Of 3G iPads and MiFis

Of 3G iPads and MiFis | Chuqui 3.0:

My first hope is tethering will come to AT&T; WWDC is coming, iPhone 4.0 is coming, the tethering rumors have swirled again, and we’ll have to see.

Well, that didn’t take long. AT&T was nice enough to announce this before WWDC. Lots of commentary on it, my basic cut is that I don’t have a problem with tiered  or usage-based pricing as long as the tiering is reasonable, and for the most part, the new AT&T plan is. What the new plan means is that relatively light data users (like me) are no longer subsidizing the folks who are shoving gigabytes through their phones every month. My bill will go down.

I don’t even mind the extra fee for tethering (much); I simply see that as a way for AT&T to (more or less) add a set of tiers; people doing tethering are likely more heavy data users than non-tether users, I just can’t get up a lot of angst that the heavier usage folks have to pay something extra — you’re funnelling multiple devices through the connection instead of one, so, well, shrug.

but then it comes out that the one thing you can’t to is tether an iPad to an iPhone.

Apple won’t support iPhone to iPad tethering:

If you thought that when iPhone OS 4.0 gets released and you can buy the 2GB “Datapro” plan for $25, along with an additional $20 per month to tether your iPhone’s WiFi connection to your iPad, think again. It’s just not going to happen. This is consistent with Steve Jobs’ answer to an email asking him about this possibility. His response was a terse “no.”

 

Um, what? The only reason I can figure out for this is, well, to force people to pay for 3G on the iPad — require another monthly contract.

That annoys me. Fortunately for me, my most common use case here would still allow me to tether a laptop to the phone, and have the laptop create a wifi connection for the iPad; since I won’t be travelling w/o the laptop because of my photography, this doesn’t screw me over, but I’m still annoyed. But if there was ever any question on wifi or 3G for my iPad, it’s now answered: wifi. and if there’s a question of whether I’ll be enabling tethering on my AT&T contract, the answer is — not unless I absolutely know I’m going to need it, no sense throwing any dollars at this unless absolutely necessary. So I won’t. and you all probably shouldn’t , either.

I also think this pricing won’t last. But for now, that’s how they’re going to structure it.  Oh well. And here I was ready to back AT&T against the “I want it all and I want it all free” tribe that complains any time they’re asked to actually pay their fair share, and here AT&T went and messed it up by throwing some arbitrary pricing greed of their own into it.

Oh well, back to the sideline for a while. Fortunately, I can be patient before committing in to most of this…

 

 

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  • Jeff

    The fact is that AT&T charges you for 2GB but wants to make it as hard as possible for you to actually receive what you paid for. By tethering, you make it more likely you'll actually *use* that bandwidth.

  • shandrew

    Windows mobile phones can function as 802.11 to 3G bridges, just like a mifi. As far as i know there's no particular reason why Pres could not have the same functionality. It has a battery life disadvantage to bluetooth tethering but would be far easier to set up.

  • shandrew

    Windows mobile phones can function as 802.11 to 3G bridges, just like a mifi. As far as i know there's no particular reason why Pres could not have the same functionality. It has a battery life disadvantage to bluetooth tethering but would be far easier to set up.

  • Oliver

    I have no problems with tiered or metered pricing for data. Pay for what you use – we see that every day on our water, gas, and electricity bills. As someone without A/C in the house I'd find it utterly unfair if I had to subsidize someone's McMansion with giant A/C, hot tub and pool heater.

    However, the current offering is not fair. If i pay for the 2 GB tier, it should be none of AT&T's business how I consume those 2 GB. The water company doesn't care if I water my garden, fill my bath tub every day, or just drink it. So why does AT&T differentiate between my iPhone consuming 2Gb via YouTube streaming and my laptop – tethered to the iPhone – playing the same videos, consuming the same 2 Gb quota? Answer: because they can. Time to regulate the data plans through the public utilities commissions?

    In the meantime, my solution will be to find tethering methods that AT&T (or Sprint, who misbehave the same way with the EVO) don't know about.

    • Jeff

      The fact is that AT&T charges you for 2GB but wants to make it as hard as possible for you to actually receive what you paid for. By tethering, you make it more likely you'll actually *use* that bandwidth.

  • John W Baxter

    I believe that the iPad remains no-contract, come and go as you like. Just with the 2G limit rather than unlimited on the larger plan. If that's correct, I'm fine.

    As of mid-May, I decided to wait for WWDC to decide on an iPad purchase. I'm fine with the new way–I never expected to use the 3G service heavily on iPad–mostly wireless, and mostly at home.

    And I can certainly downgrade my phone to the lower tier (I'm running 30M to 50M a month on it). Save money–thanks AT&T. Provided..

    Paranoia alert: Provided that indeed one can change iPhone data plan without magically extending the contract (paranoia left over from a few years ago with Verizon, where a plan downgrade would indeed have extended the contract).

    My iPhone contract runs until early November (I didn't buy my 3G until we had 3G here). Perfect timing in terms of deciding among iPhone (including keeping the 3G off contract till the battery goes), Windows Phone 7 (very tempting), or the Android of the week, or, perhaps, dumb pay as you go feature phone (and doing more with iPad).

  • Mindy

    Yes. I'm happy to give my money to Sprint for a wireless hotspot on their 4G network. If ATT doesn't want my money I'm cool with that.

  • http://www.chuqui.com chuqui

    oh, I fully expect the typical network usage per user will go up. the “98% of users will save money” is true today, but won't stay true. I don't see that as a “problem”, but then I also don't see the current pricing as locked in. Over time, there will be pricing pressures come into play that'll make it go down; Steve being willing to actively comment on a time when AT&T isn't an exclusive carrier is one big one already in play. Don't think he wasn't sending a message to AT*T there.. he was.

    another thought on all of this. I'd be a LOT more amenable to an iPad 3G is the iPad could tether my phone and laptop. But unless I missed it, it can't. and why not? Another missing feature I don't see any technical reason isn't available.

  • http://www.majid.info/ Fazal Majid

    Well, I just upgraded my iPad to 3G today so I can squeak by the June 7th deadline to grandfather into an unlimited plan, and plan on downgrading my iPhone (I use about 100MB a month) or even ditching it altogether for MetroPCS – AT&T's 3G is so-so, but nowhere near as abysmal as their voice service.

  • MacRat

    One interesting thing will be if the new iPhone comes with support for iChat video conferencing.

    Then suddenly those average users who haven't been using a lot of data might start cranking it up to make video calls with their family.

    These users will be the ones hurt the most by the data pricing changes.