Buh Bye Unlimited, Hello Tethering

I did something today I thought I would never do, I gave up my unlimited iPhone data plan for the 5GB WiFi tethering plan. No, I wasn't forced by the now famous AT&T strong-arm tactic of throttling data speeds for people who reach or surpass the 2GB data use limit. From what I understand those "limits" are subject to regional use patterns and can vary greatly from region to region. I suspect those limits might be a bit higher in NYC as I have never received the dreaded throttling email and I consistently use at least 2-4GB on a monthly basis.

So why did I volunteer to spend the extra 20 bucks a months for the 5GB plan? Simply put, I want to tether my iPad.  With the new iPad 3 right around the corner, I was really contemplating going with a 3G (ahem, 4G LTE?) iPad.  For me and my usage patterns, I just couldn't justify paying the premium for the data enabled iPad and then an additional $25 a month for the ipad data plan.  By going the 5GB tethering route, I save $5 a month in data plan costs and can carry the plan thru to the next (ahem 4G) iPhone <insert number here>.  As for the unlimited and data caps, I looked at my useage over a year timeframe and found that I rarely exceeded 4GB even with all the MLB baseball games via the MLB At Bat app, CBS NY app for WFAN 660 sports radio, and the various podcast downloads and streams I do with PocketCasts.

I look forward to tethering my iPad on my daily bus ride commute which can range anywhere from 45mins to 2 hrs based on NYC traffic.  I'll be sure to have my iPwr battery backups (2 of them) readily available in my messenger bag.

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