How many here just tether their ipad to their iphone?
- Thread starter Tapmyapple
- Start date
jasmynsway
iPF Novice
gjhsmith said:
Your smart phone may have the ability to change the 3G signal it gets into a wifi signal that your iPad or other wifi enabled device (laptop) recognizes.
If your smart phone has that capability, you'd contact your carrier and add that service to your plan for a fee. Once your carrier enables your phone (unless you have tmobile where it's free and times and requires no carrier input) you would configure it with a network name and password just like your wifi at home and add that network to your iPad.
Then whenever you are away from wifi you would turn this feature on in your smart phone (it's usually as simple as a few clicks) and then your iPad would pick up the signal and connect to the Internet.
A mifi is a separate device that can look like a credit card or deck of cards that does the same thing as the phone's mobile hotspot.
Wow this was lengthy but I hope it helps.
EvilMonkey
iPF Noob
Wireless hotspot is out-of-the-box Android functionality, but most carriers (all?) lock it down so they can charge extra for it. I think it's kind of expensive (like $20-$30/month depending on your carrier).
However, you can root (Android's equivalent of jailbreaking, but with more functionality) your phone so you have access to the hotspot functionality. I did this with my EVO 4G and then I just turn on the hotspot and don't have to pay the charge (of course, rooting does void your warranty). I also live in a 4G area so I get the bonus of the extra speed. You'd have to do some research around rooting your particular phone and make a judgement call if you want to get that technical with your phone.
MOHAMMED12
iPF Noob
your
Or you can just pay the money and keep within your terms of service. It is not much different in cost than paying twice (for phone and for iPad).
On my droid (v2.3), the option for wireless hotspots is available in "settings >> wireless & networks". At that point, you should expect notification that this will add dollars to your bill. Besides the financial downside, it works great with an iPad.
NEOBAHAMUT
iPF Noob
I tether my pad to my Samsung Galaxy S2. Works a treat. All I do is turn it on, configure my SSID name and then give myself a password to stop anyone else connecting. Works very good. I didn't buy the iPad 3G specifically because I know I can tether. One piece of functionality I don't have because of this is GPS. I will make sure When buying the next iPad I will buy the 3G as I would use it more for the gps.
AdmiralAdama
iPad Fan
Tethering is great. So far my carrier has looked the other way so I'm not paying a fee to share data between devices.
AA
AA
I have a pocket wifi wireless modem with my wifi only iPad in my bag at all times for work. I thought it pointless to pay that extra $150 for ipad with wifi and 3G when you would have to go on a data plan with one of the phone providers and in the end you would be paying twice as much. So I just bought a pocket wifi for $30 and just put $20 in a month that I need it. If I don't need wifi because I'm in the office or at home I won't pay to top it up and I'm not out of pocket each month..
jsh1120
iPF Noob
Good news. You can add GPS to your wifi only iPad for about $80 via a GPS bluetooth receiver. Just search for "GPS iPad" on Amazon. Bonus is the small GPS receiver is considerably more sensitive and mobile than the receiver in the iPad.
jsh1120
iPF Noob
Carriers differ and there are big differences in the policies of carriers in the US versus Europe. But having said that, tethering without paying an additional fee may require one to "root" an Android phone or jailbreak an iPhone. (Not always true.) Once that is done, if required, it's likely (at least in the US) that carriers will "look the other way" if you use approximately the same amount of download per month with your phone + iPad as you used with your phone alone.
Think about it this way. The main concern of cell carriers (apart from extracting as much as they can from your bank account every month) is the demand on their networks. Since the iPad (or a laptop) is a much friendlier content consumption device than a phone, there is a strong likelihood that users will consume much more data if they tether those devices to a phone. (Obviously, though, one is not likely to surf the web on both a phone and a tablet simultaneously.) With that in mind, the carriers (at least in the US) tend to look for "spikes" in usage from month to month. As long as you don't exceed your monthly data download ceiling (or show significant increase in data consumption on an unlimited plan) a carrier is likely to be unaware that you are tethering another device to your phone.
It may be possible (opinions differ) for a carrier to determine whether your phone is being used as a tethering device. But even if that's possible, it's VERY unlikely that a carrier will want to bear the PR problems associated with examining whether another device is consuming the data you've paid for. Thus, they concentrate on the volume of data you're downloading, not the device that is displaying the data.
By the way, this same factor is at work in carriers' charges for tethering. For example, Verizon typically charges $20 per month for tethering. But they provide an additional 2 Gigs of downloads in return for this feature. This is the result of complaints to the FCC in the US that VZW was charging an additional fee to use data consumers had already paid for. Of course, if you have an unlimited data plan, adding 2 gigs to your ceiling is meaningless. But by providing the additional download ceiling, Verizon managed to avoid potential penalties from the FCC.
