iPhone: System requirements for Personal Hotspot

Summary

Personal Hotspot lets you connect other devices to the Internet using the Cellular Data connection on your iPhone. To use this feature, your wireless carrier must offer Personal Hotspot and your devices must meet certain system requirements.

This article outlines the system requirements for Personal Hotspot.

Products Affected

iPhone

iPhone requirements

The table below lists the iPhone models capable of Personal Hotspot and which connections they can use to share cellular data with another device:

iPhone 3G* √ √  
iPhone 3GS √ √  
iPhone 4 or later √ √ √
* On iPhone 3G, Personal Hotspot is referred to as Internet tethering.

 

In addition, you must have Personal Hotspot enabled on your cellular plan. Refer to this article for a list of iPhone carriers that support Personal Hotspot.

Device requirements

To connect to a Personal Hotspot, your device requires:

Personal Hotspot using a Wi-Fi connection

  • A device with Wi-Fi with support for WPA/WPA2 encryption.

Personal Hotspot using a USB connection

  • Mac running Mac OS X v10.5.8 or later or a PC running Windows XP Service Pack 3 or later, Windows Vista, or Windows 7.
  • iTunes 9.2 or later downloaded and installed on your computer.
  • Dock Connector to USB cable.

Personal Hotspot using a Bluetooth connection

  • Mac or PC with Bluetooth 2.0 capability and Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later, or Windows XP Service Pack 3 or later, Windows Vista, or Windows 7.
  • iPad or iPod touch using iOS 4.3 or later can also connect using a Bluetooth connection. You cannot share a celluar connection using Bluetooth with other iPhone devices.

Additional Information

Find more information on using Personal Hotspot.

To confirm that your iPhone can share its cellular Data connection using Personal Hotspot, tap Settings > General > Network > Personal Hotspot.

If you don't see this option and your carrier supports this feature, check for a carrier settings update. If you still cannot enable this feature, contact your carrier for additional information.

Important: Information about products not manufactured by Apple is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute Apple’s recommendation or endorsement. Please contact the vendor for additional information.
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