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Mobile Hotspot function rumored to come to all carriers with iOS 4.3

by Dave Caolo Jan 12th 2011 at 10:30AM

Boy Genius Report (BGR) suggests this morning that the personal hotspot feature described at yesterday's Verizon announcement will be a part of iOS 4.3 and will work on iPhones of all stripes (pending carrier support and approval, of course). Citing "sources," BGR says that users will be able to connect up to five devices over Wi-Fi to the iPhone's cellular connection, just as Verizon customers will be able to do. If their sources are correct, we could see this as early as March.

Meanwhile, both iPhoneclub.nl (Google translation) and iPhoneHellas (Google translation) have suggested the same thing. Redmond Pie also chimes in with confirmation from a trusted source, posting a similar set of screenshots.

It's that "pending carrier support" line that caught our attention. AT&T is said to be "evaluating" the feature as a possibility. Take that as you will, noting that worldwide support for iPhone tethering was firmly in place long before AT&T actually enabled the feature -- and it came with a newly shrunken data plan.



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Boy Genius Report (BGR) suggests this morning that the personal hotspot feature described at yesterday's Verizon announcement will be a...
 

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Ygor Lemos

Actually this is innacurate. Only iPhone 4 gets Personal Hotspot as of now. I have tested on 3Gs and the feature only allows previous USB and Bluetooth tethering. Wi-fi Hotspot works only on iPhone4. The iPhone 3G won't even support iOS 4.3

January 13 2011 at 3:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
tech_fanboy

And this is exactly why I am not going to spend money on cydia apps =).

January 12 2011 at 3:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
macbitz

I have a WiFi iPad and have to use it with a MiFi when I'm out (extra gadget + extra data plan). Would be nice if I could just use my iPhone as my iPad's mobile hotspot instead.

I wonder if UK carriers will try and block this sort of thing (if they are even able to, e.g. by varying contract terms)?

January 12 2011 at 3:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to macbitz's comment
matt

Varying contract terms is usually a nice way to get out of your current contract, especially if you are less than happy with your network.

Although I can't complain; Three UK seem to have thrown in Tethering for free, or just forgot to turn the feature off. More than likely the former. I hope they will do the personal hotspot for free too.

January 12 2011 at 5:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
oshawapilot

This exact feature has been available to Jailbreakers for a few years - it's called MyWi. I've used it for ages to share my 3G connection to my wife's laptop and kids iPod touches when we travel.

Works excellent.

If Apple would now allow us to installl widgets on our lockscreen if would officially have no reason or desire to jailbreak anymore. MyWi and Lockscreen calendar are the only jailbreak apps I need anymore.

January 12 2011 at 2:47 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to oshawapilot's comment
nile

mywi wifi tethering only supports wep. it also requires any single machine that's usb tethered to be running itunes.

January 12 2011 at 5:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Fred

I don't understand the assumption that AT&T won't offer this feature (for a fee, of course). Yes, they sat on tethering for what seemed like forever, but they had no incentive to offer it. After all, if you wanted an iPhone, where were you going to go? Now, they have to be feature and price-competitive with Verizon. There's a reason the voice plans are identical. That's why I was excited by the announcement, even though (a) AT&T is just fine where I live and (b) I'm not about to pay $255 to break my contract.

January 12 2011 at 12:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
dagamer34

AT&T will be "evaluating" while I'll be "jailbreaking". :)

January 12 2011 at 11:12 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
John Smith

AT&T will only charge $100/mo with a 100mb limit on the data for it.

I'm so glad Verizon is getting the iphone. Maybe the competition will help.

January 12 2011 at 11:02 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to John Smith's comment
Brett

Verizon has different pricing, but the attitude is the same - AT&T is no more evil than Verizon.

If Verizon's/AT&T's pricing structure looks better/worse to you it merely means Verizon/AT&T is more affective/innept at pursuing customers like you, not that they're more/less good/evil.

January 12 2011 at 11:50 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
TheCastro

Yea, I have AT&T, I won't hold my breath.

January 12 2011 at 10:53 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mike

I saw on the Verizon iPhone FAQ that the VeriPhone would come with a Verizon mobile hotspot pre-installed...

January 12 2011 at 10:53 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Mike's comment
dagamer34

FAQ is wrong and needs to be updated. No Verizon-branded software will be pre-installed on the phone. Personal Hotspot is built-into iOS and not a separate app.

January 12 2011 at 11:14 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tommy

I'm a little out of the loop here. But how does this work ? Do all iPhone's have this ability ?

I've always thought of the mobile hotspot feature as an "add-on".....as in a company would have to supply an extra anntennae or signal onto the phone....basically hardware. Is this not true ?

January 12 2011 at 10:42 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
5 replies to Tommy's comment
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