> Raney said that Verizon iPhone owners will be able to take advantage of the 3G wireless hotspot feature for an extra $20 per month on top of the iPhone’s required voice and data plans—that’s the same price that applies to current Verizon smartphone owners.
via [macworld.com](http://www.macworld.com/article/157402/2011/01/verizon_iphone_mobile_hotspot_plans.html?lsrc=rss_main)
Some wishful thinkers will no-doubt be disappointed by this, but I have to say, it’s not at all surprising. And compared to AT&T’s tethering plans, it’s a great deal. After all, for that extra $20 a month you at least get a separate pool of 2GB to use. AT&T charges you $20 just for the privilege of using tethering with no extra data allotment. (Which sort of reminds me of those times in college when I’d get charged for going to parties even when I wasn’t drinking. You want me to pay you just to walk into your dark, smelly living room and hang out with a bunch of drunk people? No thanks.)
The bottom line is that Verizon had NO GOOD FINANCIAL REASON to give this feature away. People who want to jump from AT&T will jump for the coverage issues alone. People who don’t care about the phone coverage aren’t going to pay the $325 to get out of their AT&T contracts just to get a free hotspot. It’s a niche feature. So all Verizon had to do was charge less than AT&T is charging for tethering, which is what we all assume AT&T will charge for the hotspot when iOS 4.3 is released next month.
Companies don’t leave money on the table unless they have to. Hotspots and tethering are expensive extras because few people use them. Right now, it’s in all carrier’s best interests to keep it that way, so they can keep the load on the network reasonable. Giving away free data on the 3G network is like inviting your users to prove AT&T’s network doesn’t suck so bad after all.
