Personal Hotspot not working with Spectrum Mobile

Question

Level 1

8 points

Personal Hotspot not working with Spectrum Mobile

Hello everyone. Having an issue with the Personal Hotspot feature on my iPhone XS Max, using Spectrum Mobile as my wireless carrier. While trying to use the Personal Hotspot feature, I noticed that the option to turn the feature ON was not there. Upon navigating to Settings -> Cellular, I see a blue link to "Set up personal hotspot". I touch the link, and then get a pop-up that states, "Set Up Personal Hotspot - To enable personal hotspot on this account, contact Spectrum at 1-833-224-6603". Only options are Cancel, and Call. I called Spectrum, and they advised that it was a known issue with the Apple X series of phones, and that I would have to wait for an IOS update to come out to resolve the issue. I just updated to 12.0.1 last night, but unfortunately did not try to set up the hotspot feature while I was running 12.0.0. I contacted Apple Support, and the agent advised that the iPhone XS Max may not be fully compatible with the Spectrum services quite yet. Has anyone else had this issue with the XS Max and Spectrum Mobile?

iPhone XS Max, iOS 12.0.1

Posted on Oct 12, 2018 1:46 PM

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Answer 1

HHH03

Level 1

8 points

Oct 13, 2018 1:10 PM in response to Jmo327

I too have Spectrum and the problem is with the Spectrum SIM card. Our new iPhones are locked to Spectrum... but they haven’t allowed all the features we pay for to be available. I have an iPhone X that is unlocked and when I inserted the Spectrum card in it, everything worked as it should. So no iOS update won’t fix this problem. Spectrum either has to unlock our iPhones or enable all of its features. This doesn’t help us much now, but at least we know what the problem is.

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Answer 2

Oct 17, 2018 11:06 AM in response to CChamblee25

Have the same issue. Spectrum is "full of it" in my opinion. They were originally saying this would be resolved in a few days, then a few weeks, then it was end of October, now it's November. The techs kept blaming Apple for this. They also lied and kept saying it was affecting all carriers, which is far from the truth. It would be nice if Apple could help clarify this situation or acknowledge it's a real issue or a carrier issue.

See this thread: iPhone Xs Hotspot Will Not Turn On

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Answer 3

HHH03

Level 1

8 points

Oct 17, 2018 11:38 AM in response to S-from-South-hury

Personally, I think they’re going to have unlock these phones to make them work correctly... or we’re going to wait a very long time for the personal Hotspot to work. Far as the other carriers... they sell their phones unlocked... so they work as they should.

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Answer 4

CChamblee25 Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 17, 2018 3:42 PM in response to HHH03

I have opened a ticket with Apple, and spoken to an agent about the issue. After mentioning that the hotspot feature DOES work on my iPhone 8 Plus on Spectrum's network, Apple thinks the issue might have something to do with the dual IMEI capability of the iPhone X. They advised that another update is coming in a few weeks that touches on the dual IMEI functionality. Let's see if it addresses the Spectrum hotspot issue. Apple says that if I'm still having the issue after the 12.0.2 update, they will dig further into the issue with Spectrum.

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Answer 5

HHH03

Level 1

8 points

Oct 17, 2018 4:14 PM in response to CChamblee25

I agree. It’s has something to do with the iPhone XS Max having twin SIM card capabilities. But... the Spectrum SIM card does allow for a personal Hotspot option with my old iPhone X... so we should have it whenever they get everything worked out.

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Answer 6

CChamblee25 Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 17, 2018 6:54 PM in response to panchososa694

If that turns out to be the case, then Spectrum might have to unlock some phones and refund some accounts for advertised features that they cannot provide. I might have to go back to Verizon Wireless.

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Answer 7

CChamblee25 Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 17, 2018 6:59 PM in response to CChamblee25

Interesting... Xfinity is listed as a supported carrier by Apple, but Spectrum is not. Xfinity and Spectrum were supposed to be in an agreement with each other to mirror their feature packages and pricing. I think Spectrum might have rushed into this Mobile market a tad too soon, since they obviously aren't ready.

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Answer 8

Oct 18, 2018 7:55 AM in response to CChamblee25

I filed a complaint with the FCC regarding Spectrum. They should at least note that the feature won't work when ordering a XS or XS Max so the consumer knows they won't get all the features they are signing up for.

Link to file a complaint.

https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/articles/360001201223

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Answer 9

Oct 17, 2018 5:46 PM in response to CChamblee25

Spectrum mobile is not a partner carrier as per

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204039

Therefore Apple offers no official assurance that these features can/will work.

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Answer 10

Jmo327

Level 1

4 points

Oct 13, 2018 10:31 AM in response to CChamblee25

I have the exact same problem. It’s frustrating to say the least. I spoke with a representative and was told it’s an issue with the software and it might be November until it’s resolved.

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Answer 11

CChamblee25 Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 17, 2018 3:43 PM in response to CChamblee25

I guess I could just pay-off the X and have Spectrum to unlock it and see if it fixes the issue.

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Answer 12

Oct 23, 2018 3:10 PM in response to CChamblee25

The ios 12.1 beta 5 does seem to fix the issue, you can get it from beta.apple.com, it's pretty stable for a beta. I confirmed this today after upgrading, the hotspot does work.

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