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This is not Google, it is your phone company. You are describing a common practice and it does not matter if the phone OS is Google, Apple or MS.

If you don't want to jump through hoops to root your phone, you can pay full price for it.

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I paid the full price for the device. It is a Nexus 7 tablet and not Nexus 4 phone. In fact, the device has not been bought or is being used in the US. This is not a phone company issue but Google deciding to hide certain APIs which provide this feature. Pls see link in above reply.

It is your phone company as other replies point out.

Those replies were wrong. He purchased a tablet directly from Google; there is no phone company involved. The hotspot isn't being made non-functional, it simply isn't there to turn on at all. That's something controlled by the stock Android image Google installs at the factory, not by any carrier. Two seconds with Google will show plenty of threads talking about the surprising lack of built-in tethering on this device, unlike the Nexus phones.

Thanks dangrossman. I wish someone from Google would read this and chose to explain why did they do this. And if there is a way to fix this.

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