O2 and Vodafone working on iPhone tethering

Operators caught on the hop?

O2 and Vodafone working on iPhone tethering
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18 March 2009 22:23 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Mobile phone operators in Europe have been forced into the boardroom to work out new plans for dealing with Apple's latest iPhone announcement.

Apple has on Tuesday announced that the new software update, version 3.0, due out in the summer for the iPhone will be capable of allowing users to "tether" the device to a computer to act as a modem.

"We're supporting tethering in the client side, we're building that support in. We're working with our carriers around the world. We are building that support in", Scott Forstall, senior vice president of iPhone software for Apple, when asked where Apple stands on tethering for the iPhone 3.0 software.

Reading between the lines, Forstall's response suggests that although an iPhone update to 3.0 will be capable of tethering, it's going to be down to the operator to decide if it will allow it.

Given, it seems, zero pre-warning of this new feature, Vodafone and O2 have all been caught without a confirmed "yes we will", or "no we won't" answer.

"We are working with them to ensure new features including tethering are fully supported on our network but we are not making any announcements yet", an O2 spokesperson told Pocket-lint on Wednesday.

Vodafone too is hesitant to confirm its plans for the iPhone around the globe:

"We are discussing the situation at the moment, but don't have anything to confirm, we will keep you posted", a spokeswomen told us over the phone.

Tethering is a way of piggy-backing your phone's connection in order to get online with your laptop, however operators in the past have been keen to avoid such features as surfing on your computer is a much quicker and easier process allowing you to enjoy unlimited bandwidth and therefore more data than the operator might want.

T-Mobile in Germany has declined to comment.

We will keep you posted.

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Comments

  • I think I should be the one to play wioth tthe Samsung WB500 Posted by tinkertoytech, USA


  • Roaming tethering is also something that the operators make mega-money out of.

    I took my Vodafone N95 abroad last year, having checked with our reseller who told me about the data card rates, which (from memory) would have been around a tenner a day for less than 50mb. The problem here is that when I asked the question, our reseller assumed I had a data card, not the tethered phone.

    I stuck within my daily limits and came back to a £1100 bill.

    We eventually got this down to around £500 with a combination of pleading and a reminder of how many 'phones we had with them which were due to fall out of contract, but it still isn't right that the you can come back from holiday expecting a bill of £150 and find you've racked up a grand more than you bargained for, even more so when you realise that data would have come through just the same infrastructure if I'd used a data card.

    If Vodafone and O2 do allow tethering for the Iphone/G2, then make absolutely certain that you ask the right questions about roaming.     Posted by John B., UK
  • I think the other data modem operators are getting twitchy about this. The contract on my Three data modem recently expired, and when I mentioned that I might just wait for my iPhone to become tether-enabled rather than renew, their retention deal got a lot sweeter.
     Posted by Tom Atkinson, UK

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