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Rogers, Fido, TELUS, Virgin and Bell will all support iPhone 4 Personal Hotspot
With the upgrade to iOS dropping on March 11th one of the main features is the Personal Hotspot. This allows you to connect your iPhone 4 up to five devices via Wi-Fi. We’ve reached out to the carriers and Rogers, Fido, TELUS, Virgin and Bell all confirmed that they will support Personal Hotspot in the upcoming iOS 4.3 release.
- Rogers stated yesterday that “This feature will be available at no additional charge for Rogers and Fido customers who subscribe to data plans of 1GB and above”.
- Virgin said in an email to us that “Regarding the iPhone upgrade, when Apple makes this available, Members can go in to iTunes to get the upgrade and yes, they will be able to use the Mobile Hotspot. No restriction on plan or anything. However, Members will of course still be charged for any data use outside of their plan so they should make sure they have the right plan for the amount of data they’ll need”.
- Bell said “Yes, we will.. All our in-market plans support this use and we advise existing customers to check and see if their plan covers the use too.”
- TELUS stated in an email to us that “TELUS will enable the upcoming iPhone 4 iOS 4.3 Mobile Hotspot”.
So there you have it… one week to go.
Discussion
42 comments for “Rogers, Fido, TELUS, Virgin and Bell will all support iPhone 4 Personal Hotspot”
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So as usual Rogers has their hand out imposing conditions. When are they gonna get it.
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Did you even RTFA?
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i think its to cover peoples rears more than a restriction when virgin says “Members will of course still be charged for any data use outside of their plan so they should make sure they have the right plan for the amount of data they’ll need”.
rogers says you will at least need to have SOME data. casue face it 500 mb is not enough to tether on without going over…
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Chall: Its not meant to be your primary Internet connection, it’s a convenience thing. Clearly you’ve missed the point.
Some of us have been doing this for years already via MyWi and it is SUPER handy, especially when traveling and the kids want WiFi for their iPod touches. Even my wife will connect to my iPhone via wifi instead of using her much smaller data bucket. 6 gigs can go a long way so long as you’re not stupid with how you use it.
Bravo for not charging extra, Rogers. I figured for sure this would have been treated as another opportunity to wring another $10/$20 a month out of your customers – glad it’s not after all.
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You are misinformed Any carrier can enable or disable this feature (or many others) at will via their provisioning options. If they turn it off it completely disappears as an option on the phone, simple.
Yes, there are hacks and Jailbreak options around it, But that’s not what were talking about here.
And all that aside, look southwards and you will see that other carriers ARE charging for this option.
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Actually carrier can impose restrictions and charge for this feature. If you try to use USB tethering with an iPhone with a data plan less then 1GB on Rogers, the phone will prompt you to call Customer Care to setup tethering. Same thing with the Samsun Galaxy S with Froyo, the phone will prompt you to call 611 if you enable the mobile AP function with a data plan that has less then 1GB.
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Cool… I’ve been doing this for months on my Galaxy S out of the box.
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except that on the Galaxy S you can choose the SSID. From the screen shot it seems locked to “iPhone 4″. I wonder what happens when there are two or more at the same place.
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Can’t agree with you more, Mark. Some people just feel a sense of entitlement. It’s bad enough the Canadian telecoms milk us with high mobile rates and internet caps, it’s great they’re not charging us extra for this hotspot feature.
My theory for the extra cost in the US, ATT and Verizon are charging a premium because they offer mobile unlimited data and don’t want its user milking this feature.
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Of course they will all support it, the real question is how much will it cost to get that support :S
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I’ll say it once and I’ll say it again. Wifi hotspot sharing is not really tethering. When you share a connection through wifi on a phone, the tethering dial code never gets transmitted to the network. There is not possible way for any company to charge for this!!!
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“Tethering Code”? Dude. Fail.
This option can be turned on and off at will by the carrier. Go back and look at when Bluetooth/USB Tethering was first added to iOS if you want to see how it was selectively enabled by carriers at that time. Those on carriers who didn’t support it NEVER EVEN HAD THE OPTION on their devices.
You’re making yourself look silly, bud.
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You still don’t get it do you.. Did you even read Mark’s comments?
Apple has setup a system which allows carriers to control whether tethering (USB/BT) or WiFi Hotspot is enabled for the user.
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Actually the APN used can be different, the same way they can tell if your tethering a laptop or not, its up to the carrier to decide how to bill for it or what bucket it falls into.
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And you can’t compare USB tethering because the tethering code does gets dialed! Wifi hotspot is an option controled by the phone and anyone who says otherwise is spreading false information!!!!
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I don’t know about yours but my phone doesn’t “dial” any code when I tether it via USB.
