521 Tether/wifi

[Ltauhmise]

Just picked up the Lumia 521 at walmart. I'm a verizon customer happily using my grandfathered unlimited data... but for 138 (tax included) I simply couldn't resist. I intermittently use my 822, but one feature which I have refused to pay for was the tethering/hotspot. Verizon wants 30bucks for 2GB of tethering. So my question is... I can't see anywhere for the walmart tmobile plan (30bucks for 5GB data 100min) if hotspot is an included feature. If anything, that is worth the money in itself on top of the fact Im getting a 2nd line (for emergencies... or something).Would like to hear your guys thoughts.

 

[essinger]

Tethering is not included, but you can add it for another $15/month.

 

[Dustin Hodges]

15? Odd, since I have a similar plan (it matches down to nearly every detail, except it was purchased via T-Mobile.com and is unlimited data) that's offered to first time T-Mobile prepaid customers, and its only $10 a month more for tethering.

---

Edit: They raised their price

 

[Corepc]

Glad I purchased before they raised the price. I believe 550mb is limit on hotspot/tether on the 30 plan. I am at work so really can't check

 

[Jtress]

Not sure if this is due to my type of plan. But I have had Wifi tethering with tmobile since I switched to them from sprint. However, I switched to a pre-paid (not post-paid) plan and the tethering works. I switched to the pre-paid account about a year ago. I only have the $50/ 500mb plan as I rarely use more than 100mb of data in a month. I strictly use my phone for email,texting and calling. With an occasional tether with my laptop when on the road.
I just tested it, and I can tether my laptop to my Lumia 521 with no issue. I pay nothing extra for tethering.

I am not sure if this had to do with pre-paid vs post paid, but I suspect that is the reason. If there is someone else on the pre-paid tmobile account that can confirm they have tethering enabled, I would like to know. If not, apparently, I have been extremely lucky so far.

And just an FYI to anyone running to switch to the pre-paid account, I called Tmobile a few weeks back to switch to post paid when they switched to no contract pricing, and apparently they cannot move my account to a post paid account (was told this by 2 different tmobile account reps). So I am stuck in a pre-paid account. My phone number is my business, so I do not want to foul that up.

 

[essinger]

I think most tmo plans now include a small amount of tethering. The $30 plan doesn't, but I've tethered on it with unlocked phones (android, winmo) without issue. If you abuse it they will flag your account. However I was not able to tether the 521 with the $30 plan.

 

[Tech Talk]

The INTERNET ON THE GO mobile Hotspot device from Walmart (costs $79 one time price), refilled using pre-paid cards (costs just $10 for 500mb! and it won't expire monthly!), will give a mobile hotspot, that gives the best bang for the buck. No montly plans needed! No need of month-to-month payments! Enable Settings->WiFi on the Nokia set, and you get an instant internet connection! I think it uses Sprint network to connect, so if they have good coverage in your area, it is the best option.. Save money!

 

[Smyrna5]

Old thread, I know, but I just got a notice from T-Mo today about free tetheriing on my 521. I am on the 500MB data plan. When I bought my 521 a few months ago, the T-Mo salesman told me that I would need a different plan to tether. I am on the 500MB data plan. I tried it just for fun today and it worked fine. Since I work at home, its nice to have a backup plan for email when my cable modem goes down.

 

[ludawg94]

Old thread, I know, but I just got a notice from T-Mo today about free tetheriing on my 521. I am on the 500MB data plan. When I bought my 521 a few months ago, the T-Mo salesman told me that I would need a different plan to tether. I am on the 500MB data plan. I tried it just for fun today and it worked fine. Since I work at home, its nice to have a backup plan for email when my cable modem goes down.

That just worked out of nowhere for you? I am on a Value Plan and I was able to tether with my T-Mobile Comet Android phone with no problems. Today out of curiosity I turned on "Internet Sharing" and the phone then provides me with a message stating that my plan does not support such feature. I called T-Mobile, which I got told that on old devices that feature was not able to recognize if the wifi hotspot was an added feature to my plan. That was the reason they gave me to to why I was able to use Wifi Tether on my Android but now these new phones can recognize if it is part of the plan. To me that is BS, I'd have to look for my contract papers with info on the type of plan I received becuase I was under the impression I did have tethering as part of my plan. They are asking for $10 extra which would bump be to 4.5gb of full speed use vs the 2GB I have right now. This Lumia 521 phone is just giving me more problems than anticipated, I should definitely not have switched to Windows Phone.

