Gruber found some information that the AT&T tethering plan would cost $55 a month and suggests – but cannot confirm – that this will be in addition to the unlimited data plan already in place, potentially hitting the $85 per month for data. I, like him, find this outrageous and can only pray that this number will be more like $55 total.
On the aggregate, traffic on wireless networks is fairly low. Major carriers built out quite a bit of bandwidth – they just needed the right customers, applications, and phones to use it correctly. When I was a telecom consultant back in 1999 we were already talking about 3G but no one wanted to start up the pipe for fear of – what? I don’t know. Maybe they were afraid people would use it, downloading WAP pages willy-nilly.
I can’t speak for AT&T but in my experience as a billing and “service modification” analyst, the biggest hurdle here is probably a list of millions of names they have to provision with certain services – MMS, for example – and the refusal of marketing to cannibalize on current WWAN dongle sales.
A little insult to injury?
And our Scandinavian friends are all sharing a good laugh at our expense. Unlimited data plans with tethering run about US$20/month in Finland, Norway, and Sweden.
Mmmm, tasty pain!
$55 per month extra for tethering is insane. No one in their right mind would spend that much money for tethering. I predict even more ‘jailbreaking’ to get free tethering.
Or just do what everyone else did. Visit a website and hardcode in the profile for it.
AT&T has chosen to alter the deal. Pray that they do not alter it further.
Whoooper
Great line.
Thoroughly abused by Robot Chicken, too.
How about Cradlepoint or better yet, the Mifi? Pay 60 dollars a month for the Mifi, and use your iphone off of the Mifi wifi connection. Dump the ATT network.
Sometimes the network need to be reminded that they are a just a pipe.
Sprint is way better with their Rev A coverage, which provides real broadband – often I was getting downloads close to 2Mbps and uploads close to 1Mbps – I don’t get such upload even with my Cox broadband. Sprint is better than Verizon as you get unlimited traffic.
LOL i have a Palm Pre and can barely check my email. I wish i could go back to att and the iphone
Would you not use your Iphone, because of no tethering? Nope! You have on today.
AT&T is going to squeeze more money out of an already engaged user base. This is genius of them. I’m sure they’ll play with the price to figure out where on the curve they’ll make the most.
I have an Iphone. I would love tethering on the cheap. I think AT&T is going to make a ton.
http://www.traderbots.com/stocks/Stock.aspx?symbol=aapl
It isn’t genius if you can unlock it and use it on another network like a lot of people do. Besides, you now have the FTC deciding whether or not mobile phone exclusivity goes against consumer interest and Apple seems to be frustrated with AT&T on many levels – I give this relationship until the contract ends, then you can pretty much kiss the exclusivity between AT&T and Apple goodbye.
I’d gladly pay $55/mo if the speed was 1.5Mbps+ and the cap was raised from 5GB to 250GB.
most EVDO card plans range from 50-60 a month right now, so 55 would make sense in that regard.
The problem with that logic is that people who have iPhones are already paying for unlimited data on their iPhones. AT&T is just finding new ways to make money off it.
>are already paying for unlimited data on their **iPhones**
but that’s just it….
Folks, the extra money you will pay for tethering will have a monthly limit on it. In the UK tethering is $60 a month for 10GB allowance.
….and 10GB is probably plenty unless you plan to watch movies on Hulu everyday
i’m guessing (hoping?!?) that the $55 will not be in addition to, but instead of the current $30 plan. So it’s really an extra $25 a month for tethering.
Still too much, but a little more palatable. Otherwise, I’m getting a MiFi…
That is why AT&T isn’t supporting it. Because people, companies, are spending an additional $55 in their revenue for an EVDO card and additional data plan.
Tethering cuts out all of that revenue. Regardless of you having unlimited data on your phone.
It does suck! I say get an EVDO plan/card with another carrier and don’t let AT&T get the revenue until they figure out how to lower the price to bundle the services just like they do with phone, internet and cellular service.
“And our Scandinavian friends are all sharing a good laugh at our expense. Unlimited data plans with tethering run about US$20/month in Finland, Norway, and Sweden.”
As long as there are plans like this, no matter what AT&T says, they’re just screwing people over for more money. Period. Any whining about infrastructure is their own fault for not properly reinvesting earnings.
“And our Scandinavian friends are all sharing a good laugh at our expense. Unlimited data plans with tethering run about US$20/month in Finland, Norway, and Sweden.”
on the down side. you do live in Finland.
