AT&T to support Personal Hotspot in iOS 4.3, adds iPad postpaid data option
AT&T has confirmed that it will support the Personal Hotspot Wi-Fi tethering feature for the iPhone 4 when iOS 4.3 is released next Friday. Also, the carrier now offers postpaid data plans for the iPad and other 3G-capable tablets.
"AT&T plans to support the iOS 4.3 mobile hotspot feature when it's released March 11," the company said in a statement to AppleInsider. "To utilize this feature, customers will need to subscribe to the DataPro 4GB/$45 tethering data plan."
Personal Hotspot allows a user to share the 3G connection on their iPhone 4 with up to five devices over Wi-Fi. The feature will come to AT&T iPhone 4 customers with iOS 4.3, when it is released next Friday.
Verizon iPhone 4 customers have had access to the Personal Hotspot feature since that handset was released in February. Apple added the feature in a unique build of iOS, dubbed 4.2.5, for its Verizon handset.
Apple released the Golden Master of iOS 4.3 to developers on Thursday, signaling that the software update is on track for its March 11 release. Verizon iPhone 4 customers will have to wait, as the device uses a different baseband chip than other phones.
Customers now also have the option of paying at the end of the month instead of the beginning, thanks to AT&T's addition of postpaid billing for 3G connected tablets like the iPad. The new plans can be added to customers' existing monthly wireless statements, allowing them to have a single monthly bill.
"Tablets offer the convenience of mobile broadband virtually anywhere and our new billing options give customers the flexibility to choose how they prefer to be billed," said David Christopher, chief marketing officer, AT&T Mobility & Consumer Markets.
Postpaid customers have the same options: $14.99 for 250MB or $25 for 2GB per month. Customers on the 2GB plan who exceed their monthly allotment will be charged $10 per extra 1GB of overage, while prepaid customers pay $25 for an extra 2GB.
"AT&T plans to support the iOS 4.3 mobile hotspot feature when it's released March 11," the company said in a statement to AppleInsider. "To utilize this feature, customers will need to subscribe to the DataPro 4GB/$45 tethering data plan."
Personal Hotspot allows a user to share the 3G connection on their iPhone 4 with up to five devices over Wi-Fi. The feature will come to AT&T iPhone 4 customers with iOS 4.3, when it is released next Friday.
Verizon iPhone 4 customers have had access to the Personal Hotspot feature since that handset was released in February. Apple added the feature in a unique build of iOS, dubbed 4.2.5, for its Verizon handset.
Apple released the Golden Master of iOS 4.3 to developers on Thursday, signaling that the software update is on track for its March 11 release. Verizon iPhone 4 customers will have to wait, as the device uses a different baseband chip than other phones.
Customers now also have the option of paying at the end of the month instead of the beginning, thanks to AT&T's addition of postpaid billing for 3G connected tablets like the iPad. The new plans can be added to customers' existing monthly wireless statements, allowing them to have a single monthly bill.
"Tablets offer the convenience of mobile broadband virtually anywhere and our new billing options give customers the flexibility to choose how they prefer to be billed," said David Christopher, chief marketing officer, AT&T Mobility & Consumer Markets.
Postpaid customers have the same options: $14.99 for 250MB or $25 for 2GB per month. Customers on the 2GB plan who exceed their monthly allotment will be charged $10 per extra 1GB of overage, while prepaid customers pay $25 for an extra 2GB.
Comments
Greedy bastards.
Come on AT&T. Why exclude all of your unlimited customers and make us angry? I have been a loyal customer for >10 years. But now I'm really considering jumping ship to Verizon. I'm already paying a lot for my data. Why charge me again for the connivence of occasionally browsing the web on my laptop or iPad instead of my phone and force me to downgrade my plan?
While y'all sitting complaining about paying for tethering, I am my surfing using mywi on my jailbroken iPhone.
