iPad/iPhone Tethering for 3G: Why Not?

The New York Times Bits Blog asks a good question about the recently unveiled iPad: To 3G or not 3G?

The lowest priced iPad comes with WiFi built-in, but for $130 more bucks, you can get your iPad outfitted with 3G for GSM networks (i.e. AT&T). This addition – which bumps up the price of the iPad to $629 – accentuates even more the fact that the iPad is basically a gigantic iPhone that can’t place calls. Current iPhone owners (like myself) already question the value of buying yet another device that falls somewhere between a netbook and a smartphone – especially when they already own both. This concern is deepened by the notion that you might have to pay twice to use AT&T’s 3G network for data.

There are two pricing options for getting 3G access for your iPad: a $30 prepaid fee for one month of unlimited access or $15 for 250 megabytes (which is scant, considering an HD YouTube video weighs in at about 300 MB). And that’s in addition to the $30 you’re already paying for your iPhone or other unlimited data plan for your AT&T smartphone. In essence, you’re paying twice for the same 3G service – just on different devices. It’s almost as if you were paying two cable bills for two TVs.

So here’s a novel thought: Why not allow tethering your iPhone to your iPad to use it as a 3G broadband modem? The iPad comes with a dock connector that allows it to hook up with a keyboard or a camera. Plus, it has Bluetooth.

Of course, AT&T would likely charge a fee to enable tethering on either device. But if you already had a plan where you were tethering your 3G phone to a laptop or computer, it might end up being more cost effective in the end. For example, AT&T currently offers a BlackBerry DataConnect plan (i.e. smartphone tethering) for $60. That’s the same price you’d be paying for a data plan plus a 3G plan for your iPad – except you also have the ability to tether your BlackBerry to any device. The only downside would be the fact that a DataConnect plan comes with a contract, whereas the 3G iPad plan is a month-to-month prepaid basis. But for those who already have AT&T contracts, this might be a non-issue.

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Tags: 3G, apple, data plans, ipad, iphone

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 28th, 2010 at 8:22 am by Jack Busch and is filed under AT&T, Cell Phones, Cell phone plans, iphone. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.