No the up side, they do live in Finland.
I’m by NO way defending AT&T. This should not cost $55 on top of $30. However I’d imagine that AT&T’s network is a bit more complicated than our Scandinavian friends. Mostly because the size of the United States.
Mike- The US network may be more complicated, but there are also many more customers and much more profit to be had (and reinvested into the more complicated network)
The US is more complicated than Sweden, but not because of the size. It’s more complicated because of the union workers that AT&T employs.
Come on. You don’t think Europe has any union workers. We rule in this area….US IPhone customers will always be screwed as long as you have the carrier exclusivity which is now illegal in France
Hey, I resemble that remark! Nothing complicated about the Union workers at AT&T – they want AT&T to keep paying for their benefits, keep allowing for double-time rate to kick-in after 49 hours work is completed within a work week, pay their new U-Verse Premise Techs a real living wage with better working conditions for starters. AT&T had 12.9 BILLION in profits in 2008 & 11.95 BILLION in 2007 – they can afford it. Don’t confuse AT&T with GM.
A little investigation would likely show that government subsidies for telecoms in Sweden, Norway, etc., are quite high. They’re paying one way or the other. That’s not to say that AT&T isn’t making a grab for extra cash, but lets not compare them to less open markets.
Thank you! This is the point that people always miss when complaining about American telecom prices/performance vs Europe and Asia.
To be more on topic: your expected usage patter is clearly going to be an order of magnitude higher when tethering. The sad problem is that “unlimited” really means “unlimited FOR A GIVEN USAGE PATTERN”, when your usage pattern changes and that mean bandwidth consumption moves up, carriers see it as an entirely different product they are providing.
EVDO card cost $50-$60 + Verizon SmartPhone Data Plant cost $30 + Verizon Voice Plan cost $39.99 for 450 minutes – That’s mean Verizon is charging $119.99 for all of the above.
ATT’s problem is that they are combining all of the above service in iPhone and charging one price. So, people is thinking that ATT’s charge is higher.
Just watch, what Verizon will be charging when Apple introduce another CDMA phone for Verizon next year….
Yeah, I’ll admit AT&T needs to hurry-up with reasonably priced MMS and tethering, Skype over 3G, etc., but isn’t Verizon known as a super-control-freak when it comes to any apps and services on their CDMA phones? I can recall seeing plenty of websites teaching how to hack their Verizon tainted OS’s simply to get music onto their phones and add your own ringtones (not via Verizon).
The only way AT&T will get away with that tethering rate is if people order it. And since so many people will just have to have it at any cost we will get stuck with paying that rate for a long time.
I agree. But I also think that AT&T should want to stay competitive with what other service providers are charging, or they’ll lose customers. The $55 charge is just a tad bit much!
and what are other providers charging? probably similar prices….
That’s exactly the point. They don’t want you to use it. That’s why the price is so high. AT&T invested so little in their network that they’re afraid iPhone users will break it. If anyone wants to use tethering, I suggest they jailbreak and use it. It’s your data anyway. You paid for it.
And how much are the plans for their LaptopConnect cards? Seems WAY to high, seeing that the data piece is already $30.
I have a Laptop Connect card-terrible except in metro areas. They charge me 59.99/mo for a 5gb plan-with taxes its about $67 per month on top of my cellular bill.
Really my phone service is good I am happy with it, but their prices are WAY to high.
Other than what I said above, I’d like to add this:
Singapore iPhone plans:
Low end:
200 mins/m
1 GB/m
500 SMS/MMS /m = 56 bucks
High end:
1500 mins/m
3 GB/m
1500 SMS/MMS /m = 205 bucks
Keep in mind that even if AT&T does that, other people are still getting screwed harder.
You can’t compare US prices with other countries prices. Cost of doing business in USA is way high than doing business in any foreign country – so, you will never ever get the foreign country price for your iphone unless you move out of USA.
You obviously didn’t read the comment. At all. I’m saying the price is higher compared to what you get in Singapore.
Hey just thought I would let you all know I have my tethering plan on my Iphone 3gs here in England, and it costs $60 for 10gb allowance a month. More here:
http://shop.o2.co.uk/update/internet.html
AT&T – wake the F**K up – the longer you have these outrageous prices the more users will utilize other methods to tether unofficially (PDAnet, etc)
What am I missing? If they charge less per month, won’t more users jump on this? Even if that – how often does the average consumer have the need to tether? A few times a week or a small portion of every day (like commuting to work on a train)?
