Confirmed: iOS 4.3 to bring Wi-Fi Personal Hotspot to GSM/AT&T iPhone

By chrisoldroyd
last updated

According to a Boy Genius source, and as reported yesterday, iOS 4.3 will definitely be coming to all iPhones and include the Hotspot feature which we saw at the Verizon event yesterday. Accoring to the source, the OS version will be 8F5148b and will have a baseband 04.08.00.

The release will not be until sometime in March however; so do not expect it to hit GSM devices as soon as the Verizon iPhone is launched, we are going to have to wait a little while longer. Also like we said yesterday, we imagine that the feature will be very dependent on your carriers approval, as will any surcharges for it. Maybe AT&T will take the opportunity to be an early adopter to keep existing customers and attract new ones too, here's hoping!

Just as a refresher, the Hotspot feature will allow up to five Wi-Fi devices to connect to and share your iPhone's cellular data connection.

[BGR]

chrisoldroyd
chrisoldroyd

UK editor at iMore, mobile technology lover and air conditioning design engineer.

53 Comments
  • Predictable but no less awesome.
  • Yes, but it won't be free. Sprint and Verizon charge about another $35 a month to use this feature, above the cost of your data plan. At least they did last I checked, and with adding this function to all iphones, you can bet data plans are going to go up for everyone!
  • Fortunately for me, I live in Canada. So, like tethering, it will probably be free.
  • Must be nice lol, ofcourse I tether for free in the US, but only because i'm JB'en
  • I see a lot of people assuming that VZW is going to give the hotspot feature for free, and also that that they will offer unlimited 3G data on the iPhone. I think that not only will they probably charge the $35 extra for hotspot, but that they will have capped data plans for the iPhone like AT&T does. What I see AT&T doing is keeping the $20 a month for tethering, but also allowing it to be used for the hotspot.
  • Verizon has confirmed unlimited. If anyone's gonna overcharge for the hotspot it'll be at&t and their crippled network.
  • $20 says it'll be another year before Att will allow it.
  • I don't understand how the headline says Confirmed that it's coming to AT&T, yet it's not confirmed at all to be coming to AT&T. It's just more or less confirmed to exist.
  • I agree. The title is misleading. It looks like AT&T has confirmed it's coming.
  • Agreed. Nothing is confirmed until Apple and/or AT&T says it in an announcement or a press release. It is confirmed to exist in iOS 4.2.5 or whatever, but that is it, anything beyond that is unconfirmed. Did the writer go to J-school?
  • Are there Blogs/news sources that have reliable info based on fact? I'd like a new one.
  • Agreed. The headline is 100% misleading.
  • just another reason i'll remain jailbroken with my grandfathered in unlimited data plan
  • Exactly!!!
  • ^ This
  • BINGO! I'm not Jailbroken, as there isn't really anything extra I want in terms of features, but I would definitely JB for the wi-fi hotspot if I needed it, vs paying extra $ to use a data plan I already pay for (and yup, I'm grand fathered in..) Come to think of it, if I upgrade to iPad 2, I may get just the wifi version (instead of 3G) and then Jailbreak for the wifi hotspot.
  • Completely agree Rodney. It's BS that carriers want to charge extra for this. I don't pay per computer for my internet at home, and I would cancel my internet if my ISP ever tried that! These carriers need to worry about investing their profit in R&D to make things better, not more expensive.
  • Verizon is inconsistent on how much the wifi hotspot feature costs. For Android its $20 for 2 gigs of data a month. For the Palm Pre its free so it could really go either way.
  • @dood. It's saying that it's coming to the gsm iPhone otherwise known as the at&t iPhone in the US. It's not saying its coming to AT&T for sure.
  • @Rgar3388 I believe you're missing the information to back up that it's confirmed for the GSM/AT&T iPhone. This article does not confirm this feature for GMS phones, let alone the AT&T GSM iPhone. My point was that the headline should not read that it's confirmed, when the sources cited are clearly not reliable enough to confirm it.
  • Hopefully they enable this on a
    the factor unlocked iPhone 4's
  • If AT&t wants to keep away net neutrality laws then they should remove the tethering surcharge and allow tethering on all data plans. As soon as we get a better untethered jailbreak I'm jailbreaking. AT&T can suck it until they get it right.
