Right now I pay $$ to AT&T for home internet, mobile internet (iPhone x2), and will presumably will add an additional data plan with the MacPad.

Could Apple and AT&T be holding off on official U.S. tethering to finally put the mesh data network in place? Customers would pay one fee for ‘data anywhere’. The fee would probably be outrageous, but would be compelling if less than the aggregate of a la carte plans. For me, that number would have to be less than $110/month. The data anywhere plan would apply to any registered device connecting to the network, and would allow you to tether any of them to each other.

If any company could break this traditional inefficient model, replace it with a compelling alternative, and thereby drive widespread adoption, it would be Apple.

I’m assuming with a tablet device this kind of arrangement would come to fruition. I could see the costs of the data plans being fairly reasonable as companies such as T and VZ needing to replace the lost revenue from traditional land lines which are being turned off by the millions each year.

Funding the continued infrastructure investment is important to the two firms and costs of carrying the traffic diminishes on a per account basis as the capacity becomes available and generates new revenue.

I have been thinking something along these lines for quite some time.  There really is no technical reason on the part of the end-user hardware to limit tethering.  And as for claims that the network couldn’t support widespread tethering…meh.  I don’t see it as being a large percentage of iPhone users who would opt to tether…yet.  Now, Apple releases the mythical tablet device.  Let’s call it the iBook . Can Apple realistically hope to sell another device with a SECOND data plan to users?  For most, I doubt it. So Apple is then faced with it being an either/or decision for most between the venerable iPhone and the new-kid iBook.  Apple does not want users to choose one or the other. Apple wants to sell you BOTH. So…how?  iPhone 3G/3GS data plans are now $30/month (on top of your regular voice plan) on AT&T.  The iBook will drive tethering usage through the roof if it can tether with an iPhone.  AT&T WOULD have a problem at that point…unless they have been building up the back end all this time.  Nothing else makes sense for this delay.  What if the new iBook seamlessly tethers to your iPhone and shares its data connection for free or a $10/month up-charge?  Furthermore, tethering works just fine on other devices, but then the monthly fee is more.  $30-$40/month instead.  It incentivizes users to purchase BOTH. A win for Apple. A win for AT&T.

I would expect the iPhone to be able to share their data connection to an ipad or any other wifi device for that matter.  Pricing wise I would look at existing pricing plans.  I doubt the iPhone will get better pricing.  A data only plan on verizon & AT&T is $ 60 which probably includes a $10 device subsidy .  AT&T plan is basically the same.  An add on plan is $30 with a 5gb limit.  AT&T would only lower the price as ateaser rate to suck us all in.  With apple building out their cloud infastructue and the possibility of a evdo/hsdpa combo device maybe Apple will go the mvno route for data like goggle is trying to do with google voice.