Does AT&T or Verizon allow you to tether your internet connection from your Iphone?

If so is it free or does it come out of your data rate plan?

I am asking because recently I have discovered that I can tether my internet connection via bluetooth to my Ipad. It actually moves at 3g speeds. I had already knew I could tether my internet connection via USB. I guess my question is, is this common knowledge or are you even allowed to do it with your current plans? I know with my plan here in Korea I have an unlimited data plan no matter how I use it.

Which leaves me to my next question. Why would someone buy a 3G Ipad (granted they own an Iphone) if they could just tether it? Again maybe this is not common knowledge and maybe its a way for Apple and the cell phone companies to max profits.

Your thoughts......

Jess

 

I have an iPhone and AFAIK, There's no tethering with AT&T. I can jailbreak the phone and then I can tether. And the data plans are limited.

 

Jailbreak = tether enabled.
Non broken = pay atnt another 30$ a month iirc

 

I actually got a nasty gram from at&t for tethering, they threatened to put me on a tethering plan of 4gb for $45.

 

You can tether though legit channels with AT&T, you just have to sign up for it. They know if you use a jailbroken tethering program.

 

+1, my wife got that text too
How do they know? Or I should say, how do they find out?

 

Yes if you pay to play you can tether Internet via USB and Bluetooth.

 

AT&T can tell what type of data is going through their lines, I they see notebook computer data coming from an iPhone without the proper data plan you get a nastygram.

 

i'm surprised I havent gotten a text from verizon - its simple really; the safari browser on an ipad queries a page and shows it's identity as 'safari for ipad' essentially (read up on browswer spoofing, very easily done with firefox). so for example, browsing the app store on an ipad with a verizon htc tether might raise a red flag...

this. or to jailbreak and use pdanet or mywi (both which have an 'incognito' method of hiding what data is being asked for, somewhat)

fwiw to answer OP's question; i couldnt justify another data plan'd device beyond a phone (because of tethering) however it's good to have a 3g ipad if you're overseas because you can snag a cheap data plan sim and pop it in when you please

 

Yeah no they can't.

They can tell when you go from using about 1gig a month if that to like 15 or 20 gigs a month watching youtube and surfing full size web sites that are about 10megs a page.

I myself tethered when I was in a training school for the military a few years back.
Ran myself up a nice 30gig usage one month torrenting some 'legal' movies that I had back at the house but not with me ^_^. The next few weeks my internet was slow as dog ****

 

hate to call you out, but they can. it's called 'user agent spoofing'. this works the same as spoofing a laptop browser on an inflight wireless setup to charge you less because it 'sees' a mobile browser rather than a full blown one.

some random info here citing user agent spoofing.. EasyTether - Android Tether Solution

yup, that too - but it would be excruciating to browse 15 gigs with a mobile connection (maybe not 4g as much, my sprint 4g was pretty snappy)


holy wow... that mustve taken a while (guessing on 3g speed anyway) that was tethered through a phone? I remember getting a text at 65% and 85% usage of my monthly bandwidth, then know someone else who got a phone call after an extra gig, automatic plan upgrade after the next increment was reached and a call after 10gbs again.. that bill mustve been $$$!

 

^ No, Atnsuck 3g full bars back when they offered unlimited data. You get mighty bored doing nothing from 0430 to 0630 then again from 1750 to about 2200 (10pm).

 

The funny thing is that the wife's phone is jail broken and she uses that PDA net thing to tether and she still got that text.

 

oh man, i cant believe i let my unltd plan go back in the day on my iphone; i had the 1st gen unltd, edge plan, but swapped to a 3g sim w/o changing the plan somehow, was paying $10/mo for unltd... then for some stupid reason went android and dissolved the plan...

pdanet has a setting for spoofing, but it's not bulletproof - imagine tethering an android tablet to an iphone and att's gonna start wondering why your iphone is downloading android market apps.. lol

 

^ Yeah but I'm not sure if they'd have "red flags" built in to alert them to things like that or just "above average" data usage?