Tethering will be supported in Android 2.2, but it will be at the carriers discretion

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Tethering will be supported in Android 2.2, but it will be at the carriers discretion

May 21, 2010 | by Robert Nelson

Android, Android OS, Google Android

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As we learned yesterday, Android 2.2 will officially include support for Internet tethering. That part was the good news, but it does come with a catch — that support will be left in the hands of the carriers.

In other words, Google is going to support it but the individual carrier does not have to. And if they do, they can consider it an added service, which may come with an added price.

In the end, most people (at least here in the US) will likely not have the option available and if they do it will come as an added expense. After all, the only phone that officially offers tethering for free here in the US is Verizon and the Palm Pre Plus and many would argue that was added as an incentive to get people to purchase the phones.

[via TechCrunch]

Android, Android 2.2, android 2.2 features, Froyo, froyo features, goog, Google, internet tethering, tethering, wi-fi, wi-fi hotspot, wifi, wifi hotspot

7 Comments

Brian Klippel says:

May 21, 2010 at 1:31 pm

Does that mean the Nexus One will check in OTA with T-Mobile for tethering permission, or will it be an exception?
Anthony says:

May 21, 2010 at 1:34 pm

I really hope not. Then that would mean that froyo release would be in T-Mobile hands.
AndrewKam says:

May 21, 2010 at 6:41 pm

In the press room, Rubin told us that tethering will only work as far as carriers allow it. That implies that companies will be able to disable the feature somehow. Google will not push out a feature that violates a carrier's Terms of Service, so if T-Mobile doesn't want you tethering, you will be blocked.
dhaupert says:

May 21, 2010 at 8:08 pm

What if you purchase an unlocked phone for the 530 dollars though? In that case it's designed to run on a multitude of carriers in theory. So how will they know that the one with the AT&T band is being used for Rogers in Canada for example? Seems like this is probably the reason they are stopping selling the phones outside of the carrier relationships- hard to disable certain features when you don't know which ones to disable! My recent post boiler bid
jk says:

May 21, 2010 at 4:56 pm

Just get a tether app off the market. Then give the carrier the big middle finger.
Kaushik Gopal says:

May 22, 2010 at 4:52 am

I had the same thoughts as dhaupert, how would they control the unlocked phone market?
dirkdiggler6383 says:

May 24, 2010 at 3:41 pm

Very true about the tether apps they are already available in the android market. Even without the Froyo update. Easytether one time fee of $9.95 and does not require root access. I dont think Verizon will remove it. At least i hope not.