[gaius]

But that stupid cell company fee will keep me away. Just like it keeps me off cellular iPads

This entirely depends on your carrier. I have a single account for both iPhone and iPad wth 10Gb/mo to "spend" between them however I see fit. I'm with EE.

[MBCook]

I'm in the US. I have a pool of data too, but there is a monthly charge for every device I add to the pool.

If adding a device to the pool also came with a little bit of extra data that might make it work out, but that's not the way it works.

Essentially I'm penalized for trying to use their services more. Instead of a nominal fee and making their money from selling more data, I have to pay a bigger fee just for the possibility of using the small pool I already have.

Not having to deal with tethering is not worth $10 a month to me.