Verizon iPhone offers Wi-Fi tethering but no simultaneous data and voice - Page 2

AT&T does not "block" it if you pay for it.....

No pre-installed apps. The hotspot feature is only a toggle switch in settings.

Thanks. Lots of good info in that link.

So... If you're in an AT&T service area with 3G service coverage that's spotty and devices often fall back to EDGE, then you'd already be experiencing a similar limitation - no simultaneous voice + data.

And perhaps Verizon might have better coverage in that area, so even if you have no choice but to have non-simultaneous voice and data, at least you might get faster data with Verizon than you currently would with AT&T.

There truly are valid trade-offs to be made, and every customer's situation may be different.

Just like it is for the other carriers around the world that already support wireless hotspots on the iPhone, I assume.

I guess V-Cast is available for the iPhone, but VZW subscribers need to go to the App Store and download it manually? That's a big win for Apple's negotiating team right there.

http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html
(Apple has updated their website already)

If it's down for that reason, it just goes to show (once again) how irrational the stock market is. An iPhone on Verizon is better than no iPhone on Verizon, so the announcement shouldn't be a negative. Furthermore, basically everyone was saying that this wouldn't be a new device and it would not have LTE, so nothing should have come as a surprise.

I can definitely see how it's an advantage for business purposes. Personally, sure checking movie times while talking with a friend would be convenient, but most likely we are texting, not talking. It could be an issue for ATT customers considering switching, but if it was important to Verizon's customers, they would have already switched to ATT.

I'll be curious to learn exactly how it works for both voice and text.

Assuming the real 4G LTE iphone comes out in July 2012...so 18 months from now....one phone that will work on both ATT and Verizon, and not two separate versions, I don't see the big deal in this being CDMA only. By the 2012 launch, people who sign up now for CDMA will be at the end of their contracts and get a 4G one when it actually comes out. The LTE network is at its infancy at the moment...it will be much more mature by summer 2012.

So really...most people will not be missing out on anything, besides it will give Apple enough time to make a phone that won't die within 3 hours while on 4G.

Ok, here's what i've learned about the Mobile Hotspot feature so far:

1) Your connection is lost if you receive a call(seems like it should just go to voicemail).
2) Say you're downloading a large file, if you receive a call, the download is aborted. What sucks is you have to start over - the download does NOT pick it where it left off. Frustrating!!
3) You can kiss your battery goodbye.

Anything else?

I don't think Hot Spots are useless especially if you can't WiFi connect. I can use my Hotspot and connect both my and my friends Ipads. It's not great if you are downloading from BitTorrents but if you aren't doing that, it's just fine.

1) I don't have that problem with TMobile so I don't know what you are talking about.
2) of course it happens with large files...when you download files on your computer/laptop/Mac does it work every time?
3) Not unless you have it plugged...besides why are you downloading from BitTorrents with your phone anyway?

Fail. Simply, fail.

Does no one here have a verizon android phone to answer all these call and data questions?

Data can be interrupted at any time for a cal or a text. Surfing is not a linear experience but a stop and go experience. Networks stall and restart all the time. That's the internet. You load a page, you read it. If you get a call, the phone app takes over. Hang up and go back to surfing or resume watching your video. Big whoop.

As for hot spot users, who cares? They are leaching off you anyway. They can wait until the call is over.

A call will never go to voicemail while you are surfing. The phone will ring. So what? You can then ignore it.

The only concession is no data while ON a call. You can't surf or look something up. That sucks but the opposite is never true.

I thought verizon was supposed to be great? Stop whining! It's now a choice!

Exactly. And one reason why the majority of first-year Verizon iPhone4 buyers will be current Verizon customers.

Many people need a phone first - portable internet second like myself. ATT doesn't even get a signal in my home and I live in SoCal so I am glad to have the option of a iPhone finally....

Nice rant, but try reading the article before responding... It clearly states Verizon services will be made available on the App Store and NOT preinstalled on the phone.

HAAAAA you said wood

I'm saying Apple should've waited because Verizon isn't ready for the Iphone yet instead of trying to shoehorn in 1980s technology into a state of the art 2010 phone.

Since all people with iphones here have been with AT&T (in US), they are looking too much into the simultaneous voice and data issue. Most regular customers won't care. And really, if you don't want to get booted off the data connection, you can press the ignore button when a call comes through. It is not that hard. Or you can accept the call, and wait for the tethered device to update the page when you end the call. Not an ideal scenario, but considering that you get free tethering in exchange it is an insignificant issue.

AT&T - $25 for data (2GB cap on phone) + $20 for tethering (no extra data allowance; data usage counts towards 2GB cap on phone).

