Well, it only took a year. A little over a year ago, Apple announced iPhone OS 3.0 and along with it came support for 3G internet tethering. The only problem was that while many wireless carriers around the world offered the tethering option to iPhone users, AT&T bowed out due to the strain that the popular smartphone was putting on its 3G network.

Well if the latest beta release of iPhone OS 4.0 is any indication, it looks as though the long wait is now over. Apple this evening seeded iPhone OS 4.0 Beta 4 to developers according to Mac Rumors and it includes an option to enable internet tethering.

The new option, which appears in the Network tab under Settings, gives users the ability to enable tethering by dialing 611 or visiting http://www.att.com/mywireless" rel="nofollow. We don't currently have any official word on pricing for the tethering option, but there's a close to 100 percent guarantee that the word "free" won't be anywhere in the fine print.

IPhone users who jailbreak can currently get free, quick, and easy tethering on AT&T's network using a program like MyWi, but it's not officially sanctioned by Apple or AT&T.

In other tethering news, it was recently revealed that Google has enabled native tethering and Wi-Fi hotspot capabilities in its updated Android 2.2 operating system. It remains to be seen, however, it carriers will play nice and provide the features for free.