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Comment by mey | Hacker News Reader

Incoming calls will interrupt data activity. (Will interrupt hotspot)

ArsTechnica has an excellent live blog going of it. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2011/01/liveblog-of-veri...

  >Incoming calls will interrupt data activity. (Will interrupt hotspot)

Wow, this reminds me of being on dial-up in the 1990s.

The CDMA Development Group announced provisions for SVDO, or Simultaneous 1x Voice and EV-DO Data in 2009, but there hasn't been much news on it since.

My guess is that Verizon will just continue upgrading its network for LTE instead of making this interim upgrade.

They stated at CES that they'll bring simultaneous voice and data; I'm assuming that's SVDO but perhaps they're doing it some other way.

From Q&A at CES:

"Q: What about simultaneous voice and data? A: Some devices will. Q: Just some devices, not all? A: Not ready to comment at this point."

Could someone please explain how this hotspot feature usually works for smartphones? I'm having a discussion with a friend about this, but we're going nowhere since I don't own a smartphone and thus I'm not really sure what's the default here and how this iPhone does things differently.

[edit] what I expect is this: if I'm connected to a wifi hotspot to browse the Internet and I receive a telephone call, I should not drop the connection to the hotspot (am I wrong in understanding that this is NOT what this iPhone does?).

"You can use it as a WiFi Hotspot" means that you can use the phone to broadcast a WiFi signal for nearby computers/devices to use to access the Internet.

The phone acts as a WiFi access point, using the cellular network to relay the devices connected to it to the Internet.

Yeah, this is ok, but how does this iPhone behave differently than the usual here? Do the other phones (when acting as hotspot) keep broadcasting the WiFi signal when receiving data over the cellular network?

It's a limitation to CDMA, so if the same feature were allowed by AT&T you wouldn't have a service interruption due to voice usage (GSM can do voice and data simultaneously).

Well, you can demonstrate this already either with normal Bluetooth tethering or with MyWi after jailbreaking.

This is basically what is called "tethering", using the 3G internet connection of the phone for other devices (such as your laptop), except that the "tether" is no a physical connection but just a wifi connection. In other words, you put your phone into this mode and you can connect to it through wifi and have wireless internet anywhere you have 3G coverage. AT&T does not offer the same service.

AT&T does not offer the same service.

Of course, it's worth noting that tethering isn't a "service" that carriers have to build or support. It's an inherent capability of a sufficiently advanced computing device that has access to two networks simultaneously. But in a textbook case of non-neutrality, AT&T (and others) prevent you from using that capability unless you pay them to remove the entirely artificial restriction.

Quite so. AT&T restricts your ability to tether, because there are still unlimited data plans and they don't want people to fully take advantage of those plans.

The hotspot feature turns the phone into a wireless router where the connection to the internet is provided through the phone's data connection. I don't think an incoming phone call would cause the wifi network to disassociate from any devices, but connected devices wouldn't be able to access the internet. This would be akin to disconnecting your modem from your home wireless router. Devices can still access the network but can't reach the internet.

does this apply to SMS too? if the phone gets an incoming text, will it disconnect the internet?

No, SMS is different, you can receive a text during a phone call, or during a data session.

love this:

  #Ironically, ATT service here at the Time Warner Center   
  for a Verizon event is excellent.
  by jtimmer at 1/11/2011 4:30:14 PM11:30 AM

Perhaps the skype announcement that was floating around will ameliorate that somehow.

> Incoming calls will interrupt data activity.

I don't see why people make a big deal out of this. How often do you really need to talk AND use data at the same time? I've never, ever, ever, ever, ever had to or even had the inclination that I wished I could. I think it's one of those features that sounds cool, but in reality no one really uses.

I use it all the time. I'll often be on the phone (using a headset) and pull up information online, or send out an e-mail to someone on the con-call, or pull up a new document in DropBox, or.....

Add in using it a Wifi hotspot, and getting your VPN connection/download/SSH session/whatever interrupted every time your phone rings would be REALLY annoying.

it doesn't drop internet when it rings, it drops when you answer. right?

I've often gone through the steps of saying "hold on" while on a call and launching Safari, Mail or some other app to check something that was being discussed (e.g. "Did you get my email?" "Not yet, I'll check now").

It'd be worse if you're using it as a hotspot and you're sharing the hotspot with other people.

It's not essential, but it's not useless either.

Actually it's one limitation about CDMA that I hate. I would love to use one of the reverse lookup apps to get details about unknown callers but I can't because the operation of receiving the call means it can't simultaneously do the lookup.

I also hate having some sync operation get stopped because I get a call.

It's more annoying than you think but not a total deal breaker.

I routinely send my wife pictures* (via MMS or e-mail) while we're talking on the phone.

*Not what you think... usually pictures of the cat or what I'm cooking.

um... I do this too!

I work out of coffeeshops occasionally and use my Nexus One as a wifi hotspot to avoid unencrypted public networks (which is free for me on T-Mobile by the way). Its awfully nice to be able to take a phone call and hold on to the data connection so that I can continue working while on the call if need be.

I needed it recently--I was driving around downtown LA while talking to a friend and trying to use Google Maps (he was trying to guide me somewhere and I was having trouble finding it). In that case I happened to have spotty coverage and my phone switched to edge and so I couldn't do it and that was adding to my frustration.

Also talking on the phone and needing to look up a reference happens surprisingly often. It's really nice to have data available while talking.

For myself quite often. My boss calls me and lets me know that 'x' server is having 'y' issue. I'm on my phone's wifi hotspot so I'll log into the server and answer questions while we talk over what is going on.

Maybe you're using the hotspot (downloading something, streaming, skype) and you get a call.

Let's say you have 5 people connected to your phone's wireless hotspot and a call comes, everyone lose their connectivity

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