Recently my wife and I went away for a few days.  The place we visited was great.  It was remote, beautiful and we had a chance to unwind.  With that stated, by design there was no internet connectivity.  I knew this before we arrived so I came prepared.  This is where "tethering" comes in.  Without diving too deep into the techy stuff please allow me to explain.

Tethering is utilizing your cell phone like a modem.  Tethering is a service my wireless carrier (Verizon) offers.  Prior to leaving home I signed-up for tethering at the local Verizon store, downloaded the necessary software to my Pc, and read the instructions.  Upon arrival, after everything was done and we were settled for the evening I plugged my cell phone into my Pc and presto I was able to connect to the Internet.  I accessed my email and surfed the net all via my Pc using my cell phone as the modem. 

Overall I found tethering to be worthwhile and cost effective for situations like this.  While I am not ready to give up my cable modem at home, in situations where you do not have traditional internet connectivity and you don't want to peck away on a tiny cell phone device tethering can be legitimate alternative. 

The following is my overall rating for this feature:

Ease of use:  Grade = B

Performance:  Grade = B (pretty good actually.  It's not a T1 or cable modem but.....)

Cost:  Grade = B (about $15/month with an unlimited data plan)

Benefit:  You can use your Pc versus tapping out messages on your cell phone

Summary:  I don't know if other carriers offer this service or not however if your needs resembled mine it is something to consider.  It's not fast nor is it super slow.  My recommendation is to give it a try.  Mine was free for the first 30 days.  In that time you can determine for yourself if its worth the monthly expense or not.