AT&T May Allow iPhone to be Used as Modem

Fri, 21/05/2010 - 4:13pm — CellAdmin

AT&T said it may soon offer "tethering" for the iPhone, which would allow the smartphone to be used as a modem for a laptop, after the company made improvements to its network.

"It's taking longer than we'd like," said John Stankey, chief executive of AT&T Operations, adding that the company wouldn't offer tethering until it had a "high comfort level with the network," some time within the year.

The Dallas, Texas-based company had disabled tethering on the iPhone due to the unusually high strain those users were putting on its network. Meanwhile, it has been racing to upgrade its network as rivals beef up their data services to cater to data-hungry smartphone users.

AT&T tackled its two largest problem areas, New York and San Francisco, first, and is expected to wrap up upgrades by the end of the year.

Analysts widely expect the company to release the Apple's next-generation iPhone HD in June.

Source: (www.mobiledia.com)