We knew it was coming, but AT&T has just confirmed that their network will support iOS 4.3’s new Personal Hotspot feature (previously a Verizon iPhone exclusive) starting on March 11th.
If you are already a $25 DataPro plan subscriber (which nets you 2GB of usage) and also have the $20 a month tethering option, you’ll be updated to AT&T’s new plan automatically when the change pushes out next Friday.
Verizon iPhone users, of course, get unlimited data, but the Personal Hotspot capability costs $20 for 2GB of data to up to 5 connected devices. AT&T’s plan, on the other hand, gives you 4GB total data to play with: either 4GB through your iPhone 4 alone, or 4GB parceled out between the iPhone 4 and the devices connected to it via Personal Hotspot.
Ultimately, AT&T’s implementation of Personal Hotspot seems like a better deal for extreme road warriors, while Verizon’s seems better for regular users. Which plan do you prefer: AT&T’s implementation, or Verizon’s?
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
