Shelling out extra for iPhone tethering plan: OUTRAGEOUS!

If you’re in the know with the latest iPhone news, then you’ve already read about Apple and AT&T discussing the possibility of an iPhone tethering plan.  If you’re not in the know, educate yourself!.

The fact that they’re thinking about charging an ADDITIONAL 30 dollars just for a tethering option is absurd.  Somebody please smack some sense in me, but I thought we already shelled out a required 20/30 dollars a month (for 2G/3G respectively) for unlimited data???  If you’re like me, and you’re always in an office with WIFI, you probably don’t scratch the surface of this “unlimited data plan”.

In response to the discussion of a tethering plan between Apple and AT&T, there are two ways to tether your phone, and one of the options wouldn’t cost you a dollar over your required “unlimited” data charge.

1: Jailbreak It
The first option would be to skip the 30 dollar additional charge and jailbreak your phone.  Jailbreaking your phone will give you the ability to run open-source 3rd party applications that can achieve tethering for free.  This option is highly viable for those that have already jailbroken their phones and aren’t afraid to get their hands/phones “dirty”.

This method, however, raises some concern among the community as people are worried that AT&T will be able to find out that a device other than an iPhone is pulling data from their network.  The answer to this question is Yes… and No.  Depending on the method that you use to tether your phone, AT&T would be able to tell if you were using your computer.  If you use a proxy on your iPhone that rewrites the request headers of the page, AT&T wouldn’t be able to tell that the original page requests are coming from your computer – It would look like you’re just browsing with your phone.  (For those of you that have jailbroken phones already, I’m not sure which proxy application works this way – the point is that it would be just as simple to create as the other proxy applications that are already in Cydia/Installer)

2: Shell out some cash
As far as I know, there is no other way to tether your phone, unless perhaps you have the old NetShare application that they had in Apple’s own App Store.  Shelling out the cash is always an option if you’re nervous about jailbreaking your phone, or if you simply have the cash.  Many people are bound to take this option if they just want something that works out of the box.  I’m sure that whatever application Apple comes out with for tethering, it will be easier to set up than what we’ve got in the open source community.  For those of you that spend hours upon hours waiting for flights at the airport and don’t have time to “mess with your phone” (jailbreak it) this is the option for you… I just hope you’ve got deep pockets.