Dallas – AT&T
has priced mobile hot-spot service for smartphones with embedded hot-spot
capability at $45/month for a total of 4GB of data.
The price applies to data downloaded to the
smartphone itself as well as to the devices connected to it via Wi-Fi. Multiple
devices can simultaneously share a smartphone’s hot-spot connection to the
Internet.
As a feature
embedded in smartphones, AT&T hot-spot service will be available first,
, in the carrier’s first 4G smartphone, the $99.99 Android
2.2-based
. The phone
will be available Feb. 13 through the carrier’s company-owned stores and
as well as through RadioShack.
AT&T also
promised to offer embedded hot-spot capability in additional Android
smartphones and in its iPhone in the future, but the carrier didn’t disclose a
timetable.
Verizon Wireless offers embedded hot-spot
capability in select smartphones and will offer the service in its CDMA iPhone
4, which becomes available in stores Feb. 10. Verizon’s hot-spot pricing for
smartphones is $20/month for 2GB of data, but the smartphones also require a
$29.99/month unlimited-data plan for their own data access.
When AT&T
launches hot spot service for the Inspire 4G, the carrier will also change the
pricing of its Bluetooth-enabled smartphone tethering plan to bring it in line
with hotspot pricing. Tethering enables a smartphone to act as a wireless modem
for only one computing device at a time. The AT&T tethering plan previously
cost $20/month for 2GB of data, but the bit bucket will be increased to 4GB at
no extra charge.
AT&T also offers a dedicated, hand-held
mobile Wi-Fi hot spot that can be used by multiple Wi-Fi devices simultaneously
to access the Internet via 3G cellular.