Verizon - $30 unlimited data on phone + free tethering (I'm assuming they will have a 'soft' cap of 5GB or so when they start issuing warnings).

How can anyone ignore the huge difference in value. If you tether, AT&T charges $45 for 2GB data while Verizon will charge $30 for unlimited data.

Not being able to use simultaneous voice and data is a compromise most people will gladly make if they are interesting in tethering.

I am on the old AT&T $30 unlimited iphone data plan and don't plan to shift to Verizon anytime soon. But I sure am jealous of the deal Verizon is giving them. I just shifted to New York from Florida, and the data speeds here on AT&T are horrible. Seems to be three times as slow as they were in Florida.

Can you please point us to where you "learned" this? If you are basing it on the comments here, I wouldn't consider it reliable knowledge.

1) Define "receive a call"? If you Ignore the call, will your data connection continue uninterrupted while the call goes to voicemail (which is what you are asking for)?
2) Again, do you have the option to Ignore the call and let the download continue? Do you know for certain the download won't pick up again after you accept the call? Safari on a Mac can resume an interrupted download.
3) Basic physics...it takes more power to operate two radios than just one. I hope you didn't just learn that today! Is this any different than using Bluetooth to tether on ATT? OK, Bluetooth uses less power than wi-fi. But you still have the option to use Bluetooth with your Verizon data connection. So power-wise, tethering is no more wasteful of battery power than it was before on ATT. The difference is you have the option to use wi-fi for things like an iPad. Something that is impossible with other carriers (for now).

As far as I can tell, the only thing we've learned so far is that we can't do simultaneous voice and data. Everything else is not yet known. Only speculation.

Here's a novel idea if this is so important for people...STAY with AT&T! What's the point complaining about what Verizon is offering or is not when it doesn't affect you AT ALL?

Take almost any carrier worldwide, GSM/EDGE still has a wider coverage than 3G (same is true for CDMA and EVDO). And that is what, five years since the introduction of 3G? Even in five years from now, LTE/4G will not have the same coverage as GSM/EDGE (or basic CDMA). No way would you want a phone which is 4G only, you would not be able to make phone calls in areas which are covered today by GSM/EDGE (or basic CDMA).
Thus any 4G phone in the next five years will also include GSM/EDGE (or CDMA). Unless all phones go multi-system (ie, supporting both GSM and CDMA on top of 3G and 4G), there will still be CDMA-based and GSM-based phones around. Of course, Verizon has a much higher incentive to bring 4G to its entire network than GSM-based carriers have because the market for CDMA phones will shrink rather fast as the CDMA functionality will be needed by a rapidly decreasing population and thus the support from phone manufacturers will shrink as well.

How is a CDMA iPhone worse than no iPhone?

Nah ... Two trading days ago, AAPL had a low of 331.9. Today the high was 344.96. You think, maybe, that now that the news is out, and there are no real surprises, there would be people looking to take profit?

In any case the pullback comes on pretty small volume.

If you are a long term holder of AAPL stock, this changes nothing. Just intraday noise.

Be aware that AAPL stock has done magnificently for quite a while, and will probably suffer a slight correction at some point. If you are concerned, you can buy puts as insurance, and possibly look to pullbacks as a buying opportunity. If you are looking to buy AAPL stock, you could consider selling out of the money puts so as to buy stock at a discount or profit from continued bullishness.

You mean wait a year, let Android continue to become entrenched on non-ATT battlefields, and limit the iPhone to very select Verizon markets as LTE isn't widely adopted yet?

That doesn't seem like the way to go. Verizon people are already used to this limitation. Apple's goal is not to have people switch from AT&T, but to gain new Verizon customers.

I am eating my words. Apple did release a lesser iPhone. Hopefully the masses will buy and send AAPL up.

Oh well I'll stay put with AT&T and wait for the iPhone 4G or is that 5?

The hot spot is nice, although be nicer if iPad was able to use it. I wonder if iPad 2 will be able to?

p.s. I struck out on your 2 a.m. quiz too

So how will VOIP apps like Skype work? That's a voice over a data connection, right? If it works at all it seems like other data connections (browsing, email) would continue while talking.

Buy on rumors. Sell on news.

Good point where sales are concerned. Just personally I'll wait for the next gen.

Not good assumptions.
1) Verizon's LTE implementation still uses CDMA for voice and LTE for 4G data only.
2) It will be years before VZ gets switched over completely to LTE 4G data, and in some areas likely many, many years. So VZ phones will need to be backward compatible for a long time to come.
3) VZ radio frequency bands are not the same as AT&T's.

