The best replacement for tether is hotspot.

The best alternatives to tether are rated as following:
★★★★★  hotspot
★★★  mobile hotspot
★★★  pdanet
★★  mifi
★★  untether
★  cellular ipad
★  wifi hotspot
★  aircard
★  3g ipad
★  barnacle
★  tetherbridge
  easy tether lite
  easytether

Your alternative for tether is not listed? Suggest!
Speaking about tether, one probably shouldn't forget about passive stylus.

Other search terms related to tether and their ratings are:
★★★★★ passive stylus
You have in mind a companion for tether and it is not yet here? Propose!



Google Trends

Scale is based on the average worldwide traffic of tether in all years. Click on graph for more.
tether
hotspot
mobile hotspot