When the Verizon iPhone was announced two weeks ago, one of the features touted was the ability to turn your iPhone into a Personal Hotspot, using the Wi-Fi on the iPhone to share the internet connection with up to five devices. Thus, instead of purchasing and carrying around an extra device such as a MiFi, you can simply share the 3G connection on your Verizon iPhone with your iPad, your laptop computer, a friend’s computer, etc. A Verizon iPhone owner with a friend using an AT&T iPhone can share the Verizon 3G with the AT&T iPhone, which could be useful if you are in an area with poor AT&T coverage but good Verizon coverage.
Soon after the announcement, we learned that Personal Hotspot is not a unique Verizon feature but instead is a part of the upcoming iOS 4.3 software. However, it is a feature that has to be enabled by the carrier. Remember that limited tethering came to the iPhone on June 17, 2009 with iOS 3.0, but AT&T did not enable the feature on AT&T iPhones until a year later. And the tethering that has been available on AT&T since June of 2010 (details available here) comes with some strings attached. First, it only works via a USB cable or Bluetooth. You cannot turn your iPhone into a Wi-Fi hotspot. Second, it doesn’t let you share the 3G data on an iPhone with an iPad. Although the iPad has Bluetooth, the software on the iPad doesn’t enable it to share an iPhone’s internet connection via Bluetooth. Third, to purchase the AT&T tethering plan (which costs an extra $20 a month), you need to be using one of AT&T’s current iPhone plans — DataPlus for $15/month (200 MB of data) or DataPro for $25/month (2 GB of data). If you have been using an iPhone for more than six months, you may still be grandfathered into the former $30/month unlimited data plan, but you have to give up that plan to add tethering. Fourth, you don’t get any extra data with the $20/month tethering fee; you just share your iPhone’s data plan (presumably you would get the 2 GB plan) between the iPhone and any devices tethered via a cord or Bluetooth. So in other words, for longtime iPhone users to add AT&T tethering, you go from $30 a month with unlimited data on your iPhone to $45 a month for only 2 GB of data that you share via Bluetooth or a USB cable with your computer, but not with an iPad.
Earlier this week, Verizon explained to David Chartier of Macworld how the Personal Hospot will work on the Verizon iPhones. First, it looks like the data plan on Verizon is somewhat similar to the old AT&T plan — $30 a month for unlimited data. As for tethering, that will cost you an extra $20 a month, and it comes with its own 2 GB of data. Thus, when you are just using your iPhone, you have unlimited data, and whenever you turn on tethering the meter starts running on the 2 GB of data. And of course, with Personal Hotspot you can share data via Wi-Fi, which means that you can even share data with an iPad or any of the myriad other devices that can use Wi-Fi to access the Internet. All of this makes the Personal Hospot Feature on a Verizon iPhone look much more attractive than the current tethering option on AT&T iPhones.
If you use a Verizon iPhone and decide to get an iPad, you will have to decide whether to spend an extra $130 for a 3G version of an iPad and then also pay the monthly fee for 3G iPad service. For many users who plan to have their Verizon iPhone nearby whenever using the iPad to access the Internet using Personal Hotpot Wi-Fi tethering, there would seem to be few reasons to purchase the more expensive iPad with the 3G included. (One such reason: the 3G iPad has GPS; the non-3G iPad does not.)
To be fair, though, it is too early to compare tethering on a Verizon iPhone with tethering on an AT&T iPhone because AT&T has not yet announced whether it will support the new Personal Hotspot feature of the upcoming iOS 4.3. As noted above, the first time that Apple brought (limited) tethering to the iPhone, it took AT&T a full year to jump on board. With Verizon offering the service starting next month, AT&T might have an incentive to add the feature more quickly this time. And even if the feature is added, we don’t yet know the cost. Will it be the same as the current $20/month tethering, or will AT&T charge more? And whatever the cost, will AT&T start to offer extra data with the tethering, as Verizon is doing?
I suspect that it will be several weeks — if not months — before we know all of the details of Wi-Fi tethering on a Verizon iPhone versus Wi-Fi tethering on an AT&T iPhone. I know that tethering is a very useful feature for attorneys who are often on the go, so I’ll be sure to post here when we know more. I, for one, thought long and hard about enabling tethering on my own iPhone a few months ago, but I ultimately decided not to do it because I didn’t want to give up my $30/month unlimited data plan. Truth be told, I don’t think that I have ever used more than 2 GB of data in a month (although I have come close), but I know that once I change to a plan with data limits, AT&T may never again offer me a plan with unlimited data, and I’m sure that in the coming months and years I’ll be using more data every month on my iPhone, not less.
Just jailbreak your iPhone (which is legal), purchase the $20 MiWi app from Cydia, and you’re done. No monthly fees, no loss of unlimited data.
You’ll instantly be able to broadcast your iPhone’s 3G signal, set up a secure network, and connect your iPad to begin surfing.
The only downside is that you have to miss out on updating to a new iOS until the next jailbreak comes. But I’ve found it is well worth it for this feature alone. The ability to FaceTime anywhere is just an added bonus.
The best part about iPhone on Verizon is the competition. At a certain point, the only major obstacle to switching is that one’s other family members are still under contract. I’m waiting for a cellphone company to come up with an “amnesty” plan — e.g., “if you switch your whole family, we’ll pay your early termination fees.”
That would be interesting.
I’m so glad there is competition in the US with the iphone