So, it’s summer. News to everyone, I know… Like the rest of you, we will be traveling a bit. As most of you know, I have a hard time cutting my digital cord, so I was researching option for mobile Internet. I looked at a pc card, $60.00/month, of course, I’d only use it one month. But the best option to me, seemed to be adding the tethering option to my iPhone data plan. For those who don’t know, tethering is using your cell phone’s data connection to get your computer online. Like a cell modem, of sorts. So, instead of an extra $60, I would just add $20 for the month. Well, not so fast. And for those of you who think you can just enable that feature, you can’t. AT&T has to turn it on (unless you jailbreak your phone, that’s another post)… So, I called.

“Hey, I need to add tethering to my iPhone data package.”

“No problem ma’am (yeah…) I can help you with that.”
“That will be the 2GB data plan for $25 + $20 for tethering, pro-rated…” blah blah blah

“whoa, sir (pretty sure it was a lady), I have an unlimited data plan. Will I lose the unlimited plan if I add tethering?”

“yes sir (I must sound more manly when I’m irritated)”

Insert-we don’t really want people making any meaningful use of our services.

“well, that doesn’t really seem fair. That I have to give up my unlimited plan jut to add tethering.”

“well, it isn’t fair that you get to tether with unlimited usage for the same price (referring to the $20).”

“it’s perfectly fair, I’ve been a customer for almost a decade now, and I’ve had my plan for 3 years. If they wanted unlimited data, they should have got on the boat sooner.”

“sorry.”

“thanks.”

Why is the 2GB package a big deal, you ask? That seems like plenty of data you say… Well, consider the overage charges on 7.8GB of data on a 2GB plan. That’s how much data I used last month I haven’t done the math, but I’m sure the bill would be over $500.00. No happening. I’m a heavy user. Not just for fun, either. A lot of my data is from remote accessing my servers at work. That’s a big chunk of my usage.

So, now I’m back at square one… I can still jailbreak and enable it myself… It looks the same to AT&T. They can’t tell if it’s my phone or my computer connected through my phone. Or just live without. I’m sure I’ll figure something out, I love a good fight with “the man” (or woman, it hard to tell over the phone…)