Some out there are confused about the state of tethering on Rogers’ network. They shouldn’t be. Until May 3rd that is, when Rogers may start charging for the service.
Tethering, if you don’t know, is using a new school wireless device like an iPhone or BlackBerry Bold as an old school modem for something else, like a laptop.
Currently, the company provides tethering at no extra charge to those with the data plan add-on of 1 GB or more. That was originally meant to end on Dec. 31st, 2009, but was extended for existing customers until May 3rd, 2010. Lucky you.
After May 3rd, the company is “examining options that are in line with how customers use tethering on their devices,” writes Odette Coleman of Rogers Communications in an e-mail.
Which means Rogers might have to start charging for it.
That, by itself, isn’t terribly alarming, though it might annoy some customers who have gotten used to the free service. As more and more people buy smart phones and as more and more people use them as their primary connection to the Internet, tethering will become a bigger issue.
The mere fact that you know how to tether may mean that you’re also the type of person, say, who downloads music from iTunes or watches TV shows and documentaries in segments on YouTube instead of an actual television; or someone who, gasp, watches all global programming exclusively on YouKu.
It’s not a stretch to assume those who tether probably use more data than those who do not. And as a “high bandwidth user,” you’re a veritable revenue siphon for large wireless carriers. Compared to voice, which is inexpensive and relatively easy to provide, data is expensive.
When people start using their iPhone or BlackBerry to connect their netbook to the Net and stream videos while riding the Go Train into work, you become an issue.
You’re even an issue for the young upstarts like Wind Mobile. At its launch in December, Wind declared that if you tether your BlackBerry over a certain limit, they will start to throttle you down, close your pipes a bit, so that you don’t disrupt the company’s other customers on its relatively young network.
This will only become more crucial for wireless providers as more and more tablets hit the market.
Next week, Apple is set, perhaps, to reveal its new tablet. The portable and possibly wireless device, it is rumoured, will allow people to connect to the Internet to download and peruse newspapers and magazines, and perhaps even watch videos or listen to music via a streaming iTunes service.
That could lead to an explosion in data usage, and a company like Rogers is probably more interested in having you buy a data stick or pay for tethering than give it away for free.
Of course, if carriers give out the service for free like some sort of opiate and then yank it back and start charging for it when people are addicted, there may be trouble. All for charging for a service they likely should have been charging for from the beginning.
Sort of like, um, newspapers.
