Why does Apple give service provider access to the tethering feature of the customers phones?

I'm going to distill the text of the questions and follow-ups posted down to one question, paraphrased somewhat:

"Hey, I have a cellular contract, and I want free Hotspot. Since I've paid for cellular data between my iPhone and the cellular network, Hotspot should be free. Why isn't Hotspot free?"

If that's your question, well, economics. Specifically, profits. Carriers can and do estimate how much data is going between an average iPhone user and the cellular network, and will then design and budget charges and cellular network infrastructure and the expected profits from there.

More data means more cell sites are needed, and those sites are lower-powered and closer together, and more backhaul links—the available radio frequencies used for cellular data are not an unlimited resource, so going to lower power and smaller cell sizes is the only way to stuff more users or more user data onto the available radio frequencies.

Cellular networks with increasing volumes of data? Carriers don't necessarily want to be charging/building/provisioning/hosting an entire local network via cellular, which is what Hotspot allows for the same plan price as the volume of data that a single iPhone device typically transfers.

A passel of computers all operating on the local Hotspot network can download and upload a whole lot more data than can or will an average iPhone.

Why not host that data? The carriers will need to build out added capacity. Which costs money. And the necessary cell sites and towers and radio frequencies can and variously are constrained.

The unlimited Hotspot that you want is possible of course, but—for various carriers—it'll increase the price of the cellular plans. For everybody. Substantially. And that's assuming the network doesn't simply melt under ever-increasing network load.

Which is why limitations such as the Hotspot control mechanism and cellular plan data caps exist. These mechanisms allow the carriers to (profitably) offer lower-cost cellular plans, without becoming the backhaul network for every residence and business and school within coverage of the cellular network.

If you do want Hotspot available all the time, you'll need to acquire for a cellular plan with that feature. That usually means a large data cap, or with unlimited data, and/or with a cellular plan allowing for cellular network performance throttling; of dropping network speeds as the data volume increases.

No great conspiracies here. Mostly one of carrier profits and network infrastructure capacities and costs.

Apple doesn't allow access to iPhone features.

Personal Hotspot or tethering as you call it is a carrier feature. They support it, they enable it. Apple has no say in the matter.

If the feature is enabled in your service plan it will be available. If it isn't then the iPhone will not show it. Works the same on all brands of phones.

https://www.samsung.com/us/support/troubleshooting/TSG01001516/

Hotspot and tethering may not be available with some carriers.

But Apple cannot unilaterally make a feature available that depends entirely on the service provider.

IdrisSeabright wrote:

No. It is not possible. By definition, a personal hotspot requires cellular data. Cellular data requires a carrier.

And a carrier expects and requires payment for carrying more data than just that volume of data originating and ending at the iPhone; extra payments for the expected extra volume of data with Hotspot. Which is what Hotspot offers. More clients than just the iPhone, more data involved, more bandwidth involved, more overhead on the cellular network, higher network infrastructure costs, which means more money expected by the carrier; higher cellular plan costs, and/or capped plans.

MrHoffman wrote:

IdrisSeabright wrote:

And a carrier expects and requires payment for carrying more data than just that volume of data originating and ending at the iPhone; extra payments for the expected extra volume of data with Hotspot. Which is what Hotspot offers. More clients than just the iPhone, more data involved, more bandwidth involved, more overhead on the cellular network, higher network infrastructure costs, which means more money expected by the carrier; higher cellular plan costs, and/or capped plans.

I spent more time than I care to think about trying to explain this to customers when I worked for a major U.S. carrier. Have I mentioned I'm very happy I no longer work in retail?

If I recall correctly, even on my "unlimited data" plan, I have a cap on hotspot use. As it's only an emergency thing for me, I've rather forgotten.

Cleonitro wrote:

OK so if you are right that carriers download their own hotspot application to allow your phone to talk to another device, that changes very little to the fact that Apple has created a monopoly on iphone by only allowing carrier's to install their hotspot instead of making their own app and rejecting third party submitted hotspot application to allow your phone to hotspot.

