Activate tethering on Softbank iPhone

A friend of mine, @kuriburi, just sent me this to publish for him, so here you go:

So it was the news of the day: Someone managed to activate tethering on an AT&T iPhone 3G by means of a “carrier support file”, a.k.a. “ipcc”. Here in Japan, the story was a bit more tricky : Softbank declared that they would not support tethering on their network and had no plans to do so in the future either.

softbank-tethered

Nice! So, with those brand new Macbook Pro without any pc express card slot, how are we supposed to use Softbank’s data cards? This bothered me to no end thus I went on a search for a Softbank carrier support file that I could modify somehow. I stumbled onto this very interesting post on a Japanese blog that talked about the same thing, but with a beta version of the iPhone OS 3.0.

OK, well, doesn’t hurt to try with the official release, right?

Now I need to get my hands on that damn file. Turns out, it was right on my hard drive at work since August 2008. So I went to work and modified the file (which incidentally is just a bundle in a zip archive with a special extension) and tried to update my iPhone with it. The steps are simple :

  1. in the Terminal, execute defaults write com.apple.iTunes carrier-testing -bool TRUE
    on windows, execute C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunes.exe /setPrefInt carrier-testing 1 in a DOS window
  2. plug your iPhone to your computer via the USB cable
  3. in iTunes, display the summary page of your iPhone
  4. while pressing the “alt” (option) key, click on the “check for update” button
  5. you will be presented with a finder window. Locate the Softbank_jp.ipcc file, select it
  6. iTunes will now update your iPhone with the modified carrier settings
  7. Once finished, unplug the iPhone, go see into Settings>General>Network, and voilà! screenshot

Oh, before I forget, if Apple or Softbank issues an update through iTunes, wait a bit before updating… you never know…

Update: I updated the link with the latest file from @kuriburi that activates both tethering and MMS. よろしく！

Update: This IPCC file does not work with 3.1 update. If you value your tethering, do not upgrade yet.

377 thoughts on “Activate tethering on Softbank iPhone”

  1. I think I’m in trouble this what I used this month
    ホワイトプラン
    音声通話料
    1,210円

    メール通信料
    0円

    パケット通信料
    1,013,062円….here it’s always 200,000~400,000

    I can’t sleep,
    Nancy

  2. Nathan… When I said 200-400,000 per month I meant that’s my usage and NOT my bill. My packet bill is unchanged on the “unlimited” plan at somewhere around 4200 yen per month. As you know, Softbank shows your usage then subtracts it all. My point is that I am a fairly “heavy” user of the packet service but occasional tethering has had NO effect on my bill. Now, if my usage went way up suddenly, it may be possible that would raise a red flag at Softbank.

  3. i guess my bill is up to 1.5mil yen now… so, nancy you can sleep while i keep my eyes open.

    although last month, it was 0.6mil and i got charged 1% of that.

  4. I heard from a friend that he got charged 40,000yen and 50,000yen for 2 months for “PC Packets” because he was using an unlocked iPhone from the States. Anyone ever get charged for these “PC Packets” from Softbank for tethering?

  5. AL, thank you so much for the info I was a bit scare when you said 400,000yen thank you for the clarification :) Nathan

  6. SO the billing issue? has anyone been charged more then the max 4200¥ on the unlimited plan (softbank whiteplan) for data?
    i just got the 32gig gs and was thinking of jail breaking for use in other counties, but i am worried about in japan use.

    any recent experience.

  7. I am not asking what the usage charges listed on the bill. i am asking what the final bill is for data usage using a softbank jail broken phone?

  8. I had trouble with Bluetooth tethering in the past, which I think was on the mac side not the iphone side. The 10.5.8 upgrade fixed the problem, and I can now Bluetooth tether with no difficulty.

    I have not read anywhere yet that the billed data charges are above the usual rate for Softbank for people who are tethering. So, you guys can calm down and enjoy the technology till it gets blocked somehow.

  9. Actually, both my June and July bills were higher than average… Prior bills were always about ¥10100. June was about ¥13000 and July was ¥11200. Keep in mind I have only used tethering on two or three occasions just for testing.

    I need to review my bill in more detail online. It’s sooo kryptic, but I don’t want to go into Softbank and ask questions for fear of getting nailed because of tethering!

  11. Guys – got the tethering up and running perfect. Not a single problem so far. I now have a cracked, hacked, jailbroken and tethered iPhone 32GB 3GS

    Cant possibly love it any more than I already do.

    I dropped my first on in the river 2 days after getting it and the guys at Apple felt sorry for me and swapped me out a brand new one right there on the spot. How lucky am I!?