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yay for virgin and not putting a 1gb limit like robbers
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Unfortunately Virgin charges $30 for 500MB while everyone else charges $25… All the other carriers will get you 1GB for $30.
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Of course they support it! I work for apple and I can say that the carriers wouldn’t know the difference between tethering and this. So yes, it will work with any carrier including solo koodo and whoever else!
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The carriers wouldn’t know the difference? Hahaha.. yes, you clearly work for Apple. /sarcasm
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Oh, Joey you are EVER so clever!!! What would the world do without people like you?
You honestly think that the companies can tell the difference between USB, Bluetooth and WIFI tethering? Nope. Ask anyone in the apple store or even at Fido/Bell/Rogers for that matter… All you need is the tethering option on your plan… You really think that Fido, Telus and all them got SPECIAL SOFTWARE that tells them what sort of tethering you are using JUST because apple came out with WIFI tethering? HAH! If you are going to be a smartass, PLEASE know what you are talking about BEFORE putting your fingers to your keyboard! Much appreciated…
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We know Apple has allowed carriers to provision the ability to turn tethering (USB and BT) on or off since OS 3.0. With Personal Hotspot in 4.3 the carriers are also able to control whether the customer has access to this feature as well. If not, then we wwouldn’t see all these carriers (here and the US) announce whether or not they’re supporting Personal Hotspot.
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The fact that you work with apple doesn’t mean anything, example : Jim Bob Joe works with apple, as a janitor cleaning out their toilet. Who cares?
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Oh and mo s it’s not a limit of 1 gig.. It’s a min of a gig so you can’t go over your usage…. It’s a smart idea because then they won’t get people calling and complaining that Rogers is s**t because their bill is too high.
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Let the data overage horror stories begin!!lol
Hope u got ur 6 gig data plan ready!
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very likely will end up with a $1000++++ bill
just because they kindly (the big 3′s and their kids) turn the hotspot on for you >.>
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Omg people this has nothing to do with carriers!!! It’s all apple!!! They included it now because android has it! Also the iPhones always had tethering capabilities, it just wasn’t wifi it was Bluetooth!
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Hahahahahaha…. another way for robellus to rip more people off. “Hmmmm lets charge for 30hrs of data in a 24hr day” a al Bell…… lol
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I have the 500mb plan and when I jailbroke and used MyWi, its was awesome. Rogers couldn’t stop me if they tried. So my thinking is this feature is similar. If I’m wrong, it’s just a simple jailbreak and I’m back to the old tried and true!!
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Go to a bell store, start setting up a smartphone, and check all the features that are $0.0 and by default added to the account i.e, data provisioning, intl roaming, data roaming. You will also see another one if its a phone that can tether, and thats $0.0 also and called tethering, get the associate to click the little red X and remove it from your account, and you will not be able to tether, or use hotspot. That being said, carriers can definitely remove the ability to tether/hotspot.
These $0.0 features allow services that can rack up a huge bill, mobile hotspots will most likely give you overages with a plan of 500mb or 1gb, thats a good thing in the carriers eyes.
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Well at least the CS at Virgin was mature enough to tell you that you’ll get charged to use the feature, unlike the rest who say the feature is free, but say nothing about using it is free.
Good old misinformation to milk more money.
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@ Cadet, didn’t Fido and Rogers put a CAP, like $500?
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In the U.S. They must pay 20$/month for this feature.
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Considering you can buy an unlocked iPhone that is not tied to any carrier, and that the iOS is never carrier specific, I can’t see how the carriers could even KNOW if you’re using the mobile hotspot–nevermind be able to control your usage of it.
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The thing is Apple has designed it so that either through iTunes or OTA an iPhone (whether unlocked or subsidized) can receive a carrier file for the carrier you are connected to which allows the iPhone to get settings needed for the carrier (smsc, mms, apn/data, vm, tethering, etc). There is some control/access that the carrier has, but it is all done through Apple.
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Also, they will know if you are using iOS’ built in tethering or hotspot and can track that usage. Some (maybe all?) carriers can route tethered traffic through a different apn/gateway than data used on the phone itself). Also if you look on an iPhone under settings, Usage you’ll see there’s Cellular Data and Tethered Data listed separately.
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will this hotspot feature work with the 3g ipad on Rogers if you have the 6gb package on it
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If you’re asking if the iPad itself can turn on the Personal Hotspot feature then the answer is no… the iPad with iOS4.3 will not have this feature included in the OS.
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I wonder what this means for people who got the Rogers “Add another device to your $30 promo data plan for an additional $30″ option.
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LOL I’VE GOT 6 GIGS for $50 on Virgin. Suck it.
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