Tethering tablets and laptops to Android phone - what are the caveats and limitations?

JoShmo

We are considering mobile applications for our field crews and already have smartphones. We're trying to determine whether we should buy separate hotspot devices, USB modems (will these even work with tablets like Galaxy or Transformer?), or just tether to the phones.

 

If we use tethering, what happens to the data connection when a phone call is made/received?

 

What happens to phone calls when tethering is active?

 

In other words, do voice and data/tethering functions co-exist? We will be using Androids with the most recent OS versions.

 

Wildman

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JoShmo wrote:

We are considering mobile applications for our field crews and already have smartphones. We're trying to determine whether we should buy separate hotspot devices, USB modems (will these even work with tablets like Galaxy or Transformer?), or just tether to the phones.

 

If we use tethering, what happens to the data connection when a phone call is made/received?

If you are on a 4G connection your device will support data and voice calls at the same time so the use of device wont change but if you are using 3G the data may disconnect or go dormiant when a call comes through and pick back up after call end.

 

What happens to phone calls when tethering is active?

Same answer as above on this situation.. 

 

In other words, do voice and data/tethering functions co-exist? We will be using Androids with the most recent OS versions.

Only on 4G, the Thunderbolt is the only device that support Voice and Data at same time in 3G and 4G.. All other devices need 4G to do this option.

 

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Hope that clear things for you..

 

Also remember to look at the limits of the hotspot features to avoid a surprise bill because if you dont have unlimited now, you wont get grandfathered into the unlimited 4G hotspot feature..