Apple may be considering offering tethering capabilities to its iPhone, in collaboration with AT&T of course, Steve Jobs reportedly said in an e-mail response to a user. According to Gizmodo, Apple is discussing with AT&T a plan that would include such services for the iPhone.

“AT&T offers data plans for BlackBerry that include tethering for an additional $30 per month,” the user said in an e-mail sent to Apple. “It seems ludicrous that the same thing is not offered with the iPhone,” he added, and Jobs seems to have had the same opinion: “We agree, and are discussing it with AT&T.”

It is still too early to say whether the response e-mail from Steve Jobs is legit, but it doesn’t sound like a bad plan, especially if we take into consideration the (brief) success of NetShare, a tethering application that got pulled from the App Store just hours after its release, with no explanation whatsoever.

The application, developed by Canadian company Nullriver Inc., allowed users to transform the iPhone into a modem and provide Internet access to their PCs. According to the developer, their app was in full compliance with Apple’s developer guidelines.

The issue that was most upsetting at the time was that users wanted such an application for the iPhone, but Apple denied them the service. Furthermore, as many iPhone users said at the time, this was just another reason to jailbreak the iPhone…or was it all part of Apple’s strategy?

Speculations at the time said Apple had taken down the application so as to make room for a tethering service in collaboration with AT&T. But of course, as usual, we’ll have to wait patiently for Apple to confirm (or deny) the rumors about a new service coming up.