The problem? Well, there are actually two:

First – It’s a violation of AT&T’s terms of service and you MIGHT get into a little trouble for enabling it.

Second – It’s nothing new. There have been hacks around for years that would allow you to use your Blackberry as a Bluetooth Modem for free, versus paying the $60 to enable a Smart Phone tethering plan through AT&T. What IS unique about this situation is that tethering was a HIGHLY PUBLICIZED missing feature from the iPhone 3.0 firmware for AT&T customers, so it’s compromise has drawn much more attention as previous “work arounds” have.

So what’s AT&T and iPhone owners everywhere to do?

The only solution I see to this problem would require AT&T to do something it hasn’t done…. I think ever: Put the customer first.

We all know that the “Unlimited” data plan you buy from AT&T for your iPhone (be it EDGE or 3G) really isn’t “Unlimited” and if you were to dig into your contract or Terms of Service (TOS), you would see that AT&T decides to not use the Marriam-Webster definition of “Unlimited”, but have decided on a new definition: “5GB/month”

I understand business involves some negotiation and some give and take, so as a consumer, I’d be willing to make the following agreement with AT&T:

I will agree to allow you to LOWER the bandwidth limit on the standard “unlimited” plan to 1GB, if you agree to not charge extra for tethering support and setup a tiered pricing plan for bandwidth where 5GB/mo is $40, 10GB/mo is $60, and so on.

Now honestly, AT&T, consumers of America, did that hurt too bad? No, of course not. It’s a perfectly fine compromise.

Do I think that’s what will ACTUALLY happen? No, of course not.

What I picture happening is AT&T will probably bring the iPhone tethering plan in line with their current Smart Phone tethering plans ($60/mo), and start charging people who are currently not signed up for this plan an astronomical gateway fee for using their “WAP” gateway on a per kilobyte bases (say, $1 per kilobyte).

Which would mean this picture would end up costing you $40 on your monthly bill:

AT&T will charge you for this!

Will AT&T cancel or suspend users who are currently using the “hack” to access tethering? Of course not! Why cut a paying customer from their base and give that money to a competitor, especially when they can charge you huge penalties!

So my suggestion to anyone using tethering is to just use at your own risk and know that what your does DOES violate your Terms Of Service. This way when you get a $1,000,000 bill from AT&T because you decided to bit torrent some Norwegian Porno while driving to Fresno, you won’t be left looking like our $40 man pictured above!

Cheers!

I thought it would be interesting to just share my experience over the past week of iPhone ownership. A first hand accounting of my experiences and thoughts of the new Apple iPhone. Keep in mind that my previous cell phone was a Blackberry 8100 Pearl.

My overall experience with the iPhone has been very, very pleasant. It’s the perfect combination of smart phone and multimedia device. I don’t use the term PDA because I don’t think the iPhone is intended to replace devices such as a Treo or your Dell Axim. What I think the iPhone is going to do is replace your previous iPod (which ever version you may have) and your cell phone. Two devices that have never been successful at performing the others duties as well.

As a phone, it’s super easy to use. Contacts are the most accessible I’ve ever seen them thanks to Apple’s scrolling Rolodex style of keeping your contacts, and during calls every feature you’d need is right at your finger tips.

As a multimedia player, it does what the Video iPod did but only better. A larger screen, build in speakers and touch screen controls. Seriously, what more can you ask for?

I’ve seen people compiling wishlists across the Web on features they want in their phone, such as SD Card slot, removable battery or some other outlandish request. That’s not a wishlist for your current phone, that’s a feature request for a future device. Here is -MY- Wishlist of things I hope to see on -MY- iPhone in the future:

• More Configuration Options
  • Ability to change event sounds
  • Custom Ring Tones
  • Ability to add/remove applications (I’ll never use the stock ticker)
• More Features with the Camera
  • Movies
  • Digital Zoom
• Browser Enhancement
  • Full support for Flash
  • Render speed and overall performance

Other than that, Bravo Apple! I couldn’t be happier with my purchase.

I called Cingular to setup the BlackBerry data plan because I guess the Cingular MediaNET is different than the Cingular BlackBerry Media plan, because the BlackBerry plan has extra features which tie in with BlackBerry.com (such as IMAP mail checking, messaging and whatnot). This raised my monthly data bill from Cingular from $19.99/mo to $29.99/mo, which I didn’t mind.

I then asked the Cingular support person if I could use the BlackBerry Pearl as a Bluetooth modem as I did with my Nokia 6682 which allowed me to get online using my Powerbook. He told me I had to purchase a “Cell Phone Teathering Plan” for $79.99/mo(!!). I was -floored-. Surely it had to be possible, GPRS/EDGE is the same on both phones.

Bledded be the powers of Google and the internets, as I discovered this blog entry by Grant Goodale over at Fibble.org. He was able to hack together a Modem Script that OSX would be able to use with the Blackberry Pearl. I have attached the script to this post and it can be downloaded here. Place this file in /Library/Modem Scripts/

After that, you setup the dial up account with the following settings:

Phone Number: wap.cingular

User Name: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM

Password: CINGULAR1

Bingo Bango, you should be online and ready to rock and roll without any fancy pants $79 plan!