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Wednesday, January 12, 2011, 10:55 am
GSM iPhone to gain 'Personal Hotspot' in March with Apple's iOS 4.3 - rumor [u]
A new rumor pegs Apple's "Personal Hotspot" Wi-Fi tethering feature for release on GSM-based iPhone models with supporting carriers in March, arriving after the Verizon CDMA iPhone in February.According to an anonymous source said to be "close" to Redmond Pie, all iPhones that support iOS 4 will gain the Personal Hotspot in March, with the release of iOS 4.3. The feature was first demonstrated on Tuesday with the newly unveiled CDMA iPhone 4.
The new CDMA iPhone for Verizon's network in the U.S. was shown running a new version of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS 4.2.5. It can be enabled through the phone's Settings application, and allows the handset's 3G data connection to be shared with up to five devices over Wi-Fi.
Adding credibility to the rumored March release of iOS 4.3, the tipster also provided screenshots of the feature running on a handset, though the name of the cell provider has been blocked out.
Boy Genius Report also received screenshots, and was told that the new OS version is labeled 8F5148b, with a baseband of 04.08.00. It also heard that "technical acceptance" is expected to take place in March.
Word of an iOS 4.3 release with the Personal Hotspot feature came to light after the Verizon announcement on Tuesday. There it was also said that the feature would only be available if a wireless carrier agreed to support it.
For its part, AT&T said it wouldn't "speculate on potential features that could be added to its phones in the future. The carrier agreed to allow iPhone tethering last June, but currently AT&T customers must pay $20 per month to share a 3G connection only via USB or Bluetooth. The current method does not allow a data connection to be shared with an iPad.
UpdateAn AT&T rep reportedly told SAI that the company was "evaluating" supporting the feature, but that AT&T has "no plans to announce today."
Though Verizon announced the iPhone and Personal Hotspot on Tuesday, the carrier did not offer any pricing for the handset's data plans or for the ability to tether. The CDMA iPhone will debut on Verizon's network when it goes on sale in the U.S. on Feb. 10.
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Previous Comments View All
That would be cool - I wonder at what price? Allowing iPad is a must! Although it calls into question the future sales of iPads with 3G etc. Even one connection would make me happy, two would be great. No need for 5 IMHO. A Free 'personal hot spot'.
Looking forward to this on my carrier. Bluetooth tethering is a bit cumbersome when pairing non-Mac devices, even then new devices take a while to pair and it's not shareable. This is good stuff.
Very curious to see how AT&T responds to this sort of thing. Given their new tiered data plans, they really ought to be able to do this with no trouble. They might just want to restrict it to people who do have one of the tiered plans -- making this available to those with unlimited plans might be more than their poor little network can handle.
It's their right as we do sign a contract stating we won't tether, but I think it's silly they want to charge $20 for tethering without giving you any additional data.
I think if they offered it for free on capped plans it would be easy to use and could very easily push people into additional charges from increasing from 200MB to 2GB plans and paying $10 for each additional 1GB. I think that would easily exceed what they are getting from people with capped plans paying for tethering.
I think wi-fi sharing would become the most used way of sharing.
Would be nice to know what encryption level is being used though.
It's their right as we do sign a contract stating we won't tether, but I think it's silly they want to charge $20 for tethering without giving you any additional data.
I think if they offered it for free on capped plans it would be easy to use and could very easily push people into additional charges from increasing from 200MB to 2GB plans and paying $10 for each additional 1GB. I think that would easily exceed what they are getting from people with capped plans paying for tethering.
I'd like someone to explain how (or if), the carrier can even detect this. Previous tethering was USB or Bluetooth and was activated/deactivated in the hardware at the request of the carrier, this on the other hand, is Wi-Fi and it will be built in to every iPhone.
Network stuff isn't my forte at all but it seems to me that unless they are doing packet inspection it will just appear that people are using more data, no? And as long as you don't go over your limit how would they know?
I tried getting the tether option on my phone but they insisted id have to give up my unlimited data plan. I laughed and told them there's no way that's going to happen...im liking them less and less.
Really looking forward to this if/when it comes to Vodafone Portugal, which it probably will as they allowed USB / Bluetooth tethering as soon as it was available for no extra charge. Glad I held off buying an iPad, as now when iPad 2 comes out I won't need to get a 3G version. Result!
I'd like someone to explain how (or if), the carrier can even detect this. Previous tethering was USB or Bluetooth and was activated/deactivated in the hardware at the request of the carrier, this on the other hand, is Wi-Fi and it will be built in to every iPhone.
Network stuff isn't my forte at all but it seems to me that unless they are doing packet inspection it will just appear that people are using more data, no? And as long as you don't go over your limit how would they know?
I figure they will control it them same way they control the USB/BT tethering. It is enabled by the carriers, per account if they wish, though I am not entirely sure of the mechanism for doing it (carrier settings file maybe?). But, however they are enabling tethering now could just as easily enable wifi tethering, separately or as part of tethering in general. USB/BT tethering is built into every iPhone as much as wifi tethering is (will be). It is just a matter of how the carrier can enable/disable it, per account.
As far as them detecting if you are using it, they couldn't really know whether you are sharing your IP via wifi or via USB/BT just by inspecting the packets. Possibly they could use inspection to examine the NAT packet headers to determine how many concurrent devices are behind the NAT gateway, but this seems excessive and wouldn't in and of itself tell them you were using wifi, but might imply it if you have multiple concurrent devices detected.
I never understood why carriers don't allow tethering or hotspot'ing of phones. You're paying for a service that is capped. There is a data limit set, why do they care how you get to that limit? The only thing I can come up with, is pure greed. The carriers want to force you to pay for an extra service that requires no extra hardware and gives you no extra data allowance.
Of course it makes perfect sense to charge more if there wasn't a data limit, but there is a limit and at most I only use 1/10th of it every month. Being able to also connect my iPad to the service (through hotspot'ing) would help me maximize my service.
Furthermore, this is not something Apple had to "work" at to get on the iPhone. This has been a feature of OS X for a long time now, it's called "Internet Sharing". It can enable any Mac to become a wireless hotspot and share its internet connection. It would be trivial for Apple to add the ability to iOS.
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Very curious to see how AT&T responds to this sort of thing. Given their new tiered data plans, they really ought to be able to do this with no trouble. They might just want to restrict it to people who do have one of the tiered plans -- making this available to those with unlimited plans might be more than their poor little network can handle.