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Tethering Options?

How exactly are you enabling tethering? Are you just going into an iPhone and connecting a laptop over bluetooth?

I can try to replicate what you do on one of the iPhones on my plan, but I'm not confident I'll be successful.
 
On my iPhone, I see a setting for Personal Hotspot in the Settings app. It's fifth from the top, just underneath "Cellular". Inside that setting is a switch to turn the personal hotspot feature on or off. I leave it on all the time. It displays a wifi password to use on other devices when connecting via wifi. It also provides pairing instructions for bluetooth sharing. And if I plug it into my MacBook's USB port will share the cellular data connection over USB (and keep the phone charged at the same time!). It's completely seamless.
 
That's almost how it is with my Nokia phone (non-smart phone), except it does it through Bluetooth.

That's really interesting that you're able to do this.

You're on the latest OS I presume and which version iPhone do you have? Not sure if that matters.
 
I currently have a 6S Plus, but it worked last year on my iPhone 6. I remember that the personal hotspot feature was added with iOS 8. Here is Apple's description: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204023 I am pretty sure the carrier settings have to allow its use, but AT&T's Mobile Share Data Plans include sharing. I could pay $10/mo extra to connect my cellular iPad directly to AT&T's network and share plan data, but I don't bother since I can use my hotspot for no extra charge.
 
I'll give it a try and let you know what I come up with. We have iPhone 6's, including the Plus on the latest OS.

Thanks!
 
I just attempted to try an iPhone 6 Plus. When you enable "Personal Hotspot". It says "Please call or go to the website to activate."

I'm wondering why it didn't work for me :(.

I found this APN trick, but I haven't tried it yet. I don't think that'll work for phones running the current OS. I didn't see those options.

I have an iPhone 5 laying around and my iPad Mini uses the same sim card. I just activated my iPad Mini for T-Mobile on their 200mb free data for life plan. I'm going to see if I put it into the iPhone 5 if I can get the tether feature to pop up.
 
Last edited:
marker227 said:
It's a disabled featured to have an iPhone that act as a WiFi hotspot for other devices. Cellular companies make you pay extra to enable it.
Click to expand...

OMG, why does Apple let ISPs control the features on your phone?
 
I just attempted to put my iPad Mini nano sim card into an iPhone 5 after I activated it on the T-Mobile "free 200mb of data for life" plan. I can tether successfully, but when I try to load a website, a T-Mobile page comes up saying "Turn your Smartphone Into a Mobile Hotspot!" It then asks me to see what my tethering plans/options are. It looks like I'm SOL when it comes to tethering with an iPhone.

I also tried the iPhone 6 on my account. So, basically both the 6 and 6 Plus give the same message. "Please call AT&T to activate this feature."

chabig - Did you buy your iPhone directly from AT&T or Apple? I'm not sure if that matters. I know sometimes carrier branded phones can have differences in features.

I'm not sure how you're able to do it, but I've run out of ideas on what to do. It looks like I'll be switching to Android or Windows Mobile to see if I have any better luck.
 
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What a croc. I would just stop supplying them with any Apple products.
 
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