Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Gave up my unlimited data for Personal Hotspot...

H

HockeyGuy

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 17, 2008
45
0
Am I crazy? I have an ipad wifi and MBP and there have been numerous times when I've been out and could only use my iPhone for the Internet. Now, i have Internet whereever I am on all devices... Of course I am having some slight "buyers remorse" in losing the unlimited, but in the end i think the pros outweighed the cons.

Comments?
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

don't worry, I did it too. unlimited data is on the way out and I highly doubt AT&T will allow it on their LTE network. 4 gb/month is plenty for me and the ability to tether to iPad/ MacBook easily without jailbreaking is really nice.
 
Not crazy at all! I would do the same thing... but I can't afford the tethering plan! I just use MyWi.

I used 4GBs between December and the end of February... so I know that AT&T isn't going to send me a notice or anything. I rarely use it too.
 
I'm still on unlimited and when I do use MyWi it is mostly for apps like Slingplayr, which even on my iPhone can kill a data cap very quick. My highest month was around 11gigs but probably avg around 5gigs. I hope once 4G makes it to town they at least up the cap to 10gigs. That would make me swap over to the tethering plan and avoid the JB hassle as MyWi is the only reason I did it.
 
How seamless is it? Do you just turn it on in the phone and forget about it? How does it affect battery life while using it or while the wifi is idle?

I've used MiWi a couple times in the past on my older 3G, and it seemed to really hurt battery life.
 
HockeyGuy said:
Am I crazy? I have an ipad wifi and MBP and there have been numerous times when I've been out and could only use my iPhone for the Internet. Now, i have Internet whereever I am on all devices... Of course I am having some slight "buyers remorse" in losing the unlimited, but in the end i think the pros outweighed the cons.

Comments?
Click to expand...

I won't give up unlimited ever. I stream Sirius XM for about 5 hours a day 5 days a week and that eats up over 6 gigs a month. I think it's really slimy of AT&T to only offer tethering if you relinquish your unlimited.
 
kevink2 said:
How seamless is it? Do you just turn it on in the phone and forget about it? How does it affect battery life while using it or while the wifi is idle?

I've used MiWi a couple times in the past on my older 3G, and it seemed to really hurt battery life.
Click to expand...

Very seamless! I have used MiWi in the past and it just killed my battery. I love having it integrated within iOS because you can tell they really optimized it for the phone and it is hardly effecting my battery life.

The power to turn your phone into a Hotspot is incredible and although jail breaking is an option, I love not having to worry about all the problems that come with jailbreaking.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

kevink2 said:
How seamless is it? Do you just turn it on in the phone and forget about it? How does it affect battery life while using it or while the wifi is idle?

I've used MiWi a couple times in the past on my older 3G, and it seemed to really hurt battery life.
Click to expand...

It's actually incredibly seamless. You just go to settings -> personal hotspot, and the iPhone will suddenly be discoverable. It remains discoverable for 90 seconds after the screen powers off. If you're connected, the system automatically shuts tethering down once your laptop/iPad disconnects. Battery drain is about equal, if not a little better, than active surfing on your phone with the screen on. All in all, it's very nicely implemented. All I want in the future is a quick button to turn the hotspot on instead of having to go through settings.
 
I made the switch. I was really worried about doing it until I looked back at my last 4-5 months of data usage and realized that I've been using an average of 200mb a month. So 4gb should be plenty for me.
 
I made the switch too. I never came close to using 2GB when I had unlimited and now I just turn on/off my tethering plan when I need it. The fees are prorated so it isn't costing me the full $20 extra/month (for example I turned it on mid-month this month and I'll pay roughly $10 extra and have roughly 3GB between devices). Months I don't need it I'm actually saving $5 compared to what I was paying with unlimited.
 
I was having a bit of buyer's remorse for not getting a 3G iPad, but I made that decision because I didn't want to pay AT&T any more money.

Now I realize that when traveling I'm going to want connectivity so I also will probably give up unlimited for the 4G tether. My highest usage with handy lite or whatever the short-lived tethering app was hit 1.2GB so I think in practical use 4GB will still be unlimited for me. I'm on wifi 90% of the time.

So I will end up paying $15 more per month but I think it will be worth it. I'm happy to hear how well it works.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

I switched numbers with my son he got unlimited now I got tethering .... He was going every month and out of hassle I waited until now to switch numbers. So I really do not pay more for the tethering considering I paid every month extra GB for my son . I am kn the road now and it's been really cool and easy and fast so far. I don't think I will ever go over my 4 GB with phone and iPad based on my usage history
 
vtstarck said:
I made the switch too. I never came close to using 2GB when I had unlimited and now I just turn on/off my tethering plan when I need it. The fees are prorated so it isn't costing me the full $20 extra/month (for example I turned it on mid-month this month and I'll pay roughly $10 extra and have roughly 3GB between devices). Months I don't need it I'm actually saving $5 compared to what I was paying with unlimited.
Click to expand...

Agreed! You save the $130 for the 3G ipad, AND Have the convenience of being able to tether other devices. Plus on months you don't need it, turn it off the account and just pay $25 for 2GBs, saving $5 compared to unlimited.

For people that do a lot of streaming, of course giving up your unlimited plan isn't worth it. For others like myself, tethering opens up the power of your iPhone!
 
vtstarck said:
I made the switch too. I never came close to using 2GB when I had unlimited and now I just turn on/off my tethering plan when I need it. The fees are prorated so it isn't costing me the full $20 extra/month (for example I turned it on mid-month this month and I'll pay roughly $10 extra and have roughly 3GB between devices). Months I don't need it I'm actually saving $5 compared to what I was paying with unlimited.
Click to expand...
Are you certain that the pro-rated aspect doesn't just apply to the 1st month?

