Ralph De La Vega

AT&T iPhone Tethering to cost $30/month

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 | Business | 1 Comment

Macblogz reports, AT&T iPhone Tethering Plan Specifics, No Unlimited Plan?

Read the article, in summary:

  • Ralph De La Vega announced an official iPhone tethering plan
  • Supposedly, delayed because AT&T is paranoid about how the service will run on their network
  • 5GB Data Cap (just like blackberry users)
  • Initial connection through iTunes? (might be just initial setup)
  • Expected Speeds: GPRS: 30k – dialup speeds / EDGE: 110k – ISDN / 3g: 1000k – slow broadband
  • Will be $30 / month, new iPhone plans may roll out including tethering
  • Do not pro-rate tethering/bandwidth, it can become a nightmare, instead wait until new billing cycle (not sure how this will work)
  • Unlimited bandwidth = AT&T says to get a wireless PC Card
  • No ETA on launch
Some interesting points to watch out for…
A 5GB Data Cap?  We’re seeing bandwidth limits being expressed clearly, that’s one good thing.  On the flip side, they say this is a technical limitiation.  Is the 3G network not everything we had built it up to be?  The posting did say that cap may go down for all users (including blackberry) because of network congestion issues.
At least this doesn’t feel like AT&T is being “big brother” for profit, they are protecting their network.
$30 / month … ouch.  I know blackberry users are already paying this, but if you have an iPhone 3G with tethering, you are now paying $60 a month just for the privilege of the device.  That’s quite the premium to pay.
No idea on launch date — this means that Apple and AT&T have to find out a way to enable tethering natively on the iPhone in such a way that they can disable it if you hit your bandwidth cap.  This should be pretty interesting.  
What about the battery life of the iPhone after being used as a tethered connection?  I know we all use the wifi now, but with a tether we can use much more of the bandwidth — probably a fairly high tax on the battery.  
Of course, battery life isn’t a big deal if the iPhone is physically tethered to the laptop.  I haven’t seen anyone say anything about wireless tethering, just tethering.  Does this mean we need to connect the iPhone to the laptop?  Given the line about iTunes being required, maybe it requires the iPhone to connect to iTunes via USB to enable the tether?  

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iPhone 2.2 Screenshots, Podcast Updates, and Tethering

Friday, November 7th, 2008 | Business | No Comments

Some new news has been uncovered.  In a post on AppleInsider.com, Sam Oliver writes about the new iPhone 2.2 screenshots.  

 

The screenshots (shown above) show a new podcast interface to the iTunes store. Additional changes (reported a while ago) include modifications to the categories screen.  The new screen includes larger icons.  Personally, I prefer having the one line, shorter height categories.  You can fit more on the screen.  

As far as tethering on the iPhone — my bones tell me that AT&T is conjuring up another fictional fee to place on the functionality.  When will the time end that we have to pay a company to stop blocking functionality?

Reported in AT&T: Tethering Coming to the iPhone Soon, on Technologizer — the AT&T Mobility President and CEO Ralph De La Vega just told an interviewer, Michael Arrington, that AT&T is working with Apple to let the iPhone server as a tethered wireless modem for laptops.

This disgusts me.  

First of all, there was an app already out there that let us do this.  Apple removed it.  

Second — aren’t we already paying through the nose for our iPhone?  I’m paying AT&T an additional $30 a month, just to use the iPhone.  

If you’re willing, jailbreak your phone, and install PdaNet for iPhone.  

Hey — AT&T — if you don’t want us jailbreaking the phone, try not to eliminate functionality, spend 3.5 months recreating it, and then charging us for it.

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