July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

T-Mobile is gearing up to introduce the cheapest tethering option yet in the U.S. with a $14.99 a month plan on November 3, according to the mobile site Boy Genius Report.

Not surprisingly, the carrier will require customers to be subscribed to its $19.99-per-month unlimited data plan to receive tethering — a feature which allows subscribers to use their phones as wireless hotspots — and they must have a 3G or HSPA+ (its faster network that sits between 3G and 4G speeds) devices.

The tethering service will be available to T-Mobile’s regular monthly subscribers, as well as its FlexPay customers, who pay a predictable monthly rate in advance. Data used by tethered devices will count against subscribers’ 5 gigabyte monthly penalty limit. Instead of charging overage fees like other carriers, T-Mobile dramatically lowers network speeds for devices that go over the monthly limit.

At $14.99, T-Mobile’s tethering option is cheaper than Verizon’s $20 monthly charge for tethering on Android devices like the Droid X, AT&T’s $20 charge for the iPhone, and it’s $10 cheaper than Sprint’s $25 monthly fee for tethering on the Evo 4G.

T-Mobile also offers more data than its competitors since tethered devices take advantage of a 5GB pool — in comparison, AT&T includes tethered data under subscribers’ normal 2GB pool on its DataPro plan, and Verizon grants users 2GB specifically for tethering.