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wi-fi tethering

What Verizon's FCC tethering settlement means to you (FAQ)

The Federal Communications and Verizon Wireless agreed to a $1.25 million settlement that will also allow Verizon subscribers to use their smartphones as Wi-Fi hotspots at no extra charge.

The agreement may save some Verizon Wireless subscribers $20 a month. But figuring out who exactly benefits isn't so straightforward. So we've put together this FAQ to help you understand what it means.

What did the FCC settle with Verizon Wireless?

On Tuesday the FCC and Verizon announced that they had agreed to settle a 10-month long investigation into Verizon's management of the 700 MHz wireless spectrum … Read more

Ask Maggie: On iPhones vs. Droids, again

Nearly two weeks after Verizon Wireless announced it will get the iPhone, iPhone fever is still gripping many CNET readers.

I dedicated last week's Ask Maggie to answering questions about the Verizon iPhone. And this week I got several more questions related to Verizon's upcoming launch of the iPhone. So in this week's Ask Maggie column I answer some follow-up questions. Specifically, I clarify for one reader that both iPhone and Droids support Outlook e-mail and Microsoft Office docs. I also advise another reader not to ditch his Comