AT&T Finally Allows iPhone to Work as Modem, Proves Apple’s Teflon Rep
November 11, 2008 by Rico Mossesgeld
Filed under Cellphones
The word is that AT&T “is working on a new service that would let Apple iPhone owners use their devices as a modem for their laptop computers.” And of course, there will be a charge for this functionality, which of course is doable on other phones, running on other service providers’ networks.
Look, I totally understand that AT&T has to make money. After all, putting up all that infrastructure isn’t cheap. But charging for phone-as-modem functionality is like charging users for using Bluetooth. Why ask people to pay for a feature that’s already built into the phone?
Even worse, Apple manages to get off without even so much as a complaint, if the comments on the source article are any indication. This is a manufacturer that decided to play along with a service provider’s unreasonable scheme people!
(image by sfgate.com)
Rant and rave all you want but the simple fact is that tethering on 3G is something the cell phone companies have always charged for. The reason is that at good 3G speeds you could replace your DSL service and that amount of traffic is not what AT&T is selling you with your iPhone Data plan. If you don’t get this, maybe you can look at how much the data only plans cost from all of the carriers. Oddly it is about $60/month. No surprise here that AT&T would want more than $30/month for the same service plus unlimited data access for a mobile device.
My only hope is that competition will eventually drive all of these costs down. But right now, ether all the phone companies are working together on pricing or you have to charge about $60/month for 3G style unlimited data.
I’ll let you decide which.
The bandwidth to support unlimited tethering is not “built into the phone.” You might as well argue that because the iPhone could make free calls “if AT&T let it,” that it therefore means AT&T should just offer cell service for free.
Charging users to sync to a PC via Bluetooth as Verizon does is entirely different, because Verizon doesn’t do anything to support that Bluetooth link, nor does it use Verizon’s network.
…and it’s one more leveraging point in Apple’s favor as the yearly-renewal on that “multi-year” contract expires.
Every year at&t has to justify to Apple that the partnership is mutually beneficial.
at&t Guy: Dude! You’re making money! We’re making money! Besides, what are you gonna do? Build a CDMA version?
Apple Guy: Clearwire will let me use WiMax radios and take advantage of whitespace for increased bandwidth, and they have better coverage than you.
at&t Guy: Well, what if we give tehering for free?
Apple Guy: How about you lower the monthly bill by $10 for everybody.
at&t Guy: How about free tethering and $5 off for data?
Apple Guy: How about I go to Verizon with my video phone?
at&t Guy: How about $99 iPhones and free unlimited data? Now, about that video phone…
I don’t know why anyone is surprised or upset about this. If you paid for your actual data usage on the iPhone then AT&T would have no reason to care whether you tethered or not — in fact they’d *encourage* it.
But as it is, Americans seem to demand a silly “unlimited” plan for something that is expensive to provide, so AT&T has to guess at average usage and charge everyone for that amount.
And if you tether your phone to your computer then obviously you are likely to use more data and therefore should pay more.
Guys, I understand that there are bandwidth and financial considerations—this isn’t some demand for low-cost or free unlimited wireless broadband.
Ultimately, we individually decide how much to spend on 3G access (if we want to in the first place). But having to pay for simply tethering that access to your laptop? Why?
Sprint is much better, wish i could put my Iphone on a good network.