ATT wireless data is slow by comparison to other available services.
The iPhone is a great device. unfortunately we (in the USA) are stuck with ATT (unless we choose to go the jailbreak route).
That said even if tethering worked here the speeds would suck.
If I needed high speed data on the go I would get the best service for my needs. Verizon wireless is pretty fast.
Anyway you look at it you get what you pay for. You want data on your computer then get with the program and PAY for it. (the dongles are free with a contract) .
The reality is that if you need this access for business then you get to write it off so the net effect is that it shouldn’t matter how much it costs.

Look sitting around and waiting for ATT to come up with thethering just doesn’t make sense. If you have a need just get the service to fulfill it.

The iPhone is really cool. It does a lot of good things. Being stuck on ATT brings down the iPhone. Apple made the choice (ATT WIRELESS) because ATT is/was the largest GSM service provider. They did not choose them because of the quality of service. Apple did not really have a choice since tmobile just doesn’t have the resources to serve the apple crowd. Verizon wireless does not have GSM network. that is why the iPhone did not end up over there. There is no way that apple was going to create a iPhone just for the USA market. (even though they did for the Chinese market). Anyway when LTE comes on in full force the end users will have a have a choice. At that point the iPhone will be more than a VIDEO PHONE as well as a device which will tether.

We will all just have to wait. untill then those of you will just have to go over to Verizon wireless and buy a dongle. You will be happy to have High speed internet everywhere…
YMF

I guess I might be in some kind of violation of AT&T’s service agreement when I do tether but to be honest, I’m going with the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. I didn’t do anything illegal to get it onto my iPhone and no one from AT&T has contacted me to tell me what I’m doing is bad, bad, bad. And I’m certainly not going to ask!

Once when I was off in the hinterlands of southern Utah for a week this summer, I did get a nasty-gram from AT&T about my excessive “off-network” data usage, which they did claim was in violation of my service agreement. The town had great signal strength on an EDGE network so I was tethering away for hours at a time. My entire family was tethering off my precious little iPhone, in fact. We were pushing quite a bit of data back and forth. All the while my iPhone happily displayed the “AT&T” moniker on the top – how was I to know it wasn’t actually their tower?

They sent me a text message and asked that I call in. I was afraid they were going to ask the dreaded “are you tethering?” question. They never did. Their only concern was that I was pushing all this data on a partner network (for which they were probably paying dearly). They updated my phone to display an “Off-Network” moniker when I’m on a partner network to help me know when I need to tone it down. I told them I’d do my best. No questions about how/why I was pushing so much data. I was pleased.

Since NetShare uses Wi-Fi to tether, I don’t think there is actually any way they can tell which device (my iPhone or any other device attached to it) is the one that is pushing or pulling data. Maybe someone with some more technical savvy in this department can enlighten me on that fact.

Whether AT&T ever figures out how to offer tethering or not doesn’t make much difference to me as long as NetShare still keeps doing it’s magic.

If the cost to AT&T is because of bandwidth use, then the charges to the customer should be too.

1. Limits on bandwidth (1gb or 5gb transfer a month)
2. Same poor AT&T data coverage
3. Rate limiting (downclocking in order to help the network not choke)
4. Price $29-$59 a month to add Tethering.

Everyone wants tethering then it comes out and they realize there’s strings attached and they’re going to be pissed and just find a way to hack it anyway like they’re already doing now.