 

[TexasDude]

That just worked out of nowhere for you? I am on a Value Plan and I was able to tether with my T-Mobile Comet Android phone with no problems. Today out of curiosity I turned on "Internet Sharing" and the phone then provides me with a message stating that my plan does not support such feature. I called T-Mobile, which I got told that on old devices that feature was not able to recognize if the wifi hotspot was an added feature to my plan. That was the reason they gave me to to why I was able to use Wifi Tether on my Android but now these new phones can recognize if it is part of the plan. To me that is BS, I'd have to look for my contract papers with info on the type of plan I received becuase I was under the impression I did have tethering as part of my plan. They are asking for $10 extra which would bump be to 4.5gb of full speed use vs the 2GB I have right now. This Lumia 521 phone is just giving me more problems than anticipated, I should definitely not have switched to Windows Phone.

It sounds like your problem is more with T-Mobile than with the phone. T-Mobile would likely tell you that you shouldn't have been tethering with your Comet either. You will likely have better options soon, since T-Mobile is slowly moving people over to their new plans, which include tethering and no more contracts.

 

[Smyrna5]

Yep -- its just worked. As I said they did send me a message (cant remember if it was a text or an email) saying it was available even with my 500MB plan, and they were right. I am on the unlimited voice and text with 500MB of data plan.

Just to be sure it wasn't a fluke, I am sending this edit from it. You do have to go into the settings and turn on internet sharing. It gives you the passkey there to sign on with. Maybe I better check my bill to make sure they are not charging me extra for this lol.

...Well, I just checked my last and current bill and I am still being charged $50 for my plan, plus taxes etc.

Here, from the horse's mouth is what T-Mo says about (its free on all the simple plans):

http://offers.t-mobile.com/tethering/admin/faq.jsp

As TexasDude is alluding to this may not be true if you are on an old plan. I was on an old plan until about 4 months ago. When I called T-Mo to find out when my old contract was up (Mar 2014), the lady told me I could save $5/mo by switching to a new plan, without any contract extension etc. It was a not brainer to switch for me.


I've had nothing but great experiences with my T-Mo Nokia 521. I am so glad I chose it over an inexpensive Android.

 

[Wildflash]

I purchased two no contract nokia 521's and was able to make both of their internet sharing's work on the $30 unlimited data plan by the add a keyboard trick SETTINGS>KEYBOARD add french,spanish or whatever. The first one I tried worked on the first attempt. The second did not. Then I reset the second and followed the exact same procedures as the first and the internet sharing worked. The trick as I recall, was to turn off the cellular data as soon as possible in the flow and only allow the phone to download the keyboard and set up files by wifi.

 

[calfee20]

Could you lay out the exact procedure. I tried it and got a network name and a password but when I connected my Surface displayed a Tmobile page and when I hit my home button my connection became limited. This is closer than anything I have tried so far though..........thanks

 

[MrockNroll]

my t-mobile Lumia 710 tethers just fine, on the simple post paid plan.

 

[Wildflash]

Could you lay out the exact procedure. I tried it and got a network name and a password but when I connected my Surface displayed a Tmobile page and when I hit my home button my connection became limited. This is closer than anything I have tried so far though..........thanks

Instructions that worked for a Tmobile branded Nokia 521 (brand new, no contract) to enable internet sharing on the Tmobile prepaid unlimited plan ($30):
1) Insert SIM
2) SETTING > ABOUT > reset your phone ( likely can be skipped if the phone has not been tried yet)
3) when the phone starts up, skip putting in a microsoft account
4) turn off cellular data the first chance you can by SETTINGS > CELLULAR > CELLULAR DATA CONNECTION OFF
5) TURN on wifi
6) add another keyboard SETTINGS > KEYBOARDS . I added French (France). It may be possible to add one of the smaller size options 21Mb vs 3Mb for the Korean but I did not try that.
7) when the phone restarts, turn off wifi, turn on cellular data
8) SETTINGS > internet sharing turn on

 

[Wildflash]

my t-mobile Lumia 710 tethers just fine, on the simple post paid plan.

MrockNroll, you are correct. Nokia 710, HTC Radar 4G and I believe any and all windows phone 7 phones will require no special gymnastics to get the internet sharing option to work. per some other forums, the update to windows phone 8 is when the restriction gets introduced.

 

[Wildflash]

The internet sharing shows that the phone is able to broadcast. This past weekend I actually tried to connect devices through it and it was hit or miss. Itouch 5G worked but Windows 8+IE, Macbook pro+chrome, or itouch 4G all were instantly rerouted to a tmobile account page effectively making sharing not work.