Could someone please explain me the benefit of this?
I mean, when would you really need it? I can not find myself in a situation where I would use it….
What am I missing?

It turns your phone into one of those mi-fi things Pogue was raving about. Open up your laptop and the iPhone in your pocket becomes a personal internet connection. At the moment there are still some things that you might want to access on your laptop via the Internet. Assuming you are with a carrier that allows it then your iPhone becomes a mini personal internet gateway.

If you work in an office every day with a short commute, you have little need for it. On the other hand contractors with multiple job sites and salesmen out and about could benefit from the ability to access supplier’s info and competitor’s web offerings on a screen more suited to making choices and comparisons.

danthemason - 09 June 2009 06:25 AM

If you work in an office every day with a short commute, you have little need for it. On the other hand contractors with multiple job sites and salesmen out and about could benefit from the ability to access supplier’s info and competitor’s web offerings on a screen more suited to making choices and comparisons.

lol, my situation…a 4km (2.5 mile) commute to the office (every single day of the week!) )))

in Europe…with so many different carriers and especially with the giant ‘roaming’ costs it will be useless though….

Tethering can be a life saver in situations where you don’t have access to wifi but need a file on your laptop.  I worked on a project for the Army which required us to download weather forecast GRID files which we then carried to the aircraft and used to calculate cargo release points for dropping supplies.  The files are updated every few hours so if I needed new files I had to have web access.  Sitting at the aircraft I didn’t have wifi but could get a data signal in most cases via a tethered laptop.

When ATT allows tethering I’ll drop my Verizon cellular data plan costing over $60/month, as its poor throughput truly sucks for many hours each day at times of peak usage, and can be flakey at other times even though I have optimal signal strength. Other broadband options aren’t available where I live—and I don’t consider satellite Internet connectivity to be an desirable option!

I sold my badly beaten up 16GB 3G phone yesterday evening for $300 in mere minutes via craigslist, and anxiously await the arrival of my 32GB iPhone 3GS, whether I be able to tether it via ATT or not!

Is tethering a big enough niche for Apple and AT&T to offer it?  Apple obliged.

Unless you need to do editing on the go, iPhone should be sufficient.

Tethering would be good for traders as a back up in case their internet went down.

Mace - 09 June 2009 12:11 PM

Is tethering a big enough niche for Apple and AT&T to offer it?  Apple obliged.

Unless you need to do editing on the go, iPhone should be sufficient.

ATT offers it for other phones.  For BB data is 30 and tethering is 60.  In the area where I live some folks tether their laptop at home rather then paying for broadband via Cable or DSL, then they have it where-ever they go but it’s limited to 5GB per month.