    The sickest gadget available today.

    I honestly believe Apple likes the fact that so much hacking is going on with the iPhone – not the carriers of course but they don’t make the device. I’m sure Apple people have a bit of a laugh to themselves when they see how much can be done by the ordinary hacker.

    On topic, I will be using tethering when I am on the go with the PC – a great way to use my phone as a mobile roaming 3G connection go between – and even better, now that it is jailbroken and ultrasn0w’d, available to me on any SIM in the world!

    Thanks for the help guys!

  12. Hello, I have had this Hack for about 6 weeks now and my bills have actually not changed at all. My last bill was actually smaller by about 1000 yen! This is incredible. Even though I only use the internet tethering for browsing the net with my laptop and not downloading a lot, this is still spot on!

  13. this may not be related but will post it here anyway. Does anyone know how to disable cellular internet on Softbank iPhone 3G with 3.0 firmware?

  14. you go to “Preferences / General / Network” and disable roaming
    this will disable all internet use while roaming outside of Softbank’s network, which is what I assume you wish to do…

  16. I gave this a try and for some reason it doesn’t seem to work. My Mac just gets a self-assigned IP address from the v3.0.1 jailbreaked iPhone after I enabled tethering. Any idea why?

  17. Hi guys and gals,

    Does any know, whether the iPhone 3.1.1 OS will disable the tethering on the softbank iPhones or not?

    Much obliged

  19. F.Y.I.

    The 3.1.1 update disabled tethering on my phone.

    Haven’t had time to try reapply the settings though.

  22. Ok people, 1st of all, I confirm it works on iPhone 3GS devices that were successfully activated under 3.0 with the custom ipcc file.
    I also confirm it will NOT work for people who jailbroke their iPhone (that should be obvious !!! but some people don’t seem to understand that…)
    I am now trying to upgrade an old iPhone 3G running 3.0 to which I applied the custom ipcc. More feedback in a few minutes.

  23. Upgrading from 3.0 to 3.1 on old iPhone 3G, tethering option still there ! I can’t understand why some of you have lost the tethering option in the network menu.

    AGAIN, please remember : My experience is on VANILLA 3.0 (and 3.01) to which the custom softbank.ipcc was applied. Upgrading to 3.1 (not restore!!) from iTunes 9.0 yielded perfectly functional iPhones (both 3G and 3GS) WITH tethering still activated.

    If you jailbroke your iPhone, I am sorry but you are ON YOUR OWN !

  24. OK, I got it… the option will STILL SHOW UP until you actually try to use the function ! Then it will vanish from the menu. Thanks to @psychedelicMod for the help in tracking this down !
    Sorry folks !!!

    IF YOU WANT TO KEEP USING TETHERING, LOOKS LIKE YOU HAVE TO STAY ON 3.0.1 !!!

  25. hello @psychedelicMod here, for those of you (like me) who have upgraded to 3.1 but want to downgrade back to an earlier version of the firmware, say 3.0.1 for tethering you may not be able to simply by restoring to an earlier backup…

    for a mini youtube tutorial check this boy genius
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD6wti-ayOs
    be careful to follow the text links in the “more info” section! This should enable you to revert back to 3.0.1 and then tether!

    There are two files in the link, the firmware itself and a windows QuickPwn file for the fix… if you (like me) run a mac you can either parallel or use this QuickPwn file instead…
    http://www.zshare.net/download/517216491efea4ed/

    I would suggest allowing yourself a bit of time to do this and also watch the tutorial a couple of times…

    good luck! Bring back tethering and let’s hope kurisu and I kidnap Steve Jobs for some signed ipcc files

  26. Thank you Rob, Arigato Kurisu, the 3.0.1 is a keeper, there’s nothing in 3.1 is worth sacrificing the tethering for, ganbarimas

  27. Thanks for this VERY useful info.
    I hope to see info for tethering in 3.1 …
    I really need some 3.1 APIs!

  29. I tried Ali’s solution. I managed to brick my phone and had to take it to Softbank who wiped it losing some data in the process.

    Obviously I’m not a fan.

  30. @DocC very sorry to hear you had trouble downgrading…

    when you say bricked your phone could you explain… at what point in the process did it shut down and was a reset not possible?

    there are a few other downgrade tutorials out there but as with all of this it is very much at your own risk…

    I wonder if there is another issue that caused your problem however… as it is known to work for others… hmm…

    I have heard some mac users having trouble with iTunes 9, and also know that restarting from a backup may not work either…

    when you took it to softbank, what did they do/say?

  31. @docc

    did you have to pay for a new phone?
    if not, did you leave the store with a phone running 3.0 or 3.1?

