iPhone Atlas

iPhone tethering is awesome, but will you really have to pay $55 per month for the privilege?

iPhone tethering is coming soon (or now if you're up for a quick and easy hack), meaning you'll be able to use your handset as a wireless modem for your PC. But at what price?

Rumors have been flying that AT&T will charge as much as $70 per month for tethering privileges, but now mobile-apps blog Appmodo is citing "a source with AT&T" that the cost will be $55.

Note to AT&T: Over my dead body.

Most of the people on this planet think you're already charging too much ($70/month minimum) for voice and data. Now you want $55 more for tethering, which is really just an extension of the data plan we're already paying for?

If that rumor pans out, you'd better have a thick skin, because the blogosphere will tear you a new one. And I will be leading the charge, as that kind of unmitigated greed makes my blood boil.

Now, if that $55 figure is for data and tethering, meaning you're adding only $25 to the monthly bill, we can discuss it reasonably. That's still way too much, but at least it doesn't bury the needle on the Ridiculous Meter.

Over to you, readers: what's a fair price for tethering? Interestingly, I just today used my hacked-for-tethering iPhone in a coffee shop where the Wi-Fi wasn't working, and it totally saved the day.

So there's value here, and consequently I'd pay an extra $5 for it--maybe even $10. (Actually, a pay-as-you-go option would be dynamite.) But $55? Come on, AT&T. Seriously?

Update: AT&T's Facebook page says the $55/month-tethering rumor is just plain false. So what will the price be? "We'll have more news to share when the iPhone tethering option is closer to launch." Whenever that is. I'm glad to see a seemingly official response, but enough with all the cloak-and-dagger, already!

During the WWDC keynote, AT&T was strangely absent from Apple's list of carriers that will support tethering in iPhone OS 3.0. AT&T has since explained that it will support tethering later this summer, but many iPhone users are champing at the bit for the added functionality. If you're one of the eager masses, use this how-to to enable tethering on any iPhone running iPhone OS 3.0--without jailbreaking--on a Mac. (Other blogs have reported Windows tethering steps; please see our links at the end of this piece.)

Difficulty level:
Medium

What you need:
>Mac OS X 10.5 or later
>Download this carrier settings file from gizmodo.com and double-click it to mount it in Finder
>iPhone OS 3.0 (7A341) Gold Master final release for iPhone (see below note)
>First prerelease version of iTunes 8.2 (download link)
>Final release version of iTunes 8.2 (download link)

Notes:
iPhone OS 3.0 will be available to all iPhone users on June 17.

Standard disclaimers apply here. Please read your contract terms of service carefully before proceeding to ensure that you are not breaking your iPhone carrier agreement. Also, while these methods have worked for most people, we cannot guarantee that they will work for you, and you must make these modifications at your own risk. If you do not feel comfortable making these modifications to your phone, we urge you not to try.

(Credit: Apple, Inc.)

Setting up tethering for your iPhone

Uninstall iTunes 8.2 Mac

1. Drag the Application iTunes from the apps folder on your Mac to the Trash.

2. Launch Activity Monitor from Applications/Utilities and kill the iTunes Helper process.

3. Go to Finder. Navigate to your ~/Library folder and delete the iTunes folder at ~/Library/iTunes.

4. Navigate to ~/Library/Preferences, locate the following three files, and drag each one to the Trash: com.apple.iTunes.eq.plist, com.apple.iTunes.plist, and com.apple.iTunesHelper.plist

5. Empty the Trash

Install iTunes 8.2 prerelease Mac

6. Install the iTunes 8.2 prerelease you downloaded.

7. Connect your iPhone with iPhone OS 3.0 software loaded on it to your computer with the standard USB sync cable.

8. Once the iPhone is connected, go to the Device Summary page in iTunes.

9. While pressing and holding the Option key on your Mac, click the Restore button in iTunes

10. Browse to the mounted carrier settings file you downloaded and mounted above and select the ATT_US.ipcc file. iTunes will now perform an upgrade on your iPhone and display the following message:

Set up tethering on your iPhone

11. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone and go to General and then Network while your iPhone is still tethered to your computer.

12. Locate "Internet Tethering" and turn it on.

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If tethering is successful, you will see a message that is similar to the following:

Go into Preferences Network select the adapter as displayed above, and you'll see something similar to this as it becomes active:

Your iPhone will display a blue background banner on different screens to indicate that tethering is active and running as shown below.

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Our brief tests found tethering to be zippy fast on an iPhone 3G. Your experiences may vary, but we would like to hear about them in the comments.

06/18/09 at 1:30 PM PDT: This post was updated to reflect some additional tethering information.

According to CrunchGear you can also turn tethering on and MMS directly from your iPhone by visiting this Web site using Mobile Safari: http://help.benm.at/help.php. We tested tethering and that worked, but have yet to get the MMS portion of this Web sites hack up and running.

You can go to this site that we found via gizmodo.com and get some instructions on performing these hacks on a Windows computer.