As long as these factors persist the VZ iPhones will remain incompatible with the AT&T versions.

Ill be staying put. At this point we dont know if the CDMA and GSM versions will be released together for the iPhone 5. For all we know AT&Ts contract still allows them to have first dibs in the US for a set time frame or Apples figured out that a staggered release of the two model types allows them to keep up with production easier.


The iPad can use. Itll just present a WiFi network to the iPad. This is a nice feature, but I wonder what the power drain will be.



It was just to get people to think about them. They certainly couldnt be answered by anyone here.

That is my question as well. Why not just use the iPhone as a VOIP phone and never use the voice connection? Problem solved.

Now, are many people going to get a cell phone and then never use the cell phone number? Probably not, but for the tech-savvy it solves the simultaneous voice & data problem.

- Jasen.

Great link!

Partial quote:

Really? I must have misunderstood, I just read it couldn't somewhere. That is good then.

Perhaps Im not understanding what they mean by making it a WiFi or BT HotSpot, but Id think any device with those types of connections for internet could utilize it.

Then don't buy it?

The tech doesn't support it. I suppose you won't be buying LTE phones because LTE in and of itself can't do voice, then.

Hi everyone,

I have a Droid Incredible w/Mobile Hotspot, and did a couple quick experiments: I had my iPod Touch using it and started browsing websites. While sites were loading I called my cell from another phone. The web page downloads paused while the call was active, but resumed immediately after the call finished OR went to voicemail. It did not have to re-start the page load from scratch.

I also sent/received a couple texts while browsing on the iPod and there was no noticeable interruption at all.

Overall I find the Mobile Hotspot very handy. I use it all the time with my iPad and iPod Touch and love it. I communicate via text rather than voice most of the time these days, so the simultaneous voice/data issue is not really significant for me.

You are correct. I had an old web page where SJ said it couldn't ... not sure what that was all about and I can't find it now.

Not to profess to be an expert in this field, but perusing Cellutips' article, "CDMA vs. GSM, Which One Is the Best for You?"* and reviewing Apple's iPhone 4 specs, why is it totally necessary that there be concurrent data and voice connections?" The fact that CDMA networks/users never had it before and with such a relatively low user base, why is it up to Apple to solve a mostly 'American' issue?

Considering that the iPhone 4 has multitasking, I would expect that a data bearing app simply goes into a temporary hold mode while the user switches to voice. Then instantaneously activating data when switching back. True, my TomTom would suffer a bit, but hell, until iPhone 4, it still was one of my favorite apps.

Certainly not the ideal, particularly now that Apple has so greatly demonstrated its value more so than anyone else, the perceived issues are really just momentary.

But then, the vitriol that purveys here seems to come from ignorance, and certainly not by by experience.

At least do some homework, it is not all that bad, e.g.,

Quote:

Whats bad: Existing Verizon customers will lose their old voicemail boxes, including all messages and greetings, so they will need to listen to everything they want to hear before making the transition. All existing messages will be erased and can not be recovered once an iPhone 4 is activated, Verizon notes.

But as they explain, it is all that catastrophic? http://support.vzw.com/faqs/iphone/iphone_vvm.html

Remember,

Quote:

After a year and a half of secret meetings, Jobs had finally negotiated terms with the wireless division of the telecom giant (Cingular at the time) to be the iPhone's carrier. In return for five years of exclusivity, roughly 10 percent of iPhone sales in AT&T stores, and a thin slice of Apple's iTunes revenue, AT&T had granted Jobs unprecedented power. He had cajoled AT&T into spending millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours to create a new feature, so-called visual voicemail, and to reinvent the time-consuming in-store sign-up process. He'd also wrangled a unique revenue-sharing arrangement, garnering roughly $10 a month from every iPhone customer's AT&T bill. On top of all that, Apple retained complete control over the design, manufacturing, and marketing of the iPhone. Jobs had done the unthinkable: squeezed a good deal out of one of the largest players in the entrenched wireless industry.

http://www.wired.com/print/gadgets/w...6-02/ff_iphone

Only one company came to the table. And he kept his promise.

* http://www.cellutips.com/gsm-vs-cdma...-best-for-you/

P.S., There may also be some physical differences between the GSM iPhone 4 and the CDMA version?

Quote:

If I have an iPhone 4 on another wireless carrier and switch to an iPhone 4 on Verizon Wireless, will all of my accessories be compatible?

Most accessories should work, however you may find that cases and covers could be different depending on the product manufacturer.

Question 11: http://support.vzw.com/faqs/iphone/iphone_faq.html