So your smartphone gets 6 GB (or "unlimited", or similar) of mobile data a month at 3G speeds, but your web and email use barely dents that quota. What's to be done? You can start photo-documenting your daily commute, or streaming internet radio at the beach, but more usefully you could use that mobile data with your other mobile device: a notebook* computer. Tethering is the act of using a phone's mobile data through a notebook, making that data plan considerably more useful.
Last week, an app called NetShare, by Nullriver Software of Ontario, was posted to the iTunes App Store. For $9.99, this app effectively turned your iPhone into a portable Wifi hotspot that you could connect a notebook to. Less than a day later, the app was removed. Then they put it back. Then they removed it a second time. In a post dated yesterday, Nullriver writes...
"We've finally gotten in contact with Apple. Looks like the lack of communication was due to automated e-mail systems being employed on both ends, which resulted in e-mails being lost in transit. We're working with Apple to get NetShare back up on the AppStore."
NetShare isn't back yet, and a likely reason for this kerfuffle is that AT&T's terms of service prohibit tethering, except with a (more expensive) plan specifically for the purpose. Rogers doesn't seem to provide any official statement, though folks on iPhone forums claim that Rogers representatives have told them tethering is allowed (unfortunate how we have to rely on the word of call centre reps as corporate policy). A key difference is that AT&T's iPhone plans are unlimited data, whereas Rogers might be happy to charge 50c per MB for exceeding your limit.
It's worth noting that the same tethering functionality can be accomplished for free by "jailbreaking" an iPhone to run unauthorized apps, and a little command line work. The phone has the capability, any restriction is an artificial one. The carrier likely wouldn't be able to (and more likely wouldn't try to) differentiate tethered traffic from regular phone traffic, though it might look suspicious when you start downloading torrents of the latest Battlestar Galactica episodes. This technique is not for the faint of heart, or those who want to maintain their warranties.
The ball is in Apple's court to explain themselves. Were the app reviewers not paying attention to the implications of NetShare? Is it Apple's duty to enforce cell carrier policy? Will any app get pulled if a cell carrier objects? Can the Canadian App Store get the app back, at least? Is it reasonable to pull an app without notice or reason given?
*Test of using the term "notebook" as opposed to "laptop", after a very warm lap session this weekend that proved these machines are no longer suitable for extended use on one's lap, but may be suitable as a non-surgical birth control method.
Hello guys.
I wish to fully understand how my data plan work to not incur additional fees.
If we we pay $30 for 6GB, for example, if you all you do is surf Facebook, Techvibes, YouTube, check your email for 8 hours a day and maybe upload 100pictures per month, will 6GB be enough? Or is there an iPhone app that'll show me how much bandwidth I've used for far for the month?
Thank
@Happy: The iPhone has it's own data counter in the Settings app.
And for what you're describing, unless you're going hardcore with the video, 6 GB should be plenty. Even uploading pictures doesn't count for much since the files are relatively small. The average user would be hard pressed to exceed 1 GB in a month.
I've had my iPhone for 11 days now, and only used 44Mb of 3G data. Most data goes over WiFi.
I just jailbroke my 3G. Took about 5 minutes. easy. Installed the proxy app and it works!
Thanks Greg.
I've been very hesitant to use the my data plan because I had no idea how it worked..thanks for the info, I'll use this more... =)
Hi Danny,
What advantages and privileges do you get when you get your iPhone jailbroken? I wish to do the same but am new to all this..thanks.
@Happy: Jailbreaking allows you to run unauthorized apps. Before the iPhone 2.0 upgrade and App Store, it was the only way to run third party apps. Nowadays, there's less of a reason to do it, except for things like background processes, video recording, and the tethering, as mentioned.
The best direction to point you in would be: http://blog.iphone-dev.org/
I purchased it from the store. It works as advertised (on my mac). It's a bit of pain to get all the networking setup though - expect to spend 5-10 minutes fiddling with networking setup before getting online. It's definitely not for your average user. And it's only a socks proxy.
However, I've found the Rogers 3G data network to be pretty unreliable over the last few days, even on my phone - it sometimes takes several tries to load a page (downtown Vancouver).
It's inconvenient enough to use that I doubt that it will have any perceivable impact on data usage on the network. It might come in handy once in a while when I need to get a download and wifi isn't working. For me, it's worth it.
