Disclosure: Some links on this page are monetized by the Skimlinks, Amazon, Rakuten Advertising, and eBay, affiliate programs, and Liliputing may earn a commission if you make a purchase after clicking on those links. All prices are subject to change, and this article only reflects the prices available at time of publication.

A few years ago Google added the ability to use Android phones as mobile hotspots — and wireless carriers pretty quickly started charging customers extra to use that feature. The move seemed a bit odd to some, since carriers weren’t giving users any more data to use during a given month, they were just charging for the ability to use your phone’s data plan to go online with a laptop or tablet.

Now T-Mobile is bucking the trend. Some of the network’s customers started noticing this week that they can tether their phones to other devices without paying an extra fee — and now T-Mobile has confirmed that even pre-paid customers will be able to use up to 2.5GB of mobile hotspot data (that’s most you’ll get though, even if you pay for unlimited service).

T-Mobile unlimited
T-Mobile

Here’s a roundup of tech news from around the web.

You can keep up on the latest headlines by following Liliputing on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook.

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,547 other subscribers

5 replies on “Lilbits (10-25-2013): T-Mobile offers free mobile hotspot”

  1. Charging customers for data and then charging them again for HOW they use it is just asinine.
    Who’s business is it if I’m using that data on my phone or my tablet or what have you?
    Once you sell me the water it should be mine to do with as I please.
    …jerks

        1. Rooting lets you use several apps that can provide hotspot functionality. I’m on Metro PCS – they also limit the functionality unless you pay, which is dumb. It’s a function of the OS. I use Open Garden WIFI on my phone – tethering without silly limitations.

        2. Rooting most certainly DOES have an effect.

          As an Nexus user, I have never paid for tethering on T-Mobile. I dont use any special software, I simply use the built-in Android hotspot.

          I use it quite often to stream movies via Plex to my Wifi-only tablet when stuck in traffic. I have gone well over 2.5gb and have never heard a single thing from T-Mobile about it.

          Other carriers such as Sprint (work phone) do lock down the service, and even rooted devices can no longer user tethering without the attached plan. T-Mobile however works like a charm.

Comments are closed.