A common complaint among Apple iPhone users is that even though the device is built for Wi-Fi and 3G, the iPhone can't be tethered to a laptop to provide access to the Web. But it looks like mobile iPhone users who want to ditch the expensive
Wi-Fi card may have a glimmer of hope.
AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph De La Vega confirmed in an interview with Michael Arrington at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco that a sanctioned tethering method is on its way "soon," Mobile Crunch reports.
Tethering an iPhone isn't necessarily a new concept to iPhone users because there are applications that will allow you to do just that. The problem is that to make a tethering application in its current form, the phone has to be jail-broken and there could be repercussions from AT&T.
Tethering an iPhone to a laptop is a relatively easy process. On a jail-broken iPhone you simply need the right combination of applications. Once those are downloaded, you set up a wireless network on the laptop, join it with the iPhone and then use those downloaded applications to start surfing AT&T's 3G.
But official adoption by a corporation in the business of making money will also mean an official cost will be paired with the functionality, and that could be the deal-breaker for most people. If AT&T comes out with an exorbitant price, then jail-broken iPhone users won't make the switch. Cost-conscious iPhone users might balk at too high a price and just leave well enough alone and continue to surf the Web on their phone.
On the other side of the coin, providing customers with a 3G- and Wi-Fi-- enabled mobile device that could be paired up with a laptop so you could surf relatively quickly and reliably is a pretty good story to tell those on the fence. And that story gets even sweeter if the associated costs aren't all that expensive.
No word on what the cost of iPhone tethering will be or when it will be available.