  32. So, there’s still no evidence of SoftBank charging anybody anything extra for using tethering, right?

    Is there anybody who bought a 3G (not a 3GS) more than a few months ago (before the iPhone for everybody campaign) who has used a substantial chunk of data using tethering and still hasn’t gotten a high bill?

    Just wondering because the only thing I’m gonna use tethering for in the foreseeable future is to watch a video stream for about 4 hours on one day and it could end up being somewhere near 1GB.

  33. Note to everyone: As of right now, it is NOT possible to downgrade an iPhone 3GS from 3.1 to 3.0. Beware! Only an iPhone 3G can be downgraded, not an iPhone 3GS.

    Also, can anyone verify that upgrading from 10.6 to 10.6.1 does not break tethering?

    Thanks

  34. Today I have noticed MMS suddenly stopped working. Did Softbank get into dirty game of “implicitly” blackmailing users to update to 3.1 or loose MMS?

  35. Sorry, I can’t really tell you when the phone bricked. I was doing my best to follow the instructions. It didn’t work on the first and perhaps, second try, and I just kept trying. At some point it just locked up and wouldn’t start at all.

    No, I didn’t have to pay for a new phone. My Japanese is marginal at best, i have no idea what the guy at Softbank said or thought. I just walked in, and handed him the phone and said “Mondai” He plugged it in, played with for a couple of minutes and then came to me and said “Wipe”. I said OK. When I left Softbank they had installed 3.1.

    F.Y.I. It works fine now, just no tethering.

  36. Anyone experiencing same issue that Dinky has? Is it true that tethering no longer works? Im still at 3.0 but doesn’t have a laptop I can use to test at the moment.

  39. @Den
    I have not said that the tethering stopped working – it was MMS that stopped.
    @Stupod
    Try sending MMS to your 3.0.1 tethering-enabled iPhone number from a non-iPhone device to see whether you still receive the MMS.

  40. @dinky
    Sorry, I’m still on 3.0. MMS to and from other iPhones and non-iPhones still works on both my 3.0 iPhones.

  42. Pingback: Restore your iPhone 3G to 3.0.1

  44. Hey guys!
    First of all thank you for putting such an effort in this kind of topic.
    Before I try doing tethering I have a far bigger issue (for me).

    I have a iPhone I bought in Switzerland (prepaid iPhone). I jailbraiked it and used ultrasn0w to unlock the simlock. It worked fine, for more than a year with a german contract.
    Here in Japan, i got the Softbank sim card from a friend who has the White Plan Family Plan.

    I changed to Unlimited Packet Discount S and Internet, TXT/MMS, Calling was all working perfectly fine for over a week. I woke up last morning and noticed that the blue 3G symbol on top of the screen had disappeared. From this time onwards I can neither make phone calls nor use the internet or send TXT/MMS on my iPhone.

    I really don’t know what to do, so please help me.

    P.S.: When I put my german Sim Card in and activate “Data Roaming” the blue 3G symbol appears again and I’m able to use all connective functions.

  45. Sorry, just one correction: I changed the Plan to “Packet Flat-Rate Full” not to “Unlimited Packet Discount S”.

    Thank you.

  47. Thank you very much for your quick answer, Stupod.

    Today I found out what happened: SoftBank locked up my account.
    My bill is 180 000¥!!! As a volunteer just earning 60 000¥ a month this is a big problem.
    They said that even though I had a Packet Full Flatrate the iPhone was recognized as a PC and therefore charged normally.

    Is there anything I can do about it? Please help!

  48. @Konni

    Again, I think it’d be better if you posted about this at http://www.mobileinjapan.com/group/iphoneinjapan/forum partly because this page of comments is on a different subject, but mostly because the issue you’re talking about has been discussed before on mobileinjapan. From what I’ve read, using an unlocked non-SoftBank iPhone on the SoftBank network means they charge you the full rate. It’s bad. Really bad. I don’t know of any way of easily publicising this so that people like yourself don’t get into this situation so I suppose it’s gonna happen a lot. Anyway, add a forum post on mobileinjapan and I’m sure somebody will be able to advise you on what the deal is. I have a feeling it’s bad news though…

  49. Wow, this thread got longer since the last time I posted. So it seems ver 3.1 looses tethering. Anyone tried 3.1.2?

  50. Yea, I’ve been wondering the same thing! I’ve been hanging tough with 3.0.1 waiting to see if anyone has found the magic key to unlock tethering on 3.1.2! What’s stopping it? An new IPCC file for 3.1.? Has the iPhone system software been modified so much that that’s no longer the issue?

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