iOS 4.3 to Bring Mobile Hotspots to GSM iPhones, Pending Carrier Support?

[andrewsd]

Fan boy

Holy crap, who knew there were AT&T fanboys?

Not saying I'm an at&t fanboy but I actually do enjoy their service and with the exception of a few major sporting events I've never had an issue with their service as I do travel a good amount. I even more stoked that at&t will have less strain now on their network(even if it's just a little) bit that'd be bottleneck at times with/ a lot of subscribers jere usig it all at once. I do though agree that it shouldn't be an option and should be standard on all iPhones an not up to carriers. With all this said though I'd almost un jailbreak if I had this feature but I can't as I need my phone unlocked for travel abroad.

 

[Nuvi]

Hope this is supported by UK carriers - suddenly there's no need to buy a 3G iPad....

If you are heavy wireless data users then you will run out of battery soon with iPhone. Running both mobile data and wifi simultaneously eats away the battery. With only limited hotspot use this is a great feature. However, tethering with BT would save battery.

 

[iJcaP]

Many of us with unlimited plans today for iPhone on AT&T hate the fact that we need to leave our plan in order to get tethering. This stinks. The unlimited plan is the best and anybody who has it doesn't want to lose this. It would suck if AT&T makes us pay more for hotpsot feature. I think it is unfair to do this. It should be free like many other users agree. We need to let them know. (they might not listen but at least we will get the word out there)

 

[street.cory]

Next to impossible, at least for Sprint. Sprint will not activate a phone unless the ESN is in their database. In other words, Sprint only activates Sprint branded phones.

True true... I just read that on the iPhone-Dev website.Maybe there's some sort of ESN spoof you could do then activate over the phone? I can't wait to see what happens.

 

[Sabenth]

If you are heavy wireless data users then you will run out of battery soon with iPhone. Running both mobile data and wifi simultaneously eats away the battery. With only limited hotspot use this is a great feature. However, tethering with BT would save battery.

you mean the bt open zone it sucks up the battery faster than i can run down the street if i am doing youtube. thinking about it dose o2 and co not offer teathered already

 

[fox777]

why would you guys want getting internet thru Iphone's 3G? Wouldn't that be SUPER slow? Virtually any wifi hotspot (restaurant, university etc) internet will be 10x faster than this 3G speeds that Iphone could feed.

 

[TalonFlyer]

Competition, it's about time!

Now that we have a choice, ATT will have to get their act together. I suspect a mass exodus from ATT to Verizon over the next 18 months.

Many of us are very upset at ATT for the crappy performance we have had to deal with over the years. While Apple had the antenna issue with the iPhone 4, I suspect that a big contributing factor is ATT's somewhat week signal that manifests itself in the iPhone 4 especially in the fringe areas. With texting and a mobile email client that actually works, I have become less dependent on a mobile phone.

I still get dropped calls and the data service is a joke. And I'm in one of the cities where ATT rolled out their enhanced data network and I barely see any change in performance. Maybe at 3am sitting under a cell site it's better, but that's it.

ATT created a service environment that will only help Verizon, provided Verizon does not get greedy with the iPhone and simply provides a good service for a fair price.

Let the games begin!

 

[TEG]

1X Refers to RTT1X, the original CDMA 3G standard, but it is voice and data compatible, but EV-DO is data only and much faster than RTT1X. Apple, trying to be simple, may only ever show 3G, instead of confusing people. Most VZW and Sprint phones have two antenna bars, one for RTT1X and one for EV-DO.

TEG

 

[Mattsasa]

Many of us with unlimited plans today for iPhone on AT&T hate the fact that we need to leave our plan in order to get tethering. This stinks. The unlimited plan is the best and anybody who has it doesn't want to lose this. It would suck if AT&T makes us pay more for hotpsot feature. I think it is unfair to do this. It should be free like many other users agree. We need to let them know. (they might not listen but at least we will get the word out there)

its called mywi 4.0

 

[Le Big Mac]

It's nothing to look into, and that mentality is stupid and a big problem with what is facing America.

