Thursday 10 December 2009

About time that Telstra offered tethering

Cairns web entrepreneur Nicky Jurd is delighted to have legitimate internet tethering on her iPhone, finally.

"I even sent the new Telstra CEO, David Thodey, a thank you note," Nicky said, who believes the new CEO is a breath of fresh air. "I must send him an air freshener and steal Michael Moore's idea."

Tethering is the use of mobile phone to supply Internet access for a laptop, using the mobile effectively as a modem. Most other mobile providers have allowed this functionality for a long while.

Telstra's Richard Fink has just announced that this is now live on their network.

"I am pleased to let you know that tethering on Apple iPhones is available," Fink has announced.

You can activate tethering through settings via iTunes. Telstra says there's no charge for activating this feature other than the usual data usage.

The Telstra website has more information about the ‘pay as you go’ rate or browsing packs.

Users are now asking for Visual Voicemail, a unique feature of the iPhone. Telstra have re-priced their Bigpond plans for home users. However their wireless plans are the highest in the market at around $60 for 1Gb of data. Hardly competitive. They only win out over the competition in coverage.

2 comments:

Apple Shareholder in Edge Hill said...

Optus users with the iPhone have been tethering for months. Telstra plans for the iPhone are not cost-effective for users, and the Telstra 3G network in Cairns is overloaded with users due to the "freeze" on ADSL connections in many parts of the city.

Optus or their partner Virgin are the way to go.

Oliver Redlynch said...

If you have ADSL in Cairns, be very very grateful, if you don't - get your wallet out. Incidently my Sony Ericsson mobile used to work happily as a modem ("tethered") on Telstra for ages until the iphone was launched, then mysteriously it stopped working. Nothing to do with forcing me to buy a Telstra "dongle" was it?