Not sure how long these instructions will work for, but in response to O2 charging £15 a month to tether an iPhone to a PC – and yet still claim the contract carries “unlimited” data use (aka #02fail) I have downloaded, tried and proved these steps both work and are simple – and the iPhone doesn’t need to be “jail-broken”, in fact it barely counts as a hack[more].
I guess the usual disclaimers still apply though: this may not work, it may break your phone, it may make 02 angry, it’s at your own risk etc. etc. etc.
Here are the steps I used:
- Backup your iPhone using iTunes (right-click phone and choose “Backup Phone”) – just in case
- Using the iPhone, start Safari and visit http://help.benm.at
- Scroll down the page until you see “Mobileconfigs download>” – select it
- Scroll to the bottom and choose United Kingdom – select it
- On the last page select your appopriate network (“O2 Contract” for the vast majority)
- Click “Install”
- You will be asked if you wish to download and install an un-verfied Profile. Select “Install Now”.
- After a few moments you should be done
- From the main menu of the iPhone choose Settings > General >Network and you’ll see a new option “Internet Tethering” – turn it on
- Select it and it’s straight forward enough: if you want to use bluetooth pair your phone with your PC/Mac in the usual way, if you want to just use a cable you can skip this step and plug your USB cable in.
- Your iPhone should be recongnised as a standard modem, just coax it through installing if necessary. It makes a new network adapter.
- Once paired & connected you should be able to surf the internet from your laptop – if you have 3G it will be nippy, if not it will test your patience – as normal.
- Your right to unlimited data is returned. Just don’t abuse it, we don’t want this being clamped down on by the bean counters at O2 🙂
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