iPhone tethering on AT&T still waiting on better network performance
By Chris Ziegler 
posted April 28th 2010 6:24PM
posted April 28th 2010 6:24PM
Coincidentally, that's almost identical to a statement the company issued last September, but regardless, AT&T can't necessarily afford to meet its network "performance objectives" before acting -- Verizon's announcement that Palm's Mobile Hotspot app would become a free add-on with the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus was a serious shot across the bow of any other American carrier trying to woo business customers and road warriors. Think it'll go live before the next iPhone does?"We understand that there is great interest in tethering but cannot provide any details at this time. We know that iPhone users love their devices and mobile broadband, and that they're likely to embrace tethering just as they have other features and apps – by using it a lot. iPhone tethering has the potential to exponentially increase traffic, and we need to ensure that we're able to deliver excellent performance for the feature – over and above the increases in data traffic we're already seeing – before we will offer the feature."
Facepalm.
@SolidSnake HPALM!
@SolidSnake They shouldn't bother with this generation of iPhones. Should be a feature with 4g and 4g only.
@j4g3rb0mb3d
Rofl at the ignorance of that comment...
The 3g and the 3gs have shown they are more than capable of tethering. Heck, the 2g doesn't even suck at it that badly......
@SolidSnake
i am eating pizza now...
just want you to know, and now that i have posted news i can commit theft and hide behind journalistic / Blog protection
@SolidSnake When you don't receive your commissary as was promised.... JAILBREAK
@Vellie
Or just jump ship. I went to the HD2 and tethering came right out of the box! Along with 16 bit color, flat widgets, Stylus oriented OS hack into a fingeresque friendly one... Hmmmmm.... Yeah, iPhone makes up for it in other areas
@SolidSnake
MyWi FTW!!
AT&T it has NOTHING to do with bandwidth. If you can support the bandwidth of the 3G iPad, which the WiFi iPad with only 500k units over WiFi accounted for a notable fraction of ALL web traffic inside of one month. Then you could AND can support tethering. There's more going on behind closed doors they're keeping from us. THANK YOU.
@Joe Cool LOL just get any good phone... i mean tethering is out of the box with a lot of phones apple apparently just doesnt know how to do it, innovating not their strong suit anymore :/
@SteveyAyo As the article mentions, the reason tethering still not being available is AT&T's network; nothing to do with Apple.
@SteveyAyo Apple does know how to do it. I started tethering as soon as I got my 3GS last summer. I'm from the UK by the way.
It's not apples fault it's the networks. Luckily (for me) international carriers seem to get there arses in gear alot quicker that AT&T.
@SolidSnake
So wait they saying waiting on better network performance so um what's going to happen to video calling? probably be wi-fi only.
@SolidSnake my only point is that why would you bother when 4g is right around the corner? I have no ill feelings toward the iPhone. Have you ever had a 3g dongle for your computer? They are slow, incredibly slow. Have you ever tried Sprint's 4g hotspot? It's great, and that's where the effort should be directed for the iPhone especially since the general consensus is that the new iPhone is going to have 4g in it.
@mykenyc85
I wish there was a edit button in the comments not going to correct myself i know my own fail.
@SteveyAyo Tethering has been built in since 3.0, AT&T just is a POS and can't handle it
@mykenyc85
Actually, I did see a rumor that the iphone 4g is only going to be able to do video conferencing on wifi only.
@jeremymc7
Uh....there are many many more iPhones than iPads. All the 3g ipads in the world wouldn't even come close to the amount of data iPhones would pull if tethering was enabled.
@SolidSnake Fucking AT&T.
@jeremymc7 Wait till that 3G iPad hits the streets en masse... I have a feeling my iPhone's 3G ability will dwindle to nothing.
I wonder how many iPad users would need a 3G iPad if they could just tether with their iPhone... Seems like there are a lot more factors playing into the "no tether" policy than just network performance.
@j4g3rb0mb3d
@SolidSnake I don't blame the network. It's the iPhone's problem. My Nexus One is fantastic on AT&T with 3G and almost no dropped calls.
Again...there are network problems with iPhone.
@SolidSnake : [when asking Steve Jobs about tethering],
Me: What's the state of tethering for iPhone
Steve: What's tethering?
