no tethering on officially unlocked iPhone

I just don't get it Apple.

My provider (Mobile Vikings - Belgium) allows Tether, so please let me use the tether feature!

When I contact my provider, they forward me to Apple.
Apple forwards me to my provider, since they should be able to activate it ?

Common Apple, why did you guys disabled this feature? We have an unlocked (official) iPhone and we should be able to use ALL the features, especially when we have the permission of the provider.

This is the final stumbling block preventing me from purchasing an iPhone this year. I am not the only one who feels this way, and I feel truly sorry for the people who already purchased an iPhone, believing the lies in Apple's false advertising.

Both of my mobile carriers allow tethering with my cell phones already. I have the money right now, and it is burning a hole in my pocket, but not for long.

Christmas is coming quickly. Nokia, Blackberry, Motorola, Android, etc, are rising!

This is NOT what they meant by "Think Different"

I finally upgraded to 3.1.2 - the first time I lost tethering - like others posted it was there and disappeared in front of my eyes. I then put the phone in recovery mode and reinstalled the firmware and synced it then I got tethering back. After that I did a jailbreak (I need bash to run server monitoring scripts) but that had zero impact on it. Tethering worked before and after jailbreak and I have toggled all settings - it has not disappeared again.

I did my homework beforehand - there are mobileconfigs to restore this functionality to 3.1.2 now. I did not have to apply any new configs though. I wish I had logged everything step by step to help others with this. I upgraded and synced it about five times through several methods before I got tethering back. It is definitely possible to retain it though!

In Finland the regulatory authority (Ficora) requested official comments on the issue from TeliaSonera (the Apple partner ISP in Finland) which then requested comments from Apple.

Executive summary:

- Apple (Catherine A Novelli, VP of Worldwide Govenment Affairs) responded that "Apple has adopted a careful approach to the introduction of tetherting and has not introduced it as a generally available feature" because "some carriers worldwide do not allow tethering on their networks". Catherine explains to Ficora that "Following the introduction of iPhone OS 3.0 in June 2009, Apple became aware that some consumers were "hacking" their iPhones to enable tethering manually" and says that this lead to the decision to disable tethering in 3.1.

- Ficora believed Apples explanation and decided that TeliaSonera is not breaking Finnish law. Thus they will not do anything about the issue.

I must say that I am very disappointed about Ficoras decision on not to do anything about this. Finnish law is fairly clear on this and IMO this decision would not hold up in courtroom.

The copy of Apples response has some phrases blacked out as Apple has marked them as trade secrets. One of there is interesting:

"Apple is therefore currently working on a software implementation whose goal is to extend the tethering service to all mobile carriers worldwide (regardless of whether the carriers are Supported Carriers or unsupported carriers), while allowing mobile carriers to "opt out" of this service if they have specific concerns about the tethering on their networks. If this software implementation can be developed it will permit the use of tethering on unlocked iPhones on any carrier in Finland, unless the carrier specifically opts out of the service. #### couple of lines blacked out ###"

This gives some hope that the issue will be corrected in future.

Posted Apples full letter to Finnish authorities here: http://www.jole.fi/blog/2009/11/29/Apple-responds-to-iPhone-3-1-tethering-block. html

I'm in Canada and using the Fido network under contract. I had tethering I think prior to the last update, and now I don't. Still looking for a solution to this bug.

Buongiorno, scrivo in italiano perché tanto sono sicuro che se vogliono alla Apple la mia lettera la capiscono. Vorrei che nel prossimo aggiornamento del firmware venisse riattivata la possibilità di usare il tethering, Con tutti i gestori funzione con la quale avete pubblicizzato il nuovo 3gs e poi inspiegabilmente tolta. Se ci sono stati dei problemi filtrate i singoli casi perché con wind Infostrada nessuno ha mai avuto difficoltà e poi se c'è qualcuno che è così stupido da spendere migliaia di euro superando i limiti di traffico non è giusto che ci vadano di mezzo tutti gli utenti. Grazie

