So you have your new iPhone with OS 3.0 and have been enjoying tethering for the last month due to a couple of handy little hack out on the web.

Not wanting to take the plunge and dive into jailbreaking you just made a slight modification in order to get what has been advertised from Apple.

It should come as no surprise then that Apple is working very hard to take this option away from you. After all they do not feel you should have it without paying (a ridiculous amount) for the service. According to testers of the new iPhone OS 3.1 Beta the trick that allows for tethering has been removed as has the MMS hack.

The reason they are working to pull this? Well it seems AT&T has not been able t work in a fee schedule for tethering on the iPhone just yet. This is the same problem they are facing with MMS. I mean come on; you are only paying for "unlimited" data. But that unlimited is really limited in the minds of AT&T. They feel that despite being marketed and sold with a data plan (that you cannot opt out of) you should pay more to experience things that are available on even mundane phones.

So while the new OS 3.1 that is supposedly due out this month will bring some fixes for real user issues it will also tighten the noose on users in the US where exclusivity is still a cool thing and carriers (much like Apple) get to control what "unlimited data" really means.