No, carriers do not "download their own hotspot application". Carriers have an ability to control how certain features in iOS work through the carrier settings.

even if thats the case your phone is processing and using that data, there is no need for the carrier to monitor that data, it doesnt mean you will go over your data limits. like i daid before, if you need a bigger plan just go buy a bigger plan but the way they have it set up is easily confusing people into thinking the carrier is nessasary to have a hotspot feature wich it is not.

As I noted above, some cellular plans have a limit on how much data you can use for the personal hotspot (carriers call it "tethering"). So, if you have one of those plans, yes, the carrier will monitor how much you're using the hotspot feature.

So you DIDN"T read the link I provided. Only carriers can provide a signal for a hotspot (they aren't using it) because that is the definition of a hotspot as was spelled out clearly in that article. MiFi's came FIRST and then smartphone manufactures adopted the feature later. MiFis were never WiFi extenders, that is an entirely different piece of hardware that you can buy, they only use a cell data signal and let you share it via WiFi. Period.

There is nothing devious, it is not a monopoly (not even close) and the only one who seem to be unwitting is you, I've never seen another post from anyone about this. Ever. Because almost everyone is smart enough to understand this.

Read your contact. I expect it says something about not using your phone as a hotspot when your not paying the hotspot fee. It's more than what is technically possible. It needs to be legal too.

R

All of the phone's functions that use the carrier's network are, to a great degree controlled by the carrier. This includes calls, SMS, data, MMS, caller ID, call waiting and voicemail. And yes, whether or not you can use the personal hotspot feature and how much it will cost you to do so.

Cleonitro wrote:

This should cover all the replies here so far.

The hotspot feature of the phone is a feature that comes with the phone when you buy it, its owned by apple, and it is hidden and turned off by default but even without a carrier service it can be turn on and used if apple gave consumers the ability to do that via a setting.

No, the tethering feature is not "hidden" by default. It's right there under Settings>Cellular. And no, if you don't have the feature enabled by your carrier, it will not work.

Carriers do not control features of your phone such as text and mms, carriers send signals to your phone and your phone interpret those signals to show them to you.

Yes, carriers do in fact control text and mms. If they turn those features off on their end, they will not work on your phone. Note that iMessage is neither text nor MMS. However, if the carrier turns off cellular data on their end, iMessage will only work on WiFi.

Phones come with pre-installed OS and system applications, SMS and MMS are essentially just data types that the carrier send to you then interpreted by your phone, your phone comes installed with app's to interpret this data so it can show you SMS messages (messages using text (we call texting)) and MMS which is essentially various multimedia data types such as video, audio files, and pictures.

Phones also get loaded, over the air, with the carrier settings that tell the phone how the carrier will allow it to interact with the carrier's network. In most cases, you can't see or access any of those settings. That might explain why you don't know that they're there.

You can use the hotspot if your phone is connected to a wifi at home, with no carrier service. Heck you can even use the hotspot feature to connect devices even without being connected to a wifi at home or carrier service.

No, you can't. The personal hotspot feature must be enabled on the carrier's end. You cannot use it if you do not have a connection to cellular service.

And, by the way, I worked for a major U.S. cellular carrier for twenty years. I know whereof I speak.

The ability to tether is a service offered by the service provider. It costs them money in the form of increased data usage.

If you want to tether, then pay for a plan that allows it.

If you don't want to use a Personal Hotspot just turn it off. Or better yet call your cell service provider and change to a plan that does not allow a personal hotspot. There is no conspiracy here, every smartphone allows a personal hotspot.

Cleonitro wrote:

dude i just told you...

All you've told us is a bunch of misconceptions.

This is a user-to-user technical support forum. If you have concerns you'd like to address with Apple, use the Contact Support link at the top right of every page of these forums.

Cleonitro wrote:

exactly my point on monopolizing features of the phone. Dont let anyone make app that ustilize the interfunctions of the phone to allow it to work as a hotspot - while only allowing carriers to do it -

You CANNOT use the personal hotspot feature without cellular data. So, saying it's a monopoly is like saying that the showered in your bathroom is monopolized by your water company.

What you apparently want to do, use the phone as a WiFi extender, would be a completely different feature and it's one that I've never seen on any cellular phone. Ever. You can, however, let Apple know you think it would be a good feature to have here:

Product Feedback - Apple