AT&T, Verizon, or any other company is free to set the prices for their products and services, along with the terms. You are free to buy into the agreed prices or ignore them.

Nobody forced you to buy an iPhone. If you think the terms are unfair than feel free to stop giving AT&T money.

Yes, the people complaining most loudly about these limitations are generally the ones at whom the limitations are aimed.

Obviously getting more for less is nice, but AT&T offers tethering. It costs $45/month for 2GB of data. You can pay more for more. It would be nice if they offered other alternatives, but they don't.

 

[zipster]

why would you guys want getting internet thru Iphone's 3G? Wouldn't that be SUPER slow? Virtually any wifi hotspot (restaurant, university etc) internet will be 10x faster than this 3G speeds that Iphone could feed.

That's not stopping all the Verizon stans from going crazy over this Mobile Hotspot shindig...

 

[s1m]

why would you guys want getting internet thru Iphone's 3G? Wouldn't that be SUPER slow? Virtually any wifi hotspot (restaurant, university etc) internet will be 10x faster than this 3G speeds that Iphone could feed.

Not every where has free/paid wifi.

 

[iStudentUK]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Holy crap you yanks pay loads a month for an iPhone! People throwing all sorts of crazy numbers of dollars on this thread!

Maybe some competition will lower prices, or are all US calling plans expensive?

 

[Nuvi]

why would you guys want getting internet thru Iphone's 3G? Wouldn't that be SUPER slow? Virtually any wifi hotspot (restaurant, university etc) internet will be 10x faster than this 3G speeds that Iphone could feed.

Because you're not always near wifi hotspot? With good network coverage tethering etc. are great services. At least in some places in Europe where you can get constantly 5 Mbits and over download speeds with iPhone. Don't know about AT&T though...

 

[jacollins]

Derek,
AT&T offers tethering now, after much bad publicity. They do not offer a 'Hotspot'. To get tethering, you must pay AT&T an extra $20 a month, on top of your data plan. The option gives you no extra data for your $20. They no longer offer unlimited data, but if you are under an old unlimited contract you may keep it.

You missed the part where if you get the tethering plan, you LOSE the unlimited plan. You can't "legally" tether AND have unlimited data.

 

[Michael CM1]

If AT&T does not offer unlimited data plan, it's not very useful to have Mobile Hotspots.

How do you come to that conclusion? I use maybe 400MB of my 2GB data plan on my iPhone. I doubt I could ever even use 2GB on an iPad. I merely want to have Internet access on an iPad without paying EVEN MORE than I already do for access on my iPhone.

If AT&T doesn't offer this for free by the time my contract is up, I'm all on the Verizon network.

 

[phpmaven]

Now that we have a choice, ATT will have to get their act together. I suspect a mass exodus from ATT to Verizon over the next 18 months.

Many of us are very upset at ATT for the crappy performance we have had to deal with over the years. While Apple had the antenna issue with the iPhone 4, I suspect that a big contributing factor is ATT's somewhat week signal that manifests itself in the iPhone 4 especially in the fringe areas. With texting and a mobile email client that actually works, I have become less dependent on a mobile phone.

I still get dropped calls and the data service is a joke. And I'm in one of the cities where ATT rolled out their enhanced data network and I barely see any change in performance. Maybe at 3am sitting under a cell site it's better, but that's it.

ATT created a service environment that will only help Verizon, provided Verizon does not get greedy with the iPhone and simply provides a good service for a fair price.

Let the games begin!

I don't think you will see any "mass" exodus. Sure some people will go to Verizon, but I doubt it's going to be the bloodbath that everybody thinks it is. Nobody I know is going to switch, and I know quite a few iPhone users. Of course I live in an area with good AT&T coverage, as do most people. For those of you who have marginal/poor AT&T service in your area, this is great for you, as long as you don't want to call and use data at the same time that is

By the way, I just noticed an "are you going to switch to Verizon" vote going on in another thread and it's 24% yes and 76% no. It's only got about 100 votes or so, but I think that's a bit interesting, especially since most users here are more tech savvy than the average user. Most of the iPhone friends I have wouldn't know what simultaneous data was if it slapped 'em upside the head.