Gizmodo also notes that "Some people are reporting that these hacks can screw with your visual voicemail. Careful! " While we have not seen this happen yet - it is possible that performing an iTunes restore on your iPhone will resolve the issue, but erase all the hacks as well.

06/17/09 at 10:15 AM PDT:This post was updated to reflect some sourcing and additional tethering information.

willson556 and gointoscott in the comments below suggest a shorter version - replacing Steps 1-6 with a defaults write command for users with the release version of iTunes 8.2. We've tried this version and can confirm that it, too, works.

b3baby in the comments below asks if this hack will also work on a desktop. This hack will work on any Mac - desktop or portable. We tested it on an iMac and a Macbook Pro.

thisismatthewcrosby2 in the comments below complains about issues with his Mac not seeing his iPhone - suggest doing the iTunes removal step again - be sure to delete the three appropriate COM files and re-install iTunes.

Once the hack is complete you can re-install iTunes 8.2 if needed, but future updates may undo the hack.

(iPhone Atlas came up with this process independently, but other publications, including 9to5Mac here, have come to the same conclusion).

On Monday, Apple announced at its Worldwide Developer Conferences in San Francisco that it plans to finally add data tethering to the iPhone, which will turn the device into a wireless modem to connect laptops to 3G networks.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Updated at 4:09 p.m. PDT with a link to a Boy Genius report and a clarification on when AT&T expects MMS and tethering service to be ready.

iPhone users across the U.S. were disappointed Monday to learn that AT&T, the only operator in the country offering the iPhone, won't immediately support a couple of key new features in Apple's new 3.0 operating system that will be available starting next week. But AT&T says these features are coming.

On Monday, Apple announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco that it plans to finally add data tethering to the iPhone, which will turn the device into a wireless modem to connect laptops to 3G networks. It also announced that the new 3.0 version of the iPhone operating system will support multimedia messaging messaging.

These features have topped iPhone users' wish lists since the phone was launched two years ago. But millions of iPhone users in the U.S. will have to wait a little bit longer. That said, AT&T says the features are coming soon.

We've extensively covered drama surround tethering on the iPhone (here, here and here). This time we are writing with a more positive tone -- it looks like AT&T, along with Apple, will finally bring a Phone-as-Modem (PAM) tethering plan to your iPhone soon.

This week AT&T Wireless CEO Ralph de la Vega indicated that tethering is coming to the iPhone 3G "soon." He spoke about this deveopment at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco while being interviewed by TechCrunch's Michael Arrington.

AT&T already offers tethering plans for other phones, including certain RIM Blackberry phones, but not for the iPhone, even though Apple's device can support tethering. The cost of the extant tethering service is $60 monthly, and the plan includes what is already offered by the current iPhone data plans. Its not known whether the iPhone will get the same terms of service.

Regardless De La Vega indicated that both AT&T and Apple are working together to bring tethering to the iPhone 3G.

Jailbreakers have been using tethering for almost as long as we can remember. The tethering method on jailbroken iPhones as evolved from being a manual process to one that can be accomplished via elegant apps such as iModem.

iModem, one of the few for-purchase applications left that requires an iPhone to be jailbroken, allows users to tether their phones (use them as cellular data modems) via USB cables on Windows systems. Most tethering solutions thus far have required the use of a WiFi connection, requiring sometimes difficult setup.

A new release of iModem claims to do away with the need for proxy settings--a hallmark of tethering solutions--and also purports enhanced stability.

The tool requires Windows 2000, XP, Vista 32/64 bit and is priced at $10.

Apple previously removed NetShare, an originally approved tethering application, from the iPhone AppStore, encouraging some users to jailbreak (enable unofficial application installation) their phones and install the unauthorized solutions such as iPhoneModem or iModem.

Rumors hold that Apple is in talks with AT&T regarding sanctioned tethering. Steve Jobs is quoted as saying, in response to complaints about tethering, "We agree, and are discussing it with AT&T."

(Credit: Mac-Addict)

The application basically turns your iPhone into a portable Wi-Fi hotspot, giving all of your Wi-Fi-enabled devices internet, wherever you have a cell signal. There are similar solutions available for iPhone users who have jailbroken their handsets, but they are significantly more complicated than Nullriver's offering, and since they require a hacked phone, don't hold mainstream appeal.

Briefly available, NetShare allowed iPhone users to take advantage of tethering their 3G and EDGE connections to their computers.

(Credit: MacRumors.com)

Those of us who were not quick enough to grab the app while it was available on the App Store seem to be out of luck for now. Links to the application now pop up with an error message that reads, "The item you've requested is not currently available in the US store." It's not exactly clear what happened with NetShare, how it slipped through the cracks, or why it was pulled. The app may have accidentally gotten through in the avalanche of new applications that are being added to the store, however it seems unlikely that someone at Apple would have signed off on this app, not knowing what it did. It would appear that either Apple, AT&T, or both had cleared the application, then quickly reconsidered. Apple has not yet responded to a request for a comment on the issue.