AT&T finally Explains how iOS 4.3 Personal Hotspot feature will work for iPhone users

Even though AT&T hasn’t had much to say about the iPhone 4’s new Personal Hotspot feature since it was unveiled in January with the Verizon model, the company has finally broken its silence and confirmed that the feature will indeed work with next week’s iOS 4.3 update.

Ars Technica is reporting that AT&T has confirmed that the iPhone 4 will work with Apple’s new Personal Hotspot feature when it rolls out next Friday, March 11. Previously, the company’s official line was something along the lines of “we’re looking into it,” which made wireless tethering fans nervous recalling the excruciatingly long wait for the carrier to unlock wired tethering in the first place.

The good news is that Personal Hotspot will work on AT&T with the iOS 4.3 update, although you’ll have to be on the company’s DataPro 4GB for iPhone Tethering plan, which runs $45 per month. That gives you a 4GB data pool which you can use for tethering (wired or wireless) as well as your iPhone 4 3G, which the company recently doubled from the original 2GB to better compete against Verizon’s iPhone 4.

On the bad news front, if you were grandfathered into the iPhone 4 with your original unlimited 3G data plan at $30 per month, you won’t be able to take it with you. You’ll essentially be downgrading to the DataPro 2GB for iPhone plan at $25 per month, then adding $20 per month for an additional 2GB with tethering. If your data usage isn’t extreme, this is still a bargain, especially considering you’ll be able to use your iPhone 4 3G with an iPad, iPod touch or other Wi-Fi enabled device for the same $45 per month.

According to Ars Technica’s tests, Apple’s Personal Hotspot feature ran for three hours on only a 50 percent charge, and the website estimates it could get upwards of five or six hours on a full charge, which bests the standalone MiFi units which get a mere four hours -- not to mention having steeper monthly data rate plans in the first place.
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