Making sense of the iPhone and hotspots

12.01.2011
The this week was big news, but dig past it and you quickly found that...well, there wasn't that much else to find. We still don't know, for example, what data plans Verizon will offer for the iPhone, or how much they'll cost.

But one additional tidbit did appear: Verizon customers would be able to turn their iPhone into a "personal hotspot." Of course, for many iPhone owners and would-be iPhone owners, this did little more than raise questions, among them "what exactly is a personal hotspot?" and "will AT&T iPhone users get the same functionality?"

While we'll have to wait for details from Verizon, Apple, and AT&T to answer some of these questions, let's take this opportunity to answer what we can.

In Wi-Fi parlance, a is a device that offers Internet access through a wireless network. Hotspots have become increasingly popular throughout the world; today, you can find them in all sorts of public places, like coffee shops and libraries. In some cities, local governments have even created their own wireless networks to provide Internet access from public streets and parks.

At its most basic, therefore, a hotspot is nothing more than a device that is capable of connecting the Internet to a local wireless network--a description that easily fits a number of modern smartphones. Most smartphones have both a cellular data connection, usually via a 3G network, as well as the same Wi-Fi functionality as your home computer.