One of the big features that has been added to the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S has been tethering. This is where you connect your laptop (I was tempted to say MacBook) to your iPhone and use the iPhone as a modem to connect to the Internet. I have to ask WHY?? I can [...]
Who needs iPhone tethering?
I have to ask WHY??
I can understand the need to access the Internet wirelessly while you are out and about but why use the iPhone. There are some great deals right now where you can get USB stick modems for next to nothing (or just paying postage) and you can get a PAYG 3G SIM and get wireless access for about £2.00 a day or £10 a month. This is as cheap or cheaper than tethering your iPhone and you are not using any of your “unlimited” allowance.
If you think that is too expensive then why not just get a USB stick modem and put your iPhone SIM in it. Configure the APN correctly and you are online for no additional charge. It works great with my O2 iPhone SIM. OK you can’t take calls while you are using it but you can still send and receive Text Messages, and there is no hassle about paying extra for tethering.
My contract has free unlimited data connection bundled on top of the calls package.
Tethering my laptop and unlimited use costs nothing, why buy and pay to use a USB dongle when you can tether a phone for free and most of the time the connection is just as fast.
Indeed in that case I would agree with you, but for the iPhone 3G you have to pay an extra £10 a month for business users (£15 for normal contracts) the ability to use the phone in tethered mode and this is not unlimited (not that the unlimited ones are as they are subject to “fair usage”). This will cost at least £120 a year, and will not be available for PAYG iPhones.
Sorry I forgot to add a link to the O2 page detailing the costs for tethering the iPhone 3G.
http://shop.o2.co.uk/update/internet.html