AT&T CEO says tethering coming soon for iPhone

The idea of tethering coming to the iPhone has been around almost longer than the iPhone itself, and won’t seem to die. In November of 2008, the rumor was it would come at $30 a month with a 5GB cap through AT&T. Yes, that was a whole year ago, and it still hasn’t happened.

Then, in January of 2009, another rumor appeared stating we’d be getting iPhone tethering soon. That was ten or so months ago. All this time, tethering has been available on and off with jailbroken iPhones, which goes to show just how much iPhone users want the feature.

When tethering does come through AT&T, it will certainly come at a price, which may turn some of these users off. That said, notice that even after a year of these rumors, I say “when” instead of “if.” That’s because AT&T’s CEO Ralph de la Vega made the announcement at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Fransisco this month that tethering for the iPhone 3G is coming “soon,” as reported by Appmodo.

While the exact dates of “soon” weren’t defined, I think this time it actually has some truth to it. We’ve waited for more than a year now for AT&T to get their act together and prepare their network, and they’re well aware of our growing impatience. Although I fear that it may harm their network even more, it could cost them more in bad PR if they never even get around to giving the feature a chance. It’s a scary time for AT&T, that’s for sure. For both our sake and theirs (with the probable competition from Verizon), I hope their network begins to improve.

Via [Appmodo]