AT&T working with Apple to enable iPhone Personal Hotspot tethering
An AT&T spokesman stopped short of confirming to AppleInsider when Personal Hotspot is coming to AT&T customers. But the comment does provide more confirmation that AT&T intends to support the Wi-Fi tethering feature, which will allow users to wirelessly share their 3G data connection with other devices.
"All I can say at this time is that we're working with Apple," AT&T spokesman Seth Bloom said.
On Wednesday, AT&T revealed in a press release that it will expand its data cap for tethering customers to 4GB per month starting on Feb. 13, for the same $45-per-month total price. But the company said the capability will come to "select smartphone customers," and made no mention of the iPhone 4 or its Personal Hotspot feature expected to be introduced with iOS 4.3.
In his review of the Verizon iPhone 4, David Pogue of The New York Times initially stated that AT&T's iPhone would gain the Personal Hotspot feature on Feb. 13. The review was quickly revised to state that the carrier would get the feature "soon," but the date was removed.
AT&T first began to support tethering on the iPhone last June, but limitations in Apple's iOS mobile operating system only allowed the sharing of a 3G data connection over Bluetooth or USB. In addition, the iPhone could not be tethered with an iPad.
Verizon iPhone 4 users will get the Personal Hotspot feature when that handset launches on Feb. 10. Apple has also released a unique version of iOS, 4.2.6, exclusively for that CDMA-based handset.
26 Comments
This will be very useful and a much welcomed addition to the AT&T service as far as my family is concerned.
I can?t wait to see tethering comparisons. So far it seems the iPhone 4 can tether for 4 hours and has a great way of preserving by turning off tethering 90 seconds after the last device disconnects. So far, the results from other devices have been excessively power hungry.
This will be very useful and a much welcomed addition to the AT&T service as far as my family is concerned.
I think this service obsoletes tablets with 3G connectivity for many users. 2GB on the iPad WiFi_3G is $25, or I can pay an extra $20 to get an additional 2GB that can be used for my phone,iPad or with WiFi-capable devices.
As to this feature I hope Apple has it configured to run as a background task. That is I want the ability to run another app on the iPhone while it is serving as a WiFi hot spot. Admittedly I haven't read a lot of reviews but I haven't seen clear comments on this ability.
As to AT&Ts charging for this I wish they would simply wake up and charge by the GB of data transferred. Ten dollars for every 2GB isn't to bad but 4GB would be better. With apps like the Daily coming bandwidth usage will become an issue. I may not personally buy into the daily but I can see other publications I might be interested in on a weekly or monthly basis. It would only take a couple of these to blow a 2GB data allotment. More importantly apps like these are likely to be used away from hotspots.
The other thing this does is put a twist in my iPad 2 plans. Originally the intent was simply to go with a 3G or hopefully 4G model and put up with two accounts. Now I have to think a bit more about this. A WiFi hotspots could be a cheaper way to a higher performance iPad2. Unless of course Apple continues to put the GPS chip on the 3G card. At onetime I actually thought about dropping the iPhone and going with a 3G iPad2.
With all of this noise with respect to the 13th, how many think that this is the date for iPad2? That would be a fantastic surprise.
Personal Hotspot already works great on the GSM iPhone on AT&T's network. After installing iOS 4.3 (I am a registered developer) I saw the Hotspot option, but it was disabled. I added tethering to my AT&T account and immediately the Hotspot option became available on the phone. Probably what AT&T means is that they're looking for a way to screw their customers with the new Personal Hotspot feature. It works way too well right now.
Looking forward to the 10th!
I think this service obsoletes tablets with 3G connectivity for many users. 2GB on the iPad WiFi_3G is $25, or I can pay an extra $20 to get an additional 2GB that can be used for my phone,iPad or with WiFi-capable devices.
I'm not sure. If I buy iPad tomorrow I still choose 3G model. I don't want to drain my phone battery excessively. Beside only 3G model has GPS which is very handy in a lot of situation.
This feature will be great for some situation, not all.