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AT&T won't support Tethering on the 3GS!?! WTF!

After updating to iOS4 I decided to explore the new option for Internet tethering (since we've been waiting for a year for AT&T to support it). After switching to the DataPro 2G service I could not find an option on the AT&T website to turn on tethering, so I called them. What they told me is that they will only support tethering on the iPhone 4!!! You've got to be sh!?ing me! Is this AT&T's way of getting us to upgrade to an iPhone 4 and lock into a new 2 year contract? Or am I missing something?

MacBook Pro 17, Mac OS X (10.6.4), Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.4 GHz, 4GB

Posted on Jun 23, 2010 6:18 AM

24 replies

Jun 24, 2010 6:30 AM in response to bikebum

I think I read that AT&T will also want an additional $20 a month over the cost of the data plan for you to tether the iPhone 4.

Yes, and you have to change your unlimited plan to one of their (very) limited plans for untethered data.

TOD1954

Level 1

0 points

Jun 24, 2010 6:40 AM in response to Malcolm Rayfield

Here is a link to the AT&T site explaining tethering.

http://www.iphonedownloadblog.com/tag/tethering/

You must have the 2G plan and pay a one time $20 activation charge.

Jun 24, 2010 9:13 AM in response to TOD1954

TOD1954 wrote:
Here is a link to the AT&T site explaining tethering.

http://www.iphonedownloadblog.com/tag/tethering/

You must have the 2G plan and pay a one time $20 activation charge.

The article only mentions iOS4, NOT that it will only be available on the iPhone 4. This is my problem with the news that they will not support the 3GS!

Jun 24, 2010 10:51 AM in response to TOD1954

TOD1954 wrote:
Here is a link to the AT&T site explaining tethering.

http://www.iphonedownloadblog.com/tag/tethering/

You must have the 2G plan and pay a one time $20 activation charge.

mogjht want to check again - it is not a one time 20.00 charge, it is a monthly reoccuring charge

here is a pretty good article

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Apple-Updates-Requirements-for-iPhone-Internet-Te thering-145295.shtml

jinniferb

Level 2

156 points

Jun 24, 2010 2:07 PM in response to Raymond Chase

It DOES support the 3gs, my boss has tethering on his and it works fine.
You just have to downgrade to a smaller data package and pay an extra fee to get it (assuming you are grandfathered into an unlimited data plan).

markgca

Level 1

5 points

Jun 25, 2010 9:00 AM in response to jinniferb

the first time i called they said 4g only; the second time i called they said if i downgraded my data plan from unlimited to 2gb an option would appear in the features selection list. Neither was true.

so i called again; this time i got someone who knew what they were doing, and they enabled tethering on my 3G phone; it works fine both with usb and bluetooth, so i ended up dropping my extra datacard plan, hopefully saving me a few $$$ unless i go over the 2gb! (which i likely will, but still the $60 a month savings on the data plan should cover it, although the tethering speed is quite a bit slower so far)

Jun 25, 2010 9:11 AM in response to markgca

First you have to activate it by the AT&T wireless site. Login to your wireless bill at http://www.wireless.att.com. Then click "Manage Features" on the right next to the picture of your phone. Apple won't let me do table view but this is the rundown and it's on the far end of the info below:
iPhone Bundles Bundled Features PRICE TEXT DATA SELECT
iPhone 3G Data Features Enterprise Data Plan for iPhone
$45.00 N/A Unlimited Select
DataPro 2GB for iPhone Enterprise
$40.00 N/A 2GB Select
Data Plan for iPhone
$30.00 N/A Unlimited Current
DataPro 2 GB for iPhone
$25.00 N/A 2GB Select
DataPlus 200 MB for iPhone
$15.00 N/A 200MB Select
_*iPhone 3G Tethering Features DataPro 2GB for iPhone Enterprise Tethering*_
$60.00 N/A 2GB Select
_*DataPro 2 GB for iPhone with Tethering*_
$45.00 N/A 2GB Select

Messaging Bundled Features PRICE TEXT DATA SELECT
Messaging Packages Messaging Unlimited
AT&T Recommends $20.00 Unlimited N/A Select
Messaging 1500
$15.00 1500 N/A Select
iPhone Messaging 200
$5.00 200 N/A Current
Messaging 200
$5.00 200 N/A Select
I no longer want to add this feature $0.00 --- --- No Thanks

Ziatron

Level 5

4,186 points

Jun 25, 2010 9:18 AM in response to Raymond Chase

Oddly, Youtube has info on tethering iPhone.

Jun 25, 2010 6:10 PM in response to markgca

markgca wrote:
the first time i called they said 4g only; the second time i called they said if i downgraded my data plan from unlimited to 2gb an option would appear in the features selection list. Neither was true.

so i called again; this time i got someone who knew what they were doing, and they enabled tethering on my 3G phone; it works fine both with usb and bluetooth, so i ended up dropping my extra datacard plan, hopefully saving me a few $$$ unless i go over the 2gb! (which i likely will, but still the $60 a month savings on the data plan should cover it, although the tethering speed is quite a bit slower so far)

This is exactly the same situation I originally ran into. After calling a second time, it turns out that everything is setup correctly and you can tether a 3GS (as noted here already). All replies on this original post were helpful and possibly even got the ball rolling correctly at AT&T (or maybe not).

AT&T won't support Tethering on the 3GS!?! WTF!