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O2, the UK carrier, has gone on record as saying that they'll disconnect or charge people who are caught tethering without the paid version:

http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobil...

I've never quite understood how or why broadband vendors can get away with not allowing their customers to actually use the broadband they're paying for.
I wonder how they're going to check this. I'm almost tempted to test it out, and see what happens. Buying a new prepaid sim only costs £4, but changing phone numbers is a bit more of a hassle.
Easiest way would be to check the user-agent string.

Or if you use desktop-only apps it will surely ring some bells.

If you're using a Mac and enable the Developer menu on Safari, you can set the user-agent string to Safari for iPhone.

Using BitTorrent clients might be inadvisable ...

I was fortunate enough to catch NetShare on the AppStore and have been using it for my tethering needs. Seems to be undetected by my provider, as this one seems a bit more official with a comment on the YouTube instructional video indicating that ATT did charge them for their tethering, using this method.
Got this working on my Iphone 3GS. Wow that was easy.
Can you tell us if ATT detects it? A comment on the youtube video says they did, but if that's not the case, I may try it out. Seems to be the most slick and easiest way to tether.
I experimented with it and racked up 400 megabytes in data transfered without even trying (Checked e-mail, visited some web pages).

If AT&T then charges me 0.60/megabyte as stated in the Youtube comment, I'm looking at a pretty hefty bill this month.

Same here. I just moved and don't have internet set up yet. It's been really useful, but I'm a little worried about my next bill :).
I wonder if you could claim ignorance. As in you were reading about it in anticipation of them offering it and you acidentally installed the file and later you plugged your phone into your pc to sync with iTunes and you thought you were using starbucks wifi the whole time...
Note that it won't work on first-generation iPhones. It wasn't mentioned on that page, nor on the TechCrunch article that talked about it and I was left wondering and restarting mine to no avail.
To enable it, after installing the config on your iPhone, go to: Settings > General > Network > Internet Tethering

Maybe I missed it, but I had to find this out on my own. This came in very handy the other day when I found myself in a hotel with spotty wifi.