Average iPhone user uses 450MB per month compare to other smartphone who uses only 45-50MB per month – according USA Today analysis.
If they start giving out tethering, we will see low quality for voice.
People who will not jailbrake and uses tethering will out numbered who will jailbrake and uses tethering.
“US$20/month in Finland, Norway, and Sweden.”
How much of that is based on the infrastructure build-out (co$t) required to service said countries, obviously substantially smaller land mass than the United States?
Singapore is the size of Rhode Island, and we’re charged more here. Way more.
Hey just thought I would let you all know I have my tethering plan on my Iphone 3gs here in England, and it costs $60 for 10gb allowance a month. More here:
http://shop.o2.co.uk/update/internet.html
EDIT: I forgot to add that for each MB extra you want its $0.35 per MB.
They need to start charging for tiered monthly data plans (e.g. 5GB, 15GB, 30GB, etc.), charge overages and sell people into higher data tiers. Then they should just use the “capability” to tether as an up-sell to more expensive phones.
I can get a “free” USB modem from Verizon or Sprint and better 3G coverage for $60/month today. I’d rather spend the extra $5/month with one of those guys than give AT&T any more money than the $110/month I give them now.
This is like ISP’s trying to charge you for the # of computers you have hooked up to your cable or DSL modem. It “sounds” nice to the business people, but it is patently and not consumer friendly.
bah… “patently ridiculous” and the “business people” I refer to are those at AT&T making up the PPT slides for the investors.
I suspect a difficult of charging by the byte is that users don’t have a general idea of how much they need (i.e. no frame of reference). The ambiguity becomes a hurdle the market it.
I’ve had a data plan for years, and I have very little idea of what I would need.
At $55, it would make more sense for me to get a MiFi from Verizon. Then not only could I easily supply connectivity to multiple devices, but I would have service in those areas that AT&T doesn’t cover. $55 additional would be ridiculous.
good point – you know, maybe they are pricing it so high to thwart people from getting it in the first place
I have a pocket pc and have unlimited data and tethering for $60 total. I am also able to plug the sim into my HP broadband card and use it that way…its the great. As for the the iphone deal, if you have a total cost of $85, got to love the apple tax….if the grand total is actually $55… what is the deal ATT? Why am I paying more for the same connectivity?
I wouldn’t call the extra charge an “apple tax”, it’s more of a “usage tax”. iPhone users use about 450 MB of data a month, on average. All other smartphones (RIM, WinMo, Android, and proprietary) average 40MB a month, so iPhone users use 10 times the data of other phones. That’s why we have more expensive data plans. I guess because Apple and the App store make it easier for us to consume data, there could be case for blaming them, but it’s really the users who are to blame! We use a TON of data, we should pay for it.
thats total bull i’m paying 30 dollars extra per month i should be able to tether my iphone. i’m paying for “unlimited data” and they want charge me 55$ extra thats pure greed. who is running at&t gorden gekko? i’m already feeling a sharp pain in my butt every time my bill shows up and they wanna make it worse?
IMO the AT&T data network won’t be able to handle the increase in useage if tethering were affordable. The rediculous price should keep things managable for them until they can improve their network.
Pure speculation machine, GO!
There’s so much free wifi in NYC area, including Optimum Wifi on LI and the ubiquitous Starbucks (free usage if you have a Starbucks card), that I can’t imagine paying AT&T any extra to connect to their service on my laptop. (Though I would like to use my laptop during my approx. 3 hour round-trip commute – but my iPhone 3G is fine.)
BTW, even price-gouging cable operators like Cablevision offer connectivity (Optimium Wifi) to cable customers out of home!
There’s so much free wifi in NYC area, including Optimum Wifi on LI and the ubiquitous Starbucks (free usage if you have a Starbucks card), that I can’t imagine paying AT&T any extra to use the service on another device.
If price-gouging cable operators like Cablevision can offer Optimium Wifi free to cable customers out of home,
There’s so much free wifi in NYC area, including Optimum Wifi on LI and the ubiquitous Starbucks (free usage if you have a Starbucks card), that I There’s so much free wifi in NYC area, including Optimum Wifi on LI and the ubiquitous Starbucks (free usage if you have a Starbucks card), that I can’t imagine paying AT&T any extra to use the service on another device.
