Tethering your smartphone

You’re on the train and your boss rings up to say she wants that report you were planning to send her tomorrow, right now.  No problem.  Tether your laptop to your mobile phone and off you go.  

Okay there’s nothing new here, however with the rise of smartphones the term ‘Tethering’ has sneaked back into mobile conversations.  Outputting to one or more devices at once has also introduced the concept of your own ‘personal WiFi hotspot’ - so now your colleagues on the train can share your connection.

There are a number of devices and smartphones out there but I wanted to test whether there were any significant speed differences between them.

Testing times

I used four popular tethering devices and to make the test fair I used the same Sim card and network (Vodafone 3G) and ran the test indoors in the same location on the same day.  Each of the devices I was testing has different data speed capabilities but it should be noted that the greatest impact on available speed comes from network coverage where you are.

ZTE MF60 max speed capable - 21 mbps	iPhone 4 max speed capable - 7.2 mbps
BlackBerry 9790 max speed capable - 7.2 mbps	HTC Wildfire S (Android phone) max speed capable - 7.2 mbps

All the speeds shown above are more than adequate for browsing and sending or receiving email from a tethered laptop or tablet.  In areas of better coverage the difference in the hardware max speeds of each device could alter overall data speeds. 

Although it wasn’t part of the test line up it’s worth noting that the iPhone 4s is capable of download speeds of up to 14 mbps download.

Pros

They’re all easy to setup and using WiFi means you can connect a variety of devices to your personal hotspot (e.g. laptop, tablet or other devices such as PSP/DS) without carrying an additional device or paying for another additional Sim connection.

Cons

Battery

The most obvious downside to using a phone as a tethered modem is battery performance.  If you’re indoors you can put it on charge but if you’re out and about you’ll be playing hunt the charge point pretty quickly.

Connection

Using the data connection for tethering could mean other data services are suspended, for example your BlackBerry email.

Data Use

It’s often not possible to see which device or application is using the data.  So if you’re sharing your connection with multiple users or devices you won’t always be able to see who used up your allowance.

Security

Making sure only you or the people you want to share with know your WiFi password is critical.  Don’t accept default passwords if they’re obviously unsecure (e.g. wildfire S default is 1234567890) because anyone connecting to your WiFi hotspot could quickly consume your data bundle and lumber you with unexpected excess data charges.

It’s not always possible to determine who’s connected which device to your personal hotspot, so it’s up to you to keep your password secure and shared with trusted devices and users.

Recommendation

Regardless of what device you use I would always recommend you are careful if you’re using a smartphone as a WiFi hotspot.  Make sure you know the security pass, change the default password if you can and keep it safe from unauthorised use.

I know I’ve written about it before but if you need WiFi on the move on a regular basis, the ZTE Mifi is the best option.  It’s capable of greater speeds than a standard smartphone and using it won’t impact on your smartphones battery.  It’s the size of a small matchbook and eminently portable – power up when you need it and it goes in to sleep mode to conserve power when you don’t.

The Mifi device is also easiest to keep as a pool device if you need to share it with others.

If you’re an Intercity customer you might want to look at this knowledgebase article on how to set up tethering for your device.