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Sunday, January 11, 2009

iPhone Tethering: AT&T May Shock Us All and Charge $10

Posted by Aviv

AT&T may shock and surprise most of us as well as their competitors and charge much less than initially expected for an iPhone tethering plan. Additionally, sources report that there is much buzz surrounding iPhone tethering internally at AT&T.

preAn iPhone tethering plan has been in the works for some time now. We know for a fact that Apple and AT&T have been working on a tethering plan, and we know that AT&T has been extremely cautious when dealing with more pressure being put on their 3G cellular network.

When MacBlogz first got word of some initial tethering details, the price of the entire plan seemed a little high, although not surprising. Specifically, the $30 price-point and 5GB data cap did not go over well with most people. These two points were what most people, as well as us have been concerned about the most.

• Will be +$30/month, new iPhone plans may be rolled out with tethering rolled in.
• 5GB Data Cap (just like Blackberry users) - AT&T will automatically turn off your tethering connection if you use too much bandwidth. Of note, the 5GB cap might get sliced for all users, not just iPhone users, in order to accommodate all new tethering plan customers (bandwidth demand).

Without having to contact my colleagues at AT&T, they got a hold of me to share some more information about the plan. To start things off, it did not show up this week, and a launch date has not been set. Recent reports about degradation to AT&T’s 2G service have nothing to do with AT&T clearing up bandwidth space for their 3G network. In regards to what may seem like a slow down of their 2G network, it should kick up faster than before. “Think of it as cleaning up a messy room,” they explained.

The biggest piece of information we learned was that AT&T is playing around with a $10 price-point. This made my eyes light up and I asked them how they could get away with charging a third of what was initially reported, here’s the response I got. “iPhone tethering is primarily an AT&T offering, but it involves Apple at least wanting or allowing the service, which they do. If it doesn’t function as expected, I know of a few people who may lose their jobs,” my colleague explained. “While you may think it’s as easy as streamlining our Blackberry tethering service over to the iPhone, it’s not. Connection may be tied into iTunes, and Apple is incredibly controlling when it comes to this space.”

If AT&T did charge around $10 for independent iPhone tethering, it’s sure to be a hit. Even those on the fence with purchasing or adding this to their cell phone account may do it out of curiosity. $10 per month is much different than $30 per month. As for an expected launch date, nothing has been even internally discussed yet with his department, but we were informed that people are buzzing about iPhone tethering all over AT&T, so it may be sooner rather than later. I’d be surprised if it wasn’t made available before the end of first quarter in 2009.

Original here

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