Canadians Talking Tech

How to tether on your Fido iPhone OS3.1

by Noah Bloom Posted in Canada, Gadgets, How To, Mobile

Has your iPhone stopped being able to tether (ie. connect your laptop to your iPhone data network) on Fido since you upgraded to OS3.1? Are you pissed about that? Please enter your comments on this below or at Fido customer complaints (like we did)! We’ll keep you up to date what we hear. This is an outrage!

Dear Fido,

I am an owner of a Fido iPhone 3G. When I purchased the iPhone and signed a 3 year contract, the best data option was 500MB as the 6GB promo was not available at that time. Up until updating my iPhone operating system to 3.1, tethering with my iPhone was an important feature for me. However, now with OS3.1, I am unable to tether, unless I change my data plan to one greater than 1GB. I am perfectly happy with paying for my 500MB plan for both iPhone browsing and tethering. I am not interested in changing the plan I chose under a 3 year agreement for a later added feature which excludes a 500MB plan for absolutely no apparent reason. 500MB is sufficient for my usage, and when I signed my contract, I was not told there would be any difference with a larger or smaller data plan other than data usage.

Please consider allowing people with a 500MB or any data plan to use tethering, until at least December 31, 2009, at which point you have announced changes may take place.

We have paid for the usage, we have signed contracts to do so, and should not suffer for choosing an appropriate plan before tethering option was defined later.

Thank you,
Noah Bloom
Fido customer since 2001
(This letter and replies may be documented at NorthGeek.com)

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  1. 7 Responses to “How to tether on your Fido iPhone OS3.1”

  2. By Noah Bloom on Mar 24, 2010

    Rogers is listening! Just commented at http://redboard.rogers.com/2010/we-listened-rogers-unveils-smartphone-tethering-policy/#comment-661

    ~ ~ ~

    I am also firmly behind allowing customers to use whichever plan they have to tether and firmly against Rogers/Fido deciding to make tethering available only to 1GB+ plans.

    This is not new. I have voiced my opinion about this several times at NorthGeek.com: http://northgeek.com/2009/09/how-to-tether-fido-iphone/

    There is no technical nor billing nor any other good justification for the current cutoff.

    PLEASE ALLOW ME TO TETHER WITH MY 500MB PLAN.

    Thanks for listening RogersMiranda!

  3. By Noah Bloom on Mar 24, 2010

    Commented at http://redboard.rogers.com/2010/we-listened-rogers-unveils-smartphone-tethering-policy/#comment-687

    RogersRob & RogersMiranda — thanks for listening. This is a remarkable step and site to speak with your users in an open forum.

    We all obviously strongly believe that you should allow iPhone tethering for any data plan. If you didn’t believe people cared about this, you should now with this outpouring of comments. If not, we expect a better reason than because you’re worried people will go over their allotment, because, of course, Rogers will charge the user for that.

    Thanks.
    @NorthGeek

  4. By Noah Bloom on Mar 24, 2010

    Commented at http://redboard.rogers.com/2010/we-listened-rogers-unveils-smartphone-tethering-policy/#comment-698

    Since when is 500MB not a decent data plan? I remember when I had a 2MB plan and no one else had internet on their phone (or they paid 3c a KB). Ok that was just 3 years ago.

    Let people use their data. Let them use it however they want. Let people be responsible for their actions. If they complain and that abuses your customer support resources, give them simple tools to manage their usage.

    You’re not selling cigarettes. When people do that too much, they’ll probably get sick. When people go over their data allotment, they pay Rogers more money.

  5. By Noah Bloom on Apr 5, 2010

    Commented at http://redboard.rogers.com/2010/we-listened-rogers-unveils-smartphone-tethering-policy/#comment-1035

    ~ ~ ~

    Joe Huber and Michael,
    I’m very surprised to see anonymous comments for the side of the corporation here. Are these real people or created accounts on behalf of someone else?

    We, the consumer, believe that Rogers is listening to all the compelling reasons for allowing tethering on any plan. 500MB is a lot of data for most people — tethering would allow them to use it how they like.

    Thanks for listening Rogers. We’re counting the days until tethering is available for 500MB plans.

  6. By Noah Bloom on May 27, 2010

    Commented at http://redboard.rogers.com/2010/we-listened-rogers-unveils-smartphone-tethering-policy/comment-page-2/#comment-3384

    ~ ~ ~

    I am a fairly heavy phone user, and used 120MB last month, out of my 500MB plan. 120MB is a whole lot of data on a mobile device with mobile optimized applications.

    So, again, why can’t I use some of that remainder for tethering?

    This is AN UNREASONABLE POLICY: requiring >1GB data plan to tether. And the slowness to deal with all these complaints (201 here — 201! and everywhere else) is atrocious. Please give us a good reason and/or tell us when you’re going to allow tethering on 500MB plan. Thanks.

  7. By Kruti on Sep 21, 2010

    Why not start an online petition?

    this is just another infuriating thing that rogers has done for money grabbing.

    Start one and post it everywhere! most entry level data plans come with 500MB which is all anyone will every need for a blackberry. I used my phone like a computer and barely reach 100MB

    this is ridiculous

    start a petition!

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