A few months ago, a curious iPhone user decided to go straight to the top and ask Steve Jobs why there was no tethering plan for the iPhone available. Steve replied to his email saying they were working on it, but an inside source says AT&T is afraid their network won’t be able to hold up to it.

MacBlogz claims to have information from a reliable inside source within AT&T confirming that they have indeed been working on a tethering plan for the the iPhone, but have been keeping it a secret. Since then it has been delayed due to a severe lack of confidence in their 3G network. In fact, the source says AT&T’s network can barely handle the strain from normal iPhone browsing:

“Since I’ve worked here, I’ve never seen them be so worried about legalities,” said the source.

“Regardless of how many billions of dollars AT&T pours into their 3G network, it hasn’t been stable enough to handle all you iPhone users,” the source added.

Still, the functionality is in place, so if AT&T can manage to stabilize and strengthen their network, the possibility of a tethering plan in the future remains.

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