If price-gouging cable operators like Cablevision can offer Optimium Wifi free to cable customers out of home,
NO idea why that just happened in my comment post above.
I use Optimum Wifi at my local Metronorth station. It works great on my BlackBerry.
I don’t understand why.
hmmm…where I live in UAE we have a duopoly (actually a fake duopoly but that’s another matter) so my 10gb/month – the only real option available – is USD125 and no where to shop around!
I can speak for AT&T (not officially) and they do not have plenty of bandwidth on their mobile network. Many of their cell towers still have T1s running to them – 1.544Mbps per cell tower. It’s great that you get 7.2Mbps on UMTS, or whatever they’re promising, but the backhaul is not there yet. They need Gigabit Ethernet to these sites ASAP, and it’s very slow going when you have to drop new fiber in place.
If AT&T needs a bail out, why don’t they come out and say it. It’s outrageous to ask for that kind of money. There is going to be a backlash if that’s indeed a monthly fee. Are you sure it’s not $5.5 a month?
I was using my old Samsung clamshell cell phone as a modem back in 2004 with ‘unlimited’ data plan. all you had to do was get a correct USB cord and install the right software on your PC and it connected. this was on the ‘Sprint’ network too… I was paying around $40 bucks additional at the time from what I remember for this ‘unlimited data’ on my phone.
You think technology gets cheaper and easier with time.
Free in denmark!
Here’s the thing. I’ve been vocal to my friends who bought 1st Gen iPhones and balked last year when the 3G came out and I picked up a 3G 2 months ago and didn’t balk when the price dropped or knowing that the 3GS would come out this month and certainly not that the iPhone X will come out next year at this time.
But, 55 dollars for tethering? I’m sorry, but I’m not sure what you all are smoking that in any way that is ok. I don’t even think it should be charged extra. bits are bits are bits and they are getting $30 a month from me already; there is absolutely no need for it to be 55 extra or even 55 total. In what world that is ok I’m not sure. But, you know what? I’m not going to be using it if it’s extra.
Let’s put it this way. AT&T and most operators don’t want you to tether your iPhone to their service with unlimited data.
Core network infrastructure hasn’t changed that much over the last 10 years. Yes there is extra capacity but things like the home subscriber servers (HSS) are still very much centralized and the slowest parts of the network.
Everyone using the AT&T network like this will be a massive fail for the company. They don’t want you to use it until they’ve got a plan in place to increase capacity.
If the Scandanavian countries charge 20 bucks, we should get money back! (Tax joke.)
My 2 regular cells, 1 iPhone w/data, 1 land line, and (choked el-cheapo) DSL runs 240 plus a month already. How much should a household pay for communicaitons?
Perhaps if I could sell my unused minutes to supply a 3rd world country…
Laugh if you will, Verizon users with your fancy high speed wireless networkz!
I am so fed up with these artificial restrictions. I suggest to start a #freetethering day on monday, clogging the tubes and showing the providers that we want what we pay for!
Check it out on Twitter!
That’s why I have a wireless data plan with a portable wifi router through Verizon, for $60. It comes in great when I don’t have AT&T coverage.
so…..when you alter the configs….at&t has no way of knowing if you tether correct?
I just hope you can tether the WiFi connection. This way I could login to Starbucks with the iPhone and pass the connection onto the Laptop without paying.
The big news this moning yall missed was Jammie Thomas-Rasse getting convicted of illegally downloading 24 songs off Kaaza.com the jury awarded the record company $80,000.00 per song thats 1.92 Million Dollars all together they say she actually posted 5000 songs to share peer to pier with her Kazaa.com peers but to make it easy on themselfs and they lawyers they only tried to proof 24 downloads and they won on all 24 counts but Thomas-Rasse she just laugh it off she say you can award 1.92 Million or you can award 1.92 BILLION but I aint gonna pay becuase me a welfare single mother what i’m gonna pay with my foodstamps she say they crazy she’s judgement proof award all you want hold me liable all you want but you CAN’T SQUEEZE BLOOD FROM A ROCK.
In this economy, the 55 dollar plan is just another way for a big communication company to clown the user.
This is outrageous! Totally crap! AT&T sucks too much!
The author is incorrect about data bandwidth. iPhone users consume 40% of all AT&T data bandwidth. Tethering to a laptop will cause AT&T’s net to crawl to a halt at an average 700Kbps download speed. Even when AT&T upgrades its 3G network to 7.2Mbps, current projections are 5Mbps, based on current usage. But then, more smartphone users will be sucking more bandwidth.
