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Personal Hotspot vs Tethering ?
- Thread starter krypt17
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Tethering allows you to connect one device over bluetooth or USB.
Hotspot allows multiple connections over wifi.
It's not possible to tether an iPad to an iPhone over bluetooth or USB but if you tether with the personal hotspot, you can have several iPads sharing an iPhone connection.
Hotspot allows multiple connections over wifi.
It's not possible to tether an iPad to an iPhone over bluetooth or USB but if you tether with the personal hotspot, you can have several iPads sharing an iPhone connection.
If they give away the feature, they'd create a very big competitive edge on AT&T and may encourage more people like me to switch (people who don't have issues with AT&T but if some one offers something tempting enough it would get them motivated to switch). Not saying I would switch for it but it certainly would make me consider it.
On the other hand, you have the argument that they don't have to give away a money maker since AT&T charges for tethering (and is pretty unreasonable). They probably could still offer a better deal than AT&T and get extra money for it (though I'll admit for me it would be a deal breaker cause tethering/hotspot is not worth extra to me as I wouldn't use it enough to justify but I know for many other people it probably would be and to offer a better deal would still sway them to Verizon). Plus it's a hot spot so you can use more than one device on it, already it's better than AT&T's as long as they keep the pricing the same.
I'd say given the two arguments, it would make sense for them to at least charge something for it. AT&T has made it really easy to charge for a feature like that and still be giving a much better deal.
There is also the argument that the carriers don't tend to outdo each other but match so you may find that they overall don't really offer a better deal. I hope they don't do this cause AT&T's tethering offer is ridiculous (pay extra to use your 2 GB of data to tether. You don't get extra data, and you could easily go through 2 GB of data if you tethered).
I'm wondering though, how would Verizon charge for it?
What I mean is this.
The Hotspot is from my phone to up to 5 laptops. How does Verizon know if I'm using the hotspot or just using my iPhone? The hotspot connections would use the same data path as the iPhone itself.
So its not like Verizon can look at your data usage and say "Hey, that webpage request came from your laptop so we will charge you for that data."
How could they charge for it when they don't know what's using it.
The option is part of the iOS and I don't think they could turn this on or off by way of a carrier file.
I'm thinking that Verizon will let this be free, at least for the time being. Its another way for them to kick AT&T to the curb.
What I mean is this.
The Hotspot is from my phone to up to 5 laptops. How does Verizon know if I'm using the hotspot or just using my iPhone? The hotspot connections would use the same data path as the iPhone itself.
So its not like Verizon can look at your data usage and say "Hey, that webpage request came from your laptop so we will charge you for that data."
How could they charge for it when they don't know what's using it.
The option is part of the iOS and I don't think they could turn this on or off by way of a carrier file.
I'm thinking that Verizon will let this be free, at least for the time being. Its another way for them to kick AT&T to the curb.
I would guess the same way AT&T charges for tethering now. To have the option activate on your phone you have to pay the hotspot fee.
Anyways, while I probably won't switch to Verizon when my contract is up, I do hope they offer a better deal in some way to encourage AT&T to get more reasonable on their tethering offer.
Not me. I am used to high speed. Using my iphone connection would suck. Might as well kiss my netflix/itunes streaming quality good bye.
Netflix streams great over AT&T's 3G over here. The picture shows up on my TV perfect 99% of the time. Of course I also have 5 bars of service....
Seriously through you have to think about it. If 5 people are connected to the hotspot using a 3G connection it will be slow as hell. lets say the various people are streaming movies listening to online radio stations etc. honestly its a cool feature but I suspect it'll be sluggish.
It would only be me so I think I could get away with it. I wonder if a PS3 would connect?
That is what I was thinking. I play around on the internet while streaming movies. I would kill that connection quick
I would rather have both. Tethering for the 1-to-1 thing and it because it is less battery draining.
Hotspot when I have the need for 2 or more devices.
Hotspot when I have the need for 2 or more devices.