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Idea: Make your phone a wifi access point

Categories: Ideas and rants
By: , IntoMobile
Saturday, January 20th, 2007 at 11:10 AM

First off let me say this isn’t my idea, I found it here while reading up on the OpenMoko.

The idea is simple enough:

If you are located in a place without internet connection the Neo should be able to act as a WiFi access point and route this through GPRS to the Internet. It will probably make sense to make the access point not open for anyone.

Brilliant! What does this solve:

  • Bluetooth is slow
  • No need to install the Nokia PC Suite
  • Can enable other WiFi devices to get access
  • Multiple devices can attach to wifi versus a bluetooth connection pair

This is just one of those things that makes you go "Why didn’t I think of that?!"

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

  • Jonathan Roberts

    Most terms of service would prevent this type of use, right?

  • Stefan Constantinescu

    I don’t have the legal knowledge to answer that, then again if you’re paying for data why would your carrier complain if you’re using it … ?

  • romeo26

    can all phones with wifi do this?

  • Geek

    Wifi sucks battery. Also gprs is far slower than bluetooth so any gain in local speed wont translate into faster internet speed. You also dont need pc suite to get a bluetooth connection. Yawn.

  • Stefan Constantinescu

    gprs is far slower than bluetooth but you’re taking the quote too literally.

    bluetooth is too slow for 3G.

    as for not needing the pc suite for the connection, i still need the pc suite to install drivers so my computer knows what to do when it connects to my phone.

  • Geek

    I ran a 6600 with the generic modem device and windows dial up networking before pc suite support was as advanced as it is now. It was not easy but instructions are out there. as for the speed of 3g id be surprised if its faster than the latest bluetooth offering, but ill take your word for it.

  • Stefan Constantinescu

    A) There are multiple versions of Bluetooth: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth

    B) Most of the higher end Nokia phones ship with Bluetooth 2.0 which supports 2.1 Mbit/s (2.1 megabits = 0.2625 megabytes) in the real world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth#Bluetooth_2.0

    C) 3G in the USA is mainly EVDO and EVDO Rev. A based technology which Nokia isn’t going to be using since they don’t do CDMA. EDGE, which isn’t 3G, is rated depending on the number of time slots used: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Data_Rates_for_GSM_Evolution but in my real world testing I usually never get more than 180 Kbits/s (180 kilobits = 0.0219726562 megabytes)

    D) Why are we talking about America? Most of the phones Nokia makes are sold to Europe and Asia. They have genuine 3G access via HSDPA and are getting about 3.6 Mbit/s (3.6 megabits = 0.45 megabytes): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Mobile_Telecommunications_System

    E) In the end what is easier for an end user? Connecting to an access point or configuring Dial Up Networking? …. Exactly

    So while I do appreciate your arguments Geek, you have to admit, you even said yourself:

    “I ran a 6600 with the generic modem device and windows dial up networking before pc suite support was as advanced as it is now. It was not easy but instructions are out there. as for the speed of 3g id be surprised if its faster than the latest bluetooth offering, but ill take your word for it.”

    Why not make it as easy as connecting to an access point? The battery drain?

    I have a lot more devices that I can hook up to a WiFi access point then devices I need to configure DUN.

  • Geek

    a) Agreed.

    b) Agreed, BT 2.0 is faster than the number I gave.

    c) Agreed, real world data over mobile networks is terribly slow – regardless of the hype about fast “next generation” technology. 180kbps is pretty good. I doubt I get better than 33.6kbps on T-mobile. But then, 5$ flat rate per month for “t-zones” is damn cheap.

    d) Is there anything outside of Texas? I forgot. J/k.

    e) Well, bluetooth with pc suite is easy, but I was offering an alternate because of your objection to pc suite.

    I also have many devices that I can hook to an access point, but only one (my laptop) is mobile.

    Here’s a challenge. Make a voip call to a free voip number. Put your phone next to a radio. See how long your battery lasts. My highest requirement for a phone is that one charge *must* get me through at least one day. Running GPRS over BT causes me to sometimes almost fully drain the battery in one day. I couldn’t imagine running wifi and gprs.

    My 2c.

  • Henrikki

    I don’t think there is a Nokia HDSPA device in the market yet. Even in Europe N95 will be the first one.