I am correct in thinking that tethering lets you use your iPhone to connect your MacBook, or whatever, to the 3G network?

If so can you not already do that via a 3G dongle or something like that attached to your MacBook?

I think 5% is already overestimating. If you’re out in the field working and you need to keep working, are you really going to tie up your cell phone so you can use your computer, yet putting you out of contact with the rest of the world? This is what WiFi cards are for. How bad are you gonna feel when your family can’t reach you in the off chance of an emergency because you’re online and your phone is out of service.

@Sir Harry

Those dongles require a separate contract and fee.  The idea is to pay little to nothing extra and use the iPhone as your 3G modem.  The dongles you are refering to are targeted at business users, the so-call “Road Warriors”.

@Tiger,

The ability to simultaniously use voice and data is supposed to be one of the strengths of the 3G technology that AT&T uses (and the rest of the world for that matter).  The technology that Verizon uses limits you to either voice or data, but not both simultaniously.  If both AT&T and Verizon were to offer the iPhone + Tethering (as many moronic armchair quarterbacks want) AT&T would have the superior implementation as the problem you describe would only afflict the Verizon phone.

Differences such as this are at least part of the reason why a Verizon phone doesn’t make sense until Verizon has LTE (around 2011).  Apple’s claim to fame is “It Just Works” and that depends on consistency of user experience.  Having to explain why one iPhone can use data and voice simultaniously, and another visually identical iPhone cannot would hurt that reputation that apple works so hard to cultivate.

After Mr. de la Vega said that iPhone tethering support was coming soon, he changed his stance to say there would be a delay because AT&T needed to first upgrade its wireless network.

What network upgrade is Mr. de la Vega referring to… 10G???

If so can you not already do that via a 3G dongle or something like that attached to your MacBook?

Yes, you can - at an extra $60 month, not counting the cost of the card (and to get that cost down you need to sign up for a couple of years). Why should I have to do that when my phone can act as the card?  Blackberries are allows to do this for $30/month, which I would be willing to pay, but $60 + a commitment over the phone is too much.

are you really going to tie up your cell phone so you can use your computer, yet putting you out of contact with the rest of the world?

Tethering doesn’t prevent your phone from receiving phone calls on any data network.

Yes, you can - at an extra $60 month, not counting the cost of the card

From what I read the Droid tethering costs an extra $30 a month. I may be wrong about that because I personally have not investigated the Verizon plans. Anyway I am wondering if iPhone tethering would be included in our current data plan or would it be a separate charge.

Kind of moot for me right now. My iBook finally bit the dust last week. I think that it is the hard drive because it has so many miles on it that the odometer rolled over twice. I tried disk repair software and had it up for a day then it failed again, another repair didn’t work. The RAM, processor and all check out fine, so maybe I will have the drive replaced, or just get a new MacBook Pro. Last month my G4 MDD failed with arcs and sparks from the power supply. I do have a relatively new iMac and one a few years older that used primarily by the wife.

The original iPhone could not place calls and access data via the edge network at the same time, so I don’t believe that Apple would avoid a Verizon version just because of that.

It does seem pretty clear from what I’ve read that Verizon’s (CDMA?) network does not offer voice and data simultaneously.  It seems an avenue for AT&T to rebut Verizon’s ads, but I guess they aren’t going to brag until they get their reliability in densely saturated networks corrected.

Also, I predict with a great deal of confidence that AT&T will charge some fee for their tethering _plan_ when it is finally offered.  It ain’t going to be free with your iPhone data plan.

I love my iPhone. But AT&T just blows. The sucky part is that I love my iPhone more than I’m annoyed by AT&T. With mobile devices, it helps if you’re not cheap. I still have my Sprint broadband card after the move to AT&T. Yeah, it’s $60/month but damned convenient. It pays for itself everyday.

I agree Bosco.  My sprint EVDO card is worth every penny, and it’s the single reason I haven’t bothered getting an iPhone.

ATT already provides a form of tethering or internet access using their USB units. Why would my use of already existing equipment hinder their system. Notice I say their, after looking at the information provided by the competition I am finding my 3G unit limited by a sparse ATT network. Add to that a company that is out of touch with my needs and does not care about me as a customer and I believe it is time to move. I no longer see ATT as “My phone company”. That is after over 15 years with various versions of ATT/Cingular. One of my contracts is up in January. New year, new carrier and hopefully a new iPhone on that much broader network.

I just can’t wait for an unresponsive corporation to provide services I want and need.

ATT’s approach to tethering with an iPhone is beginning to look a lot like Microsoft—currently being lampooned by Apple in its ad addressing the promises made about the new Windows OS.  Haven’t we heard that line before?

after looking at the information provided by the competition I am finding my 3G unit limited by a sparse ATT network

AT&T is suing Verizon over those ads because of the misperception they give about the network coverage.  They only represent “3G” coverage, but there is no standard definition for 3G.  Verizon’s considers it’s CDMA network “3G” with downstream speeds of about .6mb/s as well as their EVDO network with up to 1.4mb/s, and doesn’t differentiate them in their own coverage maps.  In the Verizon ads, the maps exclude AT&Ts; EDGE network at .4mb/s and only show their UMTS network which offers up to 3.6mb/s which is being upgraded to 7.2mb/s.

If you live in Minaqua, Wisconsin or Minot, North Dakota the differences in coverage may make all the difference.  For most people reading this, I imagine the real problems are for those in the saturated NY and SF markets where coverage exists, but “bandwidth” is saturated (by so many iPhone users) reportedly causing unreliability.

By the way, the previously available tethering solutions/hacks really did show me that tethering would be nice to have for the very rare emergency, but I personally can’t imagine paying too much for it as a separate feature.

Tethering on the 3G/3Gs, and possible the 2G (Have not personally confirmed it) works with voice and data working together on AT&T.  A simple carrier file update of jailbreaking and running a program like MyWi allows for great tethering both on USB, Bluetooth, and WiFi. 

I am running MyWi, which automatically creates an adhoc network with internet tethering.  My laptop connects to it seamlessly and speedtest usually benches at 1.8MB down and 280k up here in SLC.  My iPhone is essentially a wireless router with built in faster than DSL internet.

I have also tested the standard iPhone tethering software and it also works very similarly, however it does not act like a wireless router like MyWi does.