How to get around the high tethering charge for the iPhone

By admin • Jun 20th, 2009 • Category: iPhone

One of the great new features of the iPhone OS 3.0 which is available now for all iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS owners is tethering, which allows you to use the iPhone as a modem for other internet accessible gadgets, such as your laptop/computer etc. Unfortunately both O2 in the UK and AT&T in the US have decided to charge extra for this functionality, respectively £15 in the UK and $55 in the US.

The Guardian in the UK was quick to pick up that there were ways to get around the costly iPhone tethering, although O2 claims they will not accept that iPhone users try and get around the tethering charge.

The tethering issue has been much discussed since it was first revealed that both O2 and AT&T decided to charge quite a lot to allow iPhone users to use their iPhone as a dongle for connecting other devices to the internet. Most iPhone users are paying quite hefty monthly amounts to have “unlimited” data traffic from their iPhones, so being told they will be charged extra for tethering came as a blow to many.

The news that there is a workaround for activating the tethering for free is great news for all iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S owners. You can find more information on how to get around the tethering issue on these two websites; benm.at (in german) or  9to5mac.

To all that might be wondering if this requires hacking your iPhone, no it does not. It uses information and functionality that is already there available to you, but that most people would not be able to find and work around.

O2 in the UK has said to the Guardian that they will not accept that their iPhone 3G and 3G S customers try and use the tethering without the bolt on, and that they will treat any breach of this on a case by case basis. However, the people behind benm.at has said that they are not sure how the network would be able to tell the traffic apart, as most data looks the same, with the exception of peer-to-peer and voice over IP applications such as Skype.

We are interesting in hearing back from anyone that has tried this work-around for tethering on the iPhone.

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3 Responses »

  1. freecellphone on June 23rd, 2009 at 4:26 pm:

    adding to twitter this is great info.

  2. iphonejunkie on June 29th, 2009 at 4:41 pm:

    works like a charm! easiest install ever… no need for iTunes or any crazy ipcc files…. just a couple clicks thru safari on ur iPhone and you can enjoy dsl speeds from your 3G to your laptop.

  3. Zak on July 4th, 2009 at 5:09 am:

    Ive been tethering since the torrent release of of 3.0, in fact I’m tethering now! I love the feature, and I do have AT&T, for the record I do not love AT&T…

    They knew of these features coming to the iPhone months prior to the update being released… In my opinion, they had MORE than enough time to give us the access to these LONG AWAITED features. So if someone finds a workaround, AWESOME! They should have got their network up to speed quicker! They do advertise “the best 3G Network in America” but the iPhone cant even take advantage of “the best 3G network in America” if one of the carriers phones can’t even be completely supported with MMS and Tethering that the phone obviously offers.–how is this the best 3g network? FALSE ADVERTISEMENT in my opinion…

    Someone need’s to get on the ball at AT&T and give me MMS NOW! :-(

    Sorry if that was off topic, needed to rant about it for awhile… =/

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