Did AT&T have Apple kill NetShare to start its own tethering plan?
An application called NetShare was the talk of the App Store back in July. The app, made by Nullriver, allowed users to connect their computers to their iPhone 3G to use the device’s unlimited data plan to surf the web. Unfortunately, this process, known as “tethering,” was apparently not approved by AT&T. Thus, NetShare was pulled from the App Store.
Today however, there may be hope of using the iPhone for tethering purposes once again. Apple chief executive Steve Jobs reportedly responded to a customer request asking for the functionality by saying the following:
We agree, and are discussing it with ATT.
Steve
Sent from my iPhone
Now, obviously anyone could have sent that email, or it could be a lie all together, but the gadget blog Gizmodo (which handles a lot of Apple news) claims that it’s “pretty legitimate-looking.” Jobs has been known to send out brief email responses like this. (Though I don’t think he normally does so from his iPhone, which adds a nice layer to this.)
Specifically, the customers asked for an AT&T data plan similar to the one it offers BlackBerry users that allows for tethering. AT&T charges an extra $30 a month for the privilege, but that easily beats the price of buying a stand-alone data streaming plan from them, which is at least double that.
[photo is of a tether ball by flickr/jillclardy]
Next Story: Urology device startup Percutaneous Systems raises $6.3M
Previous Story: Storage chip company Aristos Logic sells for $41M
About the Author, MG Siegler
MG Siegler writes about technology trends and new media for VentureBeat, with a focus on mobile topics, social elements and key news stories. Before that, MG wrote about technology on his blog, ParisLemon. Originally from Ohio, MG attended the University of Michigan where he studied film. He's previously lived in Los Angeles where he worked in Hollywood and in San Diego where he did web development. He now lives in San Francisco.