Also, when you switch *to* the tethering plan, how quickly does it get "activated"? If I'm on the 2GB plan and out and about, and I decide I want to tether, can I switch to that plan and be tethering within a few minutes?

Right now my wife and I are both on unlimited, but I just bought my wife an iPad 2 (I think I'm going to wait a while before I get one). She's indicated that she'd like to be able to use the iPad at work and it's a big company with draconian security policies, so she can't connect it to their WiFi. She's a minimal data user on her iPhone 3GS (last time I checked she was at 200MB or less), so I'm thinking of staying with unlimited on my phone and switching her to the tethering plan, or switching her to a cheaper plan and toggling her plan to/from tethering as needed.

With the 3GS she'll have to use Bluetooth to tether, so we'll have to see how that goes. Worst case, we'll upgrade her to an iPhone 4. Actually, I'll probably upgrade myself to the next iPhone in the summer and give her my iPhone 4.
 
mikethebigo said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)



It's actually incredibly seamless. You just go to settings -> personal hotspot, and the iPhone will suddenly be discoverable. It remains discoverable for 90 seconds after the screen powers off. If you're connected, the system automatically shuts tethering down once your laptop/iPad disconnects. Battery drain is about equal, if not a little better, than active surfing on your phone with the screen on. All in all, it's very nicely implemented. All I want in the future is a quick button to turn the hotspot on instead of having to go through settings.
Click to expand...

So what happens after you disconnect and you want to connect again... say 1 hour later? You need to go thru the setting to turn it "on" again? Or will it sense that you are trying to connect and turn itself back on?

Thanks
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

cue003 said:
mikethebigo said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)



It's actually incredibly seamless. You just go to settings -> personal hotspot, and the iPhone will suddenly be discoverable. It remains discoverable for 90 seconds after the screen powers off. If you're connected, the system automatically shuts tethering down once your laptop/iPad disconnects. Battery drain is about equal, if not a little better, than active surfing on your phone with the screen on. All in all, it's very nicely implemented. All I want in the future is a quick button to turn the hotspot on instead of having to go through settings.
Click to expand...

So what happens after you disconnect and you want to connect again... say 1 hour later? You need to go thru the setting to turn it "on" again? Or will it sense that you are trying to connect and turn itself back on?

Thanks
Click to expand...

In that case, you need to go back to settings and click personal hotspot again. You don't have to flip the on/off switch, just go into the menu. May seem like a hassle, but it's a quick procedure and saves a ton of battery life compared to the phone constantly looking for a connection.
 
mikethebigo said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)



In that case, you need to go back to settings and click personal hotspot again. You don't have to flip the on/off switch, just go into the menu. May seem like a hassle, but it's a quick procedure and saves a ton of battery life compared to the phone constantly looking for a connection.
Click to expand...

Thanks Mike. Any issues that you have seen with using the personal hotspot and being on the phone at the same time (i.e. on a conference call or something)?

I need to be able to use the hotspot (on/off etc) while continuing to use the phone as normal to make and recieve calls/txts etc. I don't want to have a glitch in a call cause I have to turn on the hostpot etc. I doubt that it would work that way but since I don't have it I can't verify.

Thanks again for the response.
 
Spooky73 said:
I made the switch. I was really worried about doing it until I looked back at my last 4-5 months of data usage and realized that I've been using an average of 200mb a month. So 4gb should be plenty for me.
Click to expand...

Same here. My highest month was like 225mb so I know with 4gb I will be golden. When I stream anything intensive (i.e. Slingplayer, Netflix, etc..), I am always with wifi. To me it was a no brainer to give up my unlimited. Even if you keep your unlimited plan for data, you still can't use your phone to tether without the appropriate tethering plan. For those who mention MyWi; AT&T is cracking down to make this obsolete. Unless you stream all day long every day and have no access to wifi, I see no reason no to get the tethering plan.:)
 
Losing unlimited data is never the right choice. Sorry.

Jail breaking is legal. No reason not to do it and tether until they kick you off.

If it's a morality thing, it wouldn't be much more expensive to just buy an unlimited iPad sim on eBay and it would actually be cheaper the further out you look.
 
cue003 said:
Thanks Mike. Any issues that you have seen with using the personal hotspot and being on the phone at the same time (i.e. on a conference call or something)?

I need to be able to use the hotspot (on/off etc) while continuing to use the phone as normal to make and recieve calls/txts etc. I don't want to have a glitch in a call cause I have to turn on the hostpot etc. I doubt that it would work that way but since I don't have it I can't verify.

Thanks again for the response.
Click to expand...

You would only have issues if you're using the Verizon iPhone. With the AT&T iPhone (which I use), you can be tethering and still make calls and even load data from the iPhone and the iPad at the same time. It's pretty versatile.

Cutwolf said:
Losing unlimited data is never the right choice. Sorry.

Jail breaking is legal. No reason not to do it and tether until they kick you off.

If it's a morality thing, it wouldn't be much more expensive to just buy an unlimited iPad sim on eBay and it would actually be cheaper the further out you look.
Click to expand...

Jailbreaking is legal, but tethering without paying for it is illegal. You are violating your contract with AT&T.
 
mikethebigo said:
You would only have issues if you're using the Verizon iPhone. With the AT&T iPhone (which I use), you can be tethering and still make calls and even load data from the iPhone and the iPad at the same time. It's pretty versatile.



Jailbreaking is legal, but tethering without paying for it is illegal. You are violating your contract with AT&T.
Click to expand...

Which is also not illegal, it would wholly be a civil matter.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back