I was excited when I first heard about the personal hotspot feature in iOS 4.3. I knew that I was getting the wi-fi only version of the iPad and I thought the personal hotspot was the solution to limited wi-fi availability. Of course, as many of us predicted, AT&T said “not so fast!” and decided they would charge us an additional fee to use the personal hotspot.
As you probably know by now, that started a huge flame war on the Internet. Personally I think cell phone carriers deserve all the hate mail they are getting.
I can see no reason, from a technical perspective, why additional fees are necessary. I bought the phone, I’m paying for the data plan, why should it matter to AT&T how I use my data?!? AT&T has turned into the tethering Gestapo, seeking out and punishing all that are jail breaking their phones to avoid the service charge. The motive to charge this extra service fee is obviously driven by leveraging the growing tablet excitement to turn a profit. Greed is a powerful motivator.
I won’t be jail breaking anything, I enjoy my gadgets too much to risk getting branded by the Gestapo, but I will be supporting the effort to reduce it’s abuse by the cell phone companies.
**This post written and published from my iPad**