Everyone talks about the tethering hack and just doing this without ATT in the know. Maybe for no cost.
ATT can track tethering use or at least they think they can. They tried to charge my company about a year and a half ago for iPhone tethering on a Europe trip. They said they could tell it was tethered. (it wasn’t)
>Major carriers built out quite a bit of bandwidth – they just needed the right customers, applications, and phones to use it correctly
but evidently not, b/c AT&T is having major bandwidth issues these days….
increasing bandwidth is much like building bigger highways – they’re full before they’re even completed.
Does anyone know the O2 pricing for this?
Tethering is live in Australia on Optus for only $9.99, but 6GB of data costs $49.99
Tethering is free in India.
Airtel has free tethering.
I have an iphone. I despise ATT for being a horrible network. There is no way in hell I would pay more for tethering ON THEIR NETWORK. I happily pay Verizon for a data card every month despite the fact that I only use it maybe once every four months. See that is the thing of it right there. I need tethering rarely. When I do need it, it’s crucial that it work. ATT’s network is just too unreliable in my experience and simply doesnt work at all in too many places.
Paying more for more spotty services doesnt make sense. The 3g handset will be my last iphone unless Apple opens it up to Verizon. I’ll wait out my contract and wait out the current exclusive deal with ATT but then I’m done. A revolutionary device is only as good as the network it’s connected to.
In the meantime I rest easy with the knowledge that when I need it my Verizon datacard ALWAYS works when I need it.
testtingg
Love
Peace and Love
I’ve got a Blackberry unlimited plan with AT&T and added tethering for $15/month. I think the total cost per month is around $100.
aaaand I called it: iPhone tethering is disabled by AT&T until they can figure out a way to charge extra for it.
EH, you called what?? Repeating what Apple, AT&T and the rest of the world already knew?
Brilliant.
In Canada, Rogers allows tethering on plans over 1gb/month (they start at $30 CAD) , but they have a promotion going on right now where you can get 6gb/month for $30.
Taken from http://www.rogers.com/web/content/wireless-products/iphone_faqs
Will data charges for tethering be free?
No, tethering data usage will come out of your existing data bucket.
Perhaps AT&T will follow suit eventually
I’m tethering for free right now! It’s the first time ever I can say I’m not getting fleeced by Rogers. It’s a great feeling.
Why does tethering not necessarily work on the iPhone, but works okay for Blackberry users?
I think if AT&T wants to cap data usage on their network they should sell data packages by the GB and you can pay for what you want. They shouldn’t care if the data is used tethered or untethered. Data is Data. instead they sell ‘unlimited’ that really does have limits and then try to add even more fees to tether for ‘unlimited’ yet limited data usage. If the data use is too great for their network they need to package and price data so supply and demand will give them the capitol they need to expand the network.
You guys are nuts to keep comparing other countries plans to what may or may not ever happen in the US with AT&T. When we have huge broadband for no money nationwide, then you can start comparing countries.
The Virgin plan looks most attractive at pay-as-you-go right now pending something else from AT&T.
You can get tethering for $20 a month even with AT&T. Just buy unlocked phone and $20 unlimited data plan and be happy (do not forget to dump your shiny little thing into a garbage can)
Cheers
AT&T is ridiculous! They really need to get it through there heads that people can not afford a Data plan for a phone that cost 55 yet alone $85.
The humor in this is that soon Apple’s contract with AT&T will be over and if not renewed, well lets just say that AT&T will be in a pickle. Where ever the iPhone goes the users will go. If Apple does and I pray that they do ever switch iPhone carriers. I will be one of the first of all iPhone users to give AT&T 200 dollars and rip that 2 year contract in half.
Then AT&T will have 200 dollars from all iPhone users but will be out 30 % of there company. So seeing how AT&T has millions of dollars, 30 % of that is not a few cents.
Even better – the AT&T ETF is only $175.00 USD, not $200.00
As of May 25th, 2008, new and renewing subscribers who enter into one- or two-year service agreements will no longer be required to pay a single, flat early termination fee.
Also -
The $175 charge will be lowered $5.00 USD for each month that one stays in contract.
You would still owe $60 if you cancelled with only 1 month left in your contract, but that would most likely be cheaper than paying one more monthly bill, right?