Whose fault is the Telstra tethering delay?

Written by Matthew JC Powell Monday, 07 December 2009 23:42

Telstra has, at long last, enabled iPhones to be used as tethered modems on its NextG network. The fact that this is news at all is testament to iPhone customers' rather poor treatment at the hands of both the handset maker and Australia's largest telecommunications provider. Naturally, each side is pointing fingers madly at the other.

Apple, for its part, introduced the iPhone as the "ultimate mobile internet device" two years ago, but without the ability to share its internet connection and thereby be used as a modem for your computer. Indeed when a developer wrote an application that provided this functionality, its life on the App Store was but brief before it was pulled.

The thing is, every other phone on the market has been able to do this for ever so long. I recall using my Nokia 6210 as a modem for my PowerBook G4 with the devices' infrared connection. Infrared! Bluetooth was still a dental malady in those days. But the point is, Apple's whizz-bang better-than-any-phone-you've-used-before device that was also meant to be the greatest mobile internet experience lacked this basic functionality.

Why? Who knows. The story goes that AT&T, Apple's exclusive iPhone partner in the USA, didn't want people using their iPhones as tethered modems because they would use extra data. There are several problems with that theory: one is that AT&T was selling iPhones with "unlimited" data allowances*, so who cares really if they use more; second problem is that AT&T was merrily selling untold numbers of other phone models that had the ability to tether.

If the AT&T conspiracy theory is right, however, it means that Apple's iPhone customers everywhere else in the world were being denied a basic feature to keep one carrier happy. That would seem poor policy.

Then along came iPhone 3.0 and Apple announced, with much hoopla, that tethering would be a feature with the new OS. iPhone fans the world over wept tears of rapture, while competing handset manufacturers like HTC and RIM forlornly pointed at their models that could do that already and wondered why nobody was excited about it. It's an Apple thing.

Of course the telecommunication companies were free to enable the feature or not on their networks as they saw fit. AT&T, for one, did not.

Here in Australia, Vodafone did. It announced it would provide iPhones with tethering and it would be free. Optus, the second-biggest carrier, announced that it would have tethering, for a small monthly charge. It quickly backed away from that stance when crowds with pitchforks materialised on the doorstep.

And Telstra? Not a peep.

On the day the iPhone 3GS hit the streets, I asked Apple Australia's spokesperson about Telstra's decision not to allow tethering, and she replied that it was entirely up to Telstra what features it enabled and what features it didn't. The same day I spoke with a Telstra representative, who said that Apple was stopping the big T from providing the service.

I mentioned that this seemed unfair, given that Vodafone and Optus were offering it. I also mentioned what Apple's spokesperson had said. After a period of silence, he said he'd get back to me.

I'll let you guess whether or not he got back to me.

Then, suddenly, with little fanfare, last week Telstra released an update to its carrier settings that enables tethering (when you sync your iPhone with your Mac, click on the button that says "Check for Updates" and it will install). So whatever was holding it back — whether it was Apple playing favourites among its partners or Telstra being inexplicably pig-headed — is moot.

I will add one little footnote to this, however. Telstra spokesperson Peter Habib was quoted in a story on Australian Personal Computer as saying that "access to the tethering function on iPhones is controlled by Apple. This capability is normally activated through iTunes, however Apple disabled this on iPhones supplied to Telstra".

This explanation resembles the excreta of a masculine bos primigenius taurus, if you will excuse my Latin.

I purchased my iPhone 3GS not through Telstra but directly from the Apple Store. It is unlocked, and I can pop any SIM I want to in it. I have been able to tether this iPhone on every network in Australia bar Telstra's — so pretending that poor little Telstra was given hobbled iPhones to sell is purely disingenuous.

It's that lack of complete candour that leads me to suspect that the lack of tethering, at least since the release of the 3GS and iPhone 3.x software, has been a Telstra decision and not Apple's.

Another hint at the root cause of the delay is in the timing. New management has taken over at Telstra, and the policies of the old regime are being swept away. One cannot imagine that whether or not iPhones could be used as tethered modems was high on the list of things to change, but change it has in its turn.

Perhaps Telstra was trying to protect its mobile-internet business from being cannibalised by people buying iPhones instead of USB dongles. It's a possibility I suppose, but a bit hard for someone outside the company's structures and politics to understand. Either way, the money goes to Telstra, right?

I am certain of this: if Telstra wanted to allow tethering on its network, and Apple didn't allow it to do so while letting Vodafone and Optus offer the feature, there would have been a lawsuit by now. Look up "restraint of trade" if you don't believe me.

Bottom line? Telstra should come clean and just admit that it had a policy and it's changed its policy. Or not — it doesn't matter now that the service is available. But the finger-pointing has to go.

A word of warning

When you're using a proper-sized screen instead of an iPhone it's a whole lot easier to surf around, spend time on forums, follow links, watch videos and so forth. Even though you're using the same NextG data you were using before, there's every likelihood you'll start using more of it once you start tethering. An app like Consume (Australian iTunes Store link) is a real necessity unless you want to find yourself with some exciting excess data charges on your next bill.

Discuss this post in MacTheForum