The non-availability of tethering in the United States was one of the most disappointing features for me with the recent iPhone OS 3.0 launch. In almost every other country, carriers will be offering tethering as soon as iPhone 3.0 launches for them.
Tethering is the process of connecting your laptop to your mobile phone in order to use its Internet connection to surf the web. As the iPhone 3G and 3GS both have a relatively fast Internet connection, the ability to tether and use this connection on a laptop, where the browsing experience is naturally superior, is a huge benefit and enjoyed by many owners of Blackberry’s and other 3G smartphones.
There have been many occasions where I found myself somewhere with my laptop but without wireless or another form of free Internet access, and where I had a strong 3G signal on my iPhone. Since browsing on my MacBook Pro was out of the question, I resorted to several hours of web and email usage using my iPhone’s smaller screen. While the iPhone’s surfing experience is far better than any other smartphone I’ve ever used to date (and I’ve used just about every shape, size, and flavor), it doesn’t compare to having a full-size keyboard and large screen.
I recently came across a blog that describes a way to enable tethering, on US iPhones, without hacking. That’s right, you can, using a very simple process of downloading a connection profile from a web page, enable the tethering option in your iPhone’s Settings app. It took me about a minute to complete these steps and turn on tethering mode, and another minute to pair my iPhone’s Bluetooth connection to my MacBook Pro and fire up Safari. In fact, I’m using this tethered 3G connection to compose this post on Google Docs right now (and not using offline mode).
To enable Internet tethering on your iPhone 3G or 3GS, visit this link, http://help.benm.at/help.php, using your phone’s Mobile Safari. Once there, scroll down to the Mobileconfigs section, and click on the “download” button. After selecting your country (USA in my case), and then your carrier (AT&T, again for me) you will be prompted to download and install a new network profile. Once installed, which takes only a second or two, Internet tethering will now be enabled. Go to Settings -> General -> Network and you will now see an Internet Tethering option. Connect your iPhone with your computer using either USB or Bluetooth, and then enable the tethering.
On my MacBook Pro, this was all that was necessary for me to enjoy wireless Internet access anywhere I have a 3G signal. Keep in mind that this is an unsupported hack, so do proceed with caution. Some users have reported that this disables their voicemail function, though I’ve not noticed this with mine. Also, this hack does not work with first generation iPhones. At some point, AT&T may choose to offer this as either included with the iPhone Unlimited Data Plan, or as an additional paid option, at which time I’d be happy to pay for it.
While my previous experience tethering a Blackberry and surfing on AT&T’s Edge network was miserable to say the least, the speed of 3G is nothing to frown at, and in fact browsing the web for longer durations is no less enjoyable than when using my Comcast cable at home. Check out my speed test in the graphic above. Obviously I wouldn’t plan on downloading full-length movies or loads of music from the iTunes Store, but for mainstream web, email, streaming video, and even the occasional song download, 3G provides plenty of speed.
Update: It appears this process will no longer work, as the link referenced to type into Mobile Safari is no longer valid. Read my update about this for a new way to enable tethering on the iPhone OS 3.0.
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TAGS: AT&T, iPhone
