Verizon one-ups AT&T, turns your iPhone into a WiFi hotspot

January 11, 2011 9:17 AM
Anthony Ha
Add a Comment

Updated

Verizon today announced its long-awaited support for the iPhone. For the most part, the phone and its features look like they’re the same whether you get them for AT&T or Verizon, but there’s one cool exception — Verizon says users will be able to turn their phones into five-person hot spots.

The idea is to turn your phone into the equivalent of a MiFi device — personal WiFi networks that you carry around with you. No more struggling to find free WiFi, and it’s arguably an improvement on MiFi devices, since you don’t have to carry around an extra device. (In VentureBeat’s case, we try to work on-the-go by connecting my Verizon 3G modem to Owen Thomas’ MiFi device — now we’ll just make sure there’s someone with a Verizon iPhone in the car.)

Verizon hasn’t released any details about how much it will cost or how it will work. I don’t know, for example, how long we’ll be able to run the WiFi feature without completely draining the iPhone’s battery. But if Verizon can make this work in even a halfway decent fashion, that should give it bragging rights over AT&T, which struggled to support connecting one computer to the Internet via iPhone tethering.

Update: We have a video of the Personal Hotspot in action.

  • http://www.socialmediaphilanthropy.com Jeff Gibbard

    It's not really a “one-up” when you are losing a feature. I'm no huge fan of AT&T but their GSM network does allow data and phone at the same time, while Verizon's CDMA network does not. For AT&T to offer hotspot, it only needs to change some pricing. On the flip side, for Verizon to offer the exact same thing, it would have to overhaul its entire network.Furthermore, because CDMA cannot support data and call at the same time, what do you do when 5 devices are connected to your iphone hotspot and a call comes in? Dropped connection for 5 devices.So really this isn't a one-up.

  • http://twitter.com/mikeydangerous Mike

    Same questions as always: so what if Verizon is getting iPhone 4 in February. What happens in June when iPhone 5 launches? Are all early adopters on Verizon left out? Will the iPhone 5 launch on AT&T and Verizon at the same time?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_CFZT5JD5VWI6VU7B2JGTNTR7ZY gjhinc

    No matter what I count the days until I am no longer an AT&T customer.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_F7TINGVYFSTAMPQ6GW4GVZRAF4 Tiggs

    Ahhhh that's AWESOME!! Ah……wait a minute, what happens when a call comes through??? BWAHAHAHA!2-up At&t!!

  • http://www.venturebeat.com Anthony Ha

    Good points. I do think it's a one-up in the sense of perception and publicity.

  • http://www.venturebeat.com Anthony Ha

    Basically all questions at Verizon and AT&T refused to answer.

blog comments powered by Disqus