iPhone OS 4.3 to Bring Mobile Hotspot Outside of Verizon in March

[Mike_TX]

I thought this was interesting...

iPhone OS 4.3 to Bring Mobile Hotspot Outside of Verizon in March
IntoMobile Link

One of the few distinctive differences of Verizon’s iPhone 4 which was announced yesterday is that unlike AT&T, it includes a Personal Hotspot to turn your phone into a Wi-Fi hub and share your wireless internet with up to 5 devices. AT&T iPhone 4 owners may be making puppy-dog eyes over not getting the feature, but don’t worry – rumour has it that a global iOS update due to land in March will bring the Personal Hotspot feature beyond just the Verizon iPhone.

An iPhone hotspot will be a nice additional feature, but even once Apple’s done cooking up the software, what carriers do with it may be a huge bottleneck. AT&T, for example, only provided iPhone tethering this summer after promising it over a year earlier. Part of the delay may rely on getting the pricing infrastructure in place, or in AT&T’s case, building out their network so they can handle the added load a mobile hotspot feature would add, but now that Verizon is offering a viable alternative, you’d think their network congestion would lessen. That being said, the longer Verizon is the only one with personal hotspot on the iPhone 4, the more AT&T is bound to bleed customers (not that they needed any more reasons).

As Will continually points out, there have been third-party Wi-Fi hotspot solutions available for awhile, if it’s a feature you’re really gung-ho about using and don’t feel like waiting for something official.

Mike

[Mike_TX]

Apple May Remove the Home Button On the Next IPad

Unrelated to Wifi hotspot, but related to OS 4.3:
Slashdot link
"Apple May Remove the Home Button On the Next IPad"

[skullguise]

I think part of the problem with "Mobile Hotspot," though, is that you need to pay for it. Tethering is free if you can do it......

[PhenomeNhan]

I was getting ready to pull the trigger on dropping my iPhone 3G and hopping over to Sprint's 4G network with the EVO4. I don't believe either ATT or Verizon will provide a full 4G network, so data flow thru probably won't be as fast. It's great to have an alternative from ATT, so kudos to VZ for picking up the iPhone.

With Sprint, there's a monthly $10 charge for using the 4G network, in addition to $30 charge for turning the phone into a hotspot. The bad part is not being able to use the phone while it performs its hotspot duties :( I'm sure ATT and VZ will have similar charges.

Anyone know a hack for this (turning it into a hotspot to avoid the $30 monthly fee? :D I would want to cancel my Sierra Overdrive ($150 cancellation fee at this point) and just use the EVO 4 for the hotspot duties. Just PM me re: this as it will take away from this thread.

I'd be happy to get rid of ATT's crappy and slow service, which was really amplified at CES.

[Hugh]

Venetian is the dead planet for AT&T. :)

I'd be happy to get rid of ATT's crappy and slow service, which was really amplified at CES.

[Mike_TX]

I think part of the problem with "Mobile Hotspot," though, is that you need to pay for it. Tethering is free if you can do it......

I wasn't aware you had to pay for the "hotspot".
Thanks for the info...

Mike

[PhenomeNhan]

Venetian is the dead planet for AT&T. :)

I stayed at Mandaly's last year during the summer and ATT service was pretty bad there as well.

[Jed M]

I was an ATT/Cingular customer for the last 8 years and I switched over to Sprint and got the EVO a few months back and I can't imagine life without it. You can tether for free (with USB) on the EVO (and free wifi hot spot if you root it which I haven't) and that was one of the main reasons why I went for the EVO over the iPhone, well that and I really wanted 4G speed. I have an iPod Touch and an iPad, but for a mobile device I prefer Android and its flexibility. You can spend an hour just playing around with the interface if you want to. It really is great for people who enjoying playing around under the hood. I really am almost ashamed to admit how addicted I am to this thing. The one thing that is missing is Sonos needs to finish its official Android app, but right now Andronos works, but its not ever close to the official iPod app.

[PhenomeNhan]

Thanks for the post, Jed. I'll probably switch over to Sprint first (without the hotspot charge) with the EVO4 and see what deals they are willing to make for me.

[Sandbagger]

Anyone know a hack for this (turning it into a hotspot to avoid the $30 monthly fee? :D I would want to cancel my Sierra Overdrive ($150 cancellation fee at this point) and just use the EVO 4 for the hotspot duties. Just PM me re: this as it will take away from this thread.

I'd be happy to get rid of ATT's crappy and slow service, which was really amplified at CES.

About a million ways to do that, its easy and free :whoopie:

[Cujobob]

Pretty sure there are apps to make most phones tether for free. My brother in law does this with his Touch Pro 2 (1.5 year old winmo device). There are plenty of ways to set up a hotspot for cheap...

[django1]

I was an ATT/Cingular customer for the last 8 years and I switched over to Sprint and got the EVO a few months back and I can't imagine life without it. You can tether for free (with USB) on the EVO (and free wifi hot spot if you root it which I haven't) and that was one of the main reasons why I went for the EVO over the iPhone, well that and I really wanted 4G speed. I have an iPod Touch and an iPad, but for a mobile device I prefer Android and its flexibility. You can spend an hour just playing around with the interface if you want to. It really is great for people who enjoying playing around under the hood. I really am almost ashamed to admit how addicted I am to this thing. The one thing that is missing is Sonos needs to finish its official Android app, but right now Andronos works, but its not ever close to the official iPod app.

I just read this post and I have absolutely no idea what all this means. I am hopelessely out of touch with this technology.:geezer:

[Jed M]

Well, it wouldn't be the first time somebody stared at me like they didn't understand a thing I just said. Here it is in layman terms:

I prefer Google's phone operating system (Android) over Apple's because you can use it wherever you go to provide high speed internet to your devices (pc, laptop, ipad, etc) for free. With Apple they charge $30 a month for that service and have slower speeds. I also think Google's phones allows more customization and personalization. Apple's phone is a slicker product out of the box, requires no tinkering and is really nothing short of brilliant, but if you like playing around with gadgets, Android is a better experience.

[PhenomeNhan]

Well, it wouldn't be the first time somebody stared at me like they didn't understand a thing I just said. Here it is in layman terms:

I prefer Google's phone operating system (Android) over Apple's because you can use it wherever you go to provide high speed internet to your devices (pc, laptop, ipad, etc) for free. With Apple they charge $30 a month for that service and have slower speeds. I also think Google's phones allows more customization and personalization. Apple's phone is a slicker product out of the box, requires no tinkering and is really nothing short of brilliant, but if you like playing around with gadgets, Android is a better experience.

Is that $30 on top of the $30 data service they are already charging people?

I just went and picked up an EVO4 and waiting for the Number Portability thing to kick in, so I can get service on my EVO :(

Like you said, even if I can use the iPhone to tether, the service is way too slow to use effectively. I was at the store trying to retrieve my ATT account information, and the login process was so slow, I just decided it would be quicker to call ATT to get the information I needed.

[Jed M]

It looks like ATT have adjusted things. I didn't realize but they have capped the usage at 2gb, so that is a non starter for me. Anyway it looks like they charge $20 more for tethering and $25 for 2gb of usage ($45 total+phone plan). You can't get tethering with the $15 200mb option, but why would you even bother?