Come on AT&T. Why exclude all of your unlimited customers and make us angry? I have been a loyal customer for >10 years. But now I'm really considering jumping ship to Verizon. I'm already paying a lot for my data. Why charge me again for the connivence of occasionally browsing the web on my laptop or iPad instead of my phone and force me to downgrade my plan?
Rogers, in Canada, offers a Data Sharing plan for $10/mth. However, since I have the 6GB plan with my iPhone, they want $30/mth to let me share the bandwidth with my iPad. (for $35.95/mth the iPad could have it's own 6GB of data.
Not cool.
Another $50 on top of my data plan to use the data plan I'm already paying for? No thanks.
No, that is incorrect.
To have the iPhone on AT&T you must subscribe to a data plan. Which means you pay $30 for unlimited (if you are on the old plan), $15 for 250MB, $25 for 2GB, or $45 for 4GB and tethering/hot spot support. So the biggest increase tethering might cost you is $30 if you were on the $250MB plan.
Personally, I think its criminally bad to offer a metered plan and then charge extra for how you decide to use it. A person should be able to pay for a data plan and then use that data anyway the hardware supports. It is no different than if they charged for a data plan, then charged extra for web access, youtube, facebook, twitter, etc. And I bet if they thought they could get away with it, they would charge that way.
-kpluck
Come on AT&T. Why exclude all of your unlimited customers and make us angry? I have been a loyal customer for >10 years. But now I'm really considering jumping ship to Verizon. I'm already paying a lot for my data. Why charge me again for the connivence of occasionally browsing the web on my laptop or iPad instead of my phone and force me to downgrade my plan?
While I agree with the general premiss that cell carriers are evil, to address your particular point.... Unlimited customers are likely excluded because while you may only "occassionally" use your laptop or iPad, another person may use it as a full-time internet connection for their laptop or desktop computer to stream Netflix, download 700 MB OS updates, etc, etc.
Why do I need to pay AT&T an extra $50 a month to use a feature that is supported by the phone OS?
Greedy bastards.
You aren't paying at extra $50. The article was poorly written, and it appears you are paying $45 for the tethering. It's $25 for your iPhone data play and then another $20 for the tethering option.
And another poster said you are paying twice for the same data. That used to be the case for ATT, but it appears they are changing that. Before now, that $20 didn't get you any extra data. But then Verizon came along and for their $20 tethering charge you get an additional 2 GB of data. But the iPhone data pool and tethering data pool were separate pools. This was because the iPhone data is unlimited (see my comment above why they would never extend unlimited data to a tethered device).
This is a good thing! It appears we have a little competition between the carriers finally. Because now ATT has sweetened their tethering plan to not only give you another 2 GB of data, but the iPhone and tethering data is now combined into a single 4 GB chunk. ATT also charges less for additional data if you go over, so we'll see if Verizon matches it.
I'm looking forward to the iPhone 5 release. Hopefully it will be released simultaneously on ATT and Verizon because that may prompt some additional competition to get more improvements to the package pricing.
best argument yet for jailbreaking.
+1
:d
Personally, I think its criminally bad to offer a metered plan and then charge extra for how you decide to use it. A person should be able to pay for a data plan and then use that data anyway the hardware supports. It is no different than if they charged for a data plan, then charged extra for web access, youtube, facebook, twitter, etc. And I bet if they thought they could get away with it, they would charge that way.
-kpluck
Well, wait. They're not done with us yet. I fully expect a royal screwing down the road. It doesn't have to play out as a simple upcharge. These telecoms, they are very crafty.
No 3GS hotspot support. Yeah, thanks AT&T. I'll remember this when my contract is up in June/July and the iPhone 5 comes out.
Keep holding your breath... likely an iPhone 4S or iPhone 4+ this summer,
but there's no way there will be an "iPhone 5" until 2012.
This one is just a warning, but remember next time "iPhone 5" is mentioned you'll have to cough up $1 for the stupid tax.