until now, I did not have a reason to jailbreak my iPhone. Now I have an excuse to l33t up. Thanks, AT&T!

Jailbreak isn't necessary for unofficial tethering. There's iPhone mobile configuration profiles floating around to enable that in 3.x. Of course, you do run the risk of AT&T charging you for tethering without a plan.

Sigh, I despise AT&T :(

What does "unofficial" iPhone tethering, a la the one-click carrier file change at TechCrunch, cost?

Whatever they want it to.

I'd be careful.

that and it killed visual voicemail for me

If this is true, my hope is that Apple takes this lack of good faith from AT&T as a good reason to not renew exclusivity after the contract ends sometime next year (2010).

Of course, it's also very likely that Apple and AT&T are playing US iPhone users as pawns in their negotiations. I personally witnessed Scott Forstall clearly playing the audience to boo AT&T at WWDC.

I can't imagine any other reaction at WWDC, considering that several very shiny new features were available basically everywhere but the US thanks to Ma Bell.

I really, really hope that the iPhone "officially" opens to other US carriers after the exclusive contract ends.

Welcome to Canada ;)

This makes me so glad I have an iPhone 2G on T-Mobile. I have unlimited calls to five people, unlimited weekends, 300 minutes, 400 messages, unlimited data, and unlimited tethering thanks to PDANet. What do I pay? $41/month TOTAL including taxes and fees. Thanks T-Mobile and iPhoneDevTeam!

Is this even unlimited? I have AT&T with a non-iPhone, and they want $40/month for 5G of tethering. Paying the extra $40 removes the "unlimited" limit on non-tethering, too.

Needless to say, I tether without paying them extra and will be dropping AT&T very soon.

Hmmm. It costs me $175 bucks to break my contract with AT&T. That's basically 3 months of data tethering fees.

I guess I may be returning to T-Mobile sooner than I'd originally thought. (Assuming this is true and not total speculation).

T-Mobile's tethering is no cheaper. I want unlimited tethering, but I don't see any US carrier that will provide me with that service. (Sprint will in one city that has "4G", but I don't live there, so ...)

They charge for tethering now?

It's been a few years since I've had them as my provider, but I was able to tether previously at no additional cost to the $30 data plan I already had.

With AT&T, it's a $30 data charge PLUS $55 for tethering "privileges".

I have an unlimited data plan with T-mobile for my G1, and a free teething app. Maybe I've not tried downloading enough, but I'm unaware of any limit. How would T-mobile even know I was tethering?

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