{quote:title=applefoam wrote:}
Buongiorno, scrivo in italiano perché tanto sono sicuro che se vogliono alla Apple la mia lettera la capiscono. Vorrei che nel prossimo aggiornamento del firmware venisse riattivata la possibilità di usare il tethering, Con tutti i gestori funzione con la quale avete pubblicizzato il nuovo 3gs e poi inspiegabilmente tolta. Se ci sono stati dei problemi filtrate i singoli casi perché con wind Infostrada nessuno ha mai avuto difficoltà e poi se c'è qualcuno che è così stupido da spendere migliaia di euro superando i limiti di traffico non è giusto che ci vadano di mezzo tutti gli utenti. Grazie{quote}

You probably mean:

Hello, I'm writing this message in Italian because I want to make sure Apple understands my letter. I hope that the next firmware update re-enables the ability to use tethering with all operators, a function which you advertised on the new 3GS and then inexplicably removed. Maybe there were individual problems but they were probably filtered by Italian mobile operator Wind Infostrada. No one ever had great difficulties using tethering. Anyone so stupid of spending thousands of euros overcoming the limitations on the mobile network is not right; we should all get a solution. Thanks

Note: sorry if there are mistakes, I'm not a good Italian student at all 🙂

Anyway, Apple are trying to bake their cake and eat it too.

Many, many, many features are tied to mobile operators.

Why?

Don't know.

Sell me an iPhone, all features enabled, don't care if my mobile operator has them or not. Less than 500 bucks. Or £300.00 if you work in sterling (the currency, not the place, although it is a nice place).

APPLE YOU WOULD KILL THE MOBILE MARKET.

But hey, keep on shooting yourself in the foot (or stalk, to relate back to Apples)

Sorry I digress, but anyway, 12 hours later, hacked iPhone, 3.1.2, tethering working, on an unsupported network, though you don't want it to Apple.

Thank God I am an I.T. Professional.

Stop cutting deals with mobile operators and sell the best phone on the market as a ......... erm ........... phone?

By the way, my favourite colour is blue. You make white and black phones.

Gave up waiting for Apple to fix this problem and fixed it the dirty way by doing a jailbreak.

(Can not post any link to instructions on how to do this is it would lead to removal of this message from the forum, sorry)

Dear Apple! If SOME carriers object to enabling tethering on, just let them send you ipcc profiles (or how this thing is called?) with tethering disabled.

Your current decision to disable tethering in default profile makes ALL other carriers in the world to contact you and prepare ipcc profile with tethering on, this is plain stupid! Ordinary carrier with no partnership with Apple does not care about ipcc profile at all, neither it knows anything about it.

Please return the whole thing to normal. I have bought an iPhone for $800 in my country, I do not understand why I must suffer because some carrier on the other side of he globe "objected" to this feature.

Just to bring it up again:
AT&T last fall said it would enable tethering "before the end of the year".
It didn't.
But they never said which year.
I am very disappointed as a customer.
There are 3rd party products which re-enable it.
But bvoth companies share culpability for opening the door, promoting it and then disabling it and failing to deliver an alternative.
Caveat Emptor.

Looks like our problem might be solved with the 3.1.3 update, at least on the 3G iPhone.

comments from different sites
"Seriously, I'm able to use tethering now on my officially unlocked 3G. Can't believe it, have been waiting for MONTHS now (including a ticket with Apple that tethering should be enabled on offically unlocked devices)." ( http://www.9to5mac.com/iPhone-3-1-3-here)

"Enables tethering for factory unlocked phones!
Great news for users of factory unlocked iPhones. This update reenables tethering. I am actually writing this post from my MBP which is connected to a factory unlocked iPhone 3G (carrier is o2-Germany) using USB-Tethering! Thought some of you might find this interesting! I love it!"( http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=9205445#post9205445)

I am still waiting for some more user experiences before upgrading, I don't wan't to loose time again downgrading to the iPhone OS 3.0 to get my tethering back. But it looks promising...

Confirm that it is back.