[saintforlife]

Will US carriers like AT&T, Verizon etc. try to make this a paid service like on the iPhone? Android has certain apps with which you can use your phone as a wifi hotspot and the carrier can't do anything about it. Does anything like that exist for WP7 or expected to come to WP8?

[saintforlife]

If the feature exists, does AT&T gimp the feature where you can only turn it on by paying for the separately for the hotspot service? Is there a WP7 app that enables free wifi tethering like 'Foxfi' on the Android?

[theefman]

Maybe not tethering, which today is part of your data plan, but I can see them restricting Skype/VOIP video calls to the same (expensive) plan they are pushing iphone users to. Esp with the way WP8 handles Skype calls like normal voice calls, that would be an attractive revenue stream for our beloved carriers. :dry

[palandri]

It's still tethering and AT&T will add it to your bill automatically.

Addendum: I merged your threads

[Dave Blake]

There are no work around for free tethering that I know of at this time. This is one not necessarily ethical feature that I miss about Android. ATT adds it to your 5gig data plan so its really not that big of a deal to me.

[eric12341]

Carriers like T-mobile bundle it into existing plans at no additional charge however, it will not be allowed in their new unlimited plan to be released in 2 weeks.

[andrelamont]

w/AT&T new Mobile Share Plan....its included

w/Verizon via FCC punishment can not charge for tethering...anymore.

Tethering apps must be allowed, FCC tells Verizon | Ars Technica

FCC slaps Verizon with $1.25 million fine for blocking 'tethering' apps - The Hill's Hillicon Valley

[palandri]

Here are the new AT&T Shared Data rates (note: 5GB data plan is required to enable Mobile Hotspot or tethering)

AT&T Individual Data Plans & Mobile Share Data Plans from AT&T

[scottcraft]

w/AT&T new Mobile Share Plan....its included

w/Verizon via FCC punishment can not charge for tethering...anymore.

Tethering apps must be allowed, FCC tells Verizon | Ars Technica

FCC slaps Verizon with $1.25 million fine for blocking 'tethering' apps - The Hill's Hillicon Valley

Verizon can charge for tethering, they just can't block tethering apps from the Play store. Doesn't matter anyway, tethering is included in the shared data plans they are moving everyone to.

[1jaxstate1]

The day carriers fall down a bunch of stairs and hit their head really really hard. Never understood why they cared about what I do with my allotted data.

[palandri]

The day carriers fall down a bunch of stairs and hit their head really really hard. Never understood why they cared about what I do with my allotted data.

It has to do with Net Neutrality. Actually the cable TV companies started it. They noticed that a lot of people were watching movies online through NetFlix's and they started demanding NetFlix pay them for the bandwidth or else they would block the IP. I think they also wanted to charge customers extra for using Netflix even though they had 250GB of monthly home Internet..

The FCC's interpretation of Net Neutrality was a person who bought X amount of bandwidth should be able to use it however they wish.

Cable companies and Wireless carriers interpretation of Net Neutrality was no government regulations on internet access.

The FCC ruled that Cable Companies had to follow their interpretation of Net Neutrality, but they imposed no regulations on Wireless Carriers, which is why they can charge for tethering.

If you Google Net Neutrality, you find a lot more information on it. I just covered the basics. There is a lot more to it.

[1jaxstate1]

I'll go read up on that. I remember back in the day, I would do 8 - 9 gig a month on my Samsung Blackjack, with a $15 per/month unlimited data with no tethering, and never head one complaint from Cingular. Boy, how times have changed.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

[aaronarnwine]

Pain in the ****. I just went from the 5GB to the Unlimited Plan with T-Mobile and my tethering wouldn't work. Sent me to a page to update my plan. You cannot even add the tethering for $14.99 if you have the unlimited plan. So I didn't see it answered above: is there an app for it like on iPhone?

[Doug Miller1]

i could do bluetooth tethering of my data connection on my old touch pro, for free, on verizon. Not now. verizon wants to charge me to use the nokia lumia 822 as a personal hotspot (wifi). It does not even offer bluetooth tethering. What a joke. I hate when they take a useful feature that was free on one phone, and then chrage u for it on another...