Me: huh? but you announce-d......
Steve: [turns to henchmen] Take him away. And do what you must do.
Gave up on tethering last year. Moving on.
EVO 4G FTW!!!
@j4g3rb0mb3d
That's sweet the iPhone will have 4G support. I'm really excited to use it on AT&T's 4G network.
On this I do feel sorry for iPhone owners. Even though it's not Apple's fault, it is inexcusable for these feature to be missing. And seriously, with the clout that Apple has, how can they not apply some pressure on AT&T to get their act together. This whole thing is a mess.
@Vellie lol surprised anyone on Engadget knows what commissary is. Unfortunately I learned the hard way.
@SolidSnake
I already have technology equivalent to the pres ability.thanks jailbreaking!!
@SolidSnake
i think you guys are completely missing the point. Of course the iPhone *can* tether. But considering the millions of iPhones out there, when you give those users the capability to suck even more data down in a new way with their iPhones, network QoS will suffer. The article even plainly states that "iPhone tethering has the potential to exponentially increase traffic". AT&T is also the only home to the iPad and this fall Windows Phone 7 phones get added to its lineup. That's a lot of devices and a lot of data.
@bjsguess AT&T doesn't *have* a 4G network, and they have said they won't have LTE available until mid-2011 at the earliest, a year after the new iPhone will ship. So I would be very surprised to see the new iPhone come with a 4G/LTE chipset if it's still an AT&T exclusive.
@dcbw
I'd be surprised to. The guy I was replying to was telling people to wait for the new 4G iPhone. Doubt it comes this year ... and if it did - totally worthless in the US right now.
@psc2
Yes I use this too.
@DeFlanko
Wow AT&T!! I have just one question for you. Don't you feel embarrassed BS-ing people so frankly? I mean, don't you think for once how much more stupid, than you pretend, it makes you sound like?
@bjsguess ppl saying 4G are referring to 4th generation... not the network speeds... but yah - they should stop calling it that - HD is likely the new moniker
Meanwhile...
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/01/verizon-mobile-hotspot-on-webos-devices-now-free/
@Justin Ried
haha nice. it still gives me a laugh that people would actually pay extra for this when its been wirelessly done for years now with symbian on various nokias via joikuspot. even windows mobile has been doin it for a couple of years now.
i guess its things like this that cause our american carriers to be reluctant to subsidize such phones.
iPhone tethering...waiting for a different network...
I f'ng want terhering on my ipad, dammit.
@Springdaddy - Well you can blame Apple for that one...
@Springdaddy
and then thank jailbreaks in a few weeks...
this is why i'm feeling a 4G phone like the evo that can handle this shit
@IAMKITTY
I use WinMo WiFiRouter on my Touch Pro2 all the time. 3g is perfectly capable of handling tethering. Just not At&T's 3g.
@Delta AT&T's 3G handles the occasional bit of WinMo or Andriod tethering just fine. An entire network of iPhone's suddenly tethering however is scary for any mobile operator that has such a large proportion of iPhones. Even though the European carriers allow it, they didn't have to worry as much since the iPhone doesn't have quite the market penetration there as it does here in the US.
@Luxury Guy Loads of people have iPhones here in the UK, they're basically the smartphone to get. Although blackberrys and androids are very popular.
I might be because most (all) European countries have a smaller population to that of the US and so will naturally have less data flying on the airwaves.
@Luxury Guy Agreed, I don't think any network could handle all the iPhones AT&T has + tethering at the same time. Yes, Verizon has tethering for Palm, but is Palm as popular as the iPhone?
@Luxury Guy The vast majority of iPhone users probably have no damn clue what tethering is. Of those that do, a significant number have probably already used jailbreak to enable it since AT&T has been saying "soon" for a almost 2 years now. Not sure what the real root of the issue is, but saying that your network can't handle it year after year is going to come back to bite them in the ass big time.
I WANT A PALM DEVICE FOR FREE!! WITH TMO NETWORKING!!!
Jailbreak ftw.
@madwh
I prefer full functioning products without jailbreaking.
"Think it'll go live before the next iPhone does?".
No.
S. Jobs
Sent from my iPad
@AyeJay85 AT&T will allow tethering right after they introduce tiered plans based on your data use.