  • My guess is that VZ gets it first and charges nothing in an effort to get AT&T to put it out there for free. In a word - 'competition'. I'd expect that Apple will play one off of the other a lot in the future. This is the benefit of having the iPhone on multiple networks.
  • Does verizon or sprint charge for the wifi feature now on their droid devices?
  • I wish that were true. However, the cynic in me thinks it more likely that AT&T and Verizon execs will get together and agree to charge the same amount (e.g. $20) for it.
  • AT&T will charge a monthly fee, and limit downloads to 5mb.
    WATCH! Mark my post here people.
  • LisaLisa, since you are so certain, let's wager on this. A $25 dollar lunch gift card at any location near you says your post is wrong.
  • OK. So I was joking about the 5MB.
    But they will charge.
    I'll take that bet. I'm reachable in the forums as Xultar. You can PM me there.
  • I forgot to tell you that I used to work @ AT&T and Cingular didn't I...
  • This concerns me not. You said what you said. Consider it a wager. AT&T Charging Monthly Fees & Limiting Downloads to 5MB.
  • 5mb is one song download. Wth u gonna do with 5mb. U can't even wAtch a YouTube vid with that little data. Just saying.
  • I get this feature for free on my palm pre in my data plan(5gb)... Originally Vzw charges extra, then it went to free
  • Even if AT&T allows for the use of Hotspots, you know they're going to charge you for it, because that's just how they roll.
    Also, I have the unlimited data (did anyone REALLY switch to the $25 plan?) I'm assuming just like they did with tethering, they'll make it so people on the Unlimited plan aren't able to use the Hotspot, you'll have to switch to a lower plan if you want to add it. Which is just stupid! I use close to 4GBs of data a month, on just my phone. If I were to add my iPad, laptop, plus 3 other devices, I'd go over 2GB in a heart beat!
    If I wasn't signed up with 3 lines with them, I'd definitely consider a switch to the big V.
  • I don't actually know anything about AT&T's pricing plan of a feature that has yet to be announced or publicly implemented. I'm not sure how you can presume to know with such certainty, how AT&T will price this.
  • When I worked at AT&T there was one thing I learned that was pushed and stuck wit me since.....charging for features.
    That is how they make money, they charge for features. So they will charge per GB used. SIMPLE.
    @Dood Why R U so uptight it is like we are insulting yo mama or something?
  • Am I uptight when I ask that people be clear about their information? My name is Dood. How serious are you taking me Lisa? (C'mon now).
  • A good reason for you to jailbreak my friend!! MyWi is the best and with your unlimited data plan...!!
  • If it comes to Att let's hope we can keep out grandfathered unlimited plan
  • jailbreak + mywi = ftw ;)
  • I am new to this jailbreak thing. Someone fill me in how and where do you get this.
  • Is there any danger to my phone by using jb?
  • nope. you can screw it up but for the most part it is recoverable. I've heard of only a few instances of bricking.
    Jailbreaking can be annoying because you always have to rejailbreak after an update and you must always wait for the JB before updating.
  • That's a real damn kick in the balls.... People who were screwed into a capped data plan with AT&T will have the ability to wireless tether but have data limits. WTF!!? I can't stand AT&T
  • I'm waiting for Jobs at WWDC to again tell everyone to turn off their personal hotspots :P
  • It's about time. This was the only reason I Jb my phone for mifi. But after waiting for 4.2 jb I decided to buy a Vodafone wifi hotspots device for my ipad. Finally apple add this feature!
  • @Dood. Touché
  • However, alot of the reports are pretty accurate most of the time as long as they're realistic.
  • Simple Question
    How is tethering different than wifi hotspot ?! :?
  • Anyone ? Anyone ?! Bueller ?!
  • Is this gonna work for Telus iPhones? It would be nice to have...?
  • It's funny how none of you iPhone-loving Jobs-worshiping tech-knowledge-bragging gadget geeks can answer one simple question :lol: :twisted:
  • Tethering implies one device either tethered via cable or bluetooth to your iPhones cellular data connection. A wifi hotspot allows more than one device to use that devices connection, in this case five!
  • I would to become a product tester. I am an expert on judging products!