 

[tthere5]

I hope the VZ deal will finally tame ATT's unmatched greed and outright theft.

There's a better chance of the verizon deal bringing peace to the middle east or allowing the GOP to embrace health care for all.

In other words... not happening.

I prefer thinking of happier things... like iPad 2.

 

[Popeye206]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Holy crap you yanks pay loads a month for an iPhone! People throwing all sorts of crazy numbers of dollars on this thread!

Maybe some competition will lower prices, or are all US calling plans expensive?

On AT&T you pay $69 for an unlimited calling plan. Then with 200Mb of data it's $15 plus taxes and such bring the base plan to about $95 per-month. What's that cost in the UK?

 

[The Mad Hatter]

Now that we have a choice, ATT will have to get their act together. I suspect a mass exodus from ATT to Verizon over the next 18 months.

I don't see a "mass" exodus happening, but I'm sure there will be quite a few. However, I do see a LOT of dis-enchanted Android folk switching phones!

 

[tthere5]

How do you come to that conclusion? I use maybe 400MB of my 2GB data plan on my iPhone. I doubt I could ever even use 2GB on an iPad. I merely want to have Internet access on an iPad without paying EVEN MORE than I already do for access on my iPhone.

If AT&T doesn't offer this for free by the time my contract is up, I'm all on the Verizon network.

I agree with Michael. There's a difference between access and quantity of use. Yes, if you have access to your iPad everywhere you have a 3G signal you'll use it more and use more data but it just means you'll get more for your money. Wouldn't you rather use 1.9GB of the 2 you're already paying for? For some it may be too little data to be worthwhile but for many of us it'd be great.
That said, I would not be surprised to see ATT stand still on this. If they do it just means that next time I buy an iPhone the box will have a little red "V" on it.

 

[soLoredd]

I don't think you will see any "mass" exodus. Sure some people will go to Verizon, but I doubt it's going to be the bloodbath that everybody thinks it is. Nobody I know is going to switch, and I know quite a few iPhone users. Of course I live in an area with good AT&T coverage, as do most people. For those of you who have marginal/poor AT&T service in your area, this is great for you, as long as you don't want to call and use data at the same time that is

Yeah, I agree. The people I know have either already had Verizon and were just waiting it out or they are out of contract with AT&T soon. People need to get a grip and realize what the cost is going to be to get out of contract. You would have to be a fool to pay that kind of money - unless you absolutely have no alternative.

As for the hotspot discussion: I think this is being severely overrated. Like I said, I know folks with Verizon and not a single one of them has thrown the hotspot advantage at me. Nobody uses it. Now, maybe when 4G/LTE hits it will then be of some use but, really, sharing a 3G connection?

 

[cvaldes]

why would you guys want getting internet thru Iphone's 3G? Wouldn't that be SUPER slow? Virtually any wifi hotspot (restaurant, university etc) internet will be 10x faster than this 3G speeds that Iphone could feed.

True, but not every place has wifi. Many airports, restaurants, businesses, public transit, beaches, etc. do not. Many networks are pay only and/or password protected.

The whole point of 3G data is that it covers a lot more real estate than WiFi.

Having slow Internet connectivity is better than none. If you have wifi, sure, use that. If you don't, you'll have 3G HSPA data, then 2.5G EDGE. WiFi only devices have nothing else to fall back to.

 

[BC2009]

In all fairness, not including MMS on the iPhone was Apple's decision, not AT&T's.

Apple took its time bringing MMS to the iPhone, but once it was supported by iPhone, AT&T took additional months enabling it. I remember receiving my first MMS message from AT&T telling me that MMS was now available on my iPhone months after I purchased the iPhone 3Gs.

 

[einmusiker]

so whats the actual difference to tethering which ive been using for the last 2 years?

only difference is you can have multiple devices connected simultaneously, at the expense of data speed