If you owned a smartphone before the iPhone, you probably used it for tethering to get online with your computer in a place where wifi was not available or too expensive. With the iPhone, tethering hasn't been possible unless you've jailbroken your iPhone or were lucky enough to buy NullRiver's NetShare app while it was briefly available in the App Store. In the U.S., you'll notice that other smartphones offered by AT&T can make use of data plans that allow tethering, and the iPhone is one of the few smartphones, if not the only one, that they offer that cannot make use of one of these plans, nor is there currently a native app or Settings option on the iPhone that enables this.

Well, today there's a rumor that indicates that AT&T and Apple are looking into this! The rumor revolves around an email supposedly sent by Steve Jobs in response to someone who complained about AT&T's lack of tethering options for the iPhone.  The purported reply from Steve says "We agree, and are discussing it with ATT [sic]".  

Every year, there is always at least one rumor supported by an alleged email from Steve Jobs, and we've already had one or two of these this year, but this could prove to be one of the more exciting ones so far for iPhone users who really want to be able to use their iPhone 3G's high-speed network connection to be able to do even more on the go without worrying about doing something unauthorized on AT&T's network and/or voiding the warranty on their iPhone to enable this capability.

So, as always, we'll wait and see if this turns out to be true. My trusty Magic 8 ball says the possibility of this rumor coming true is "Most Likely" and it's never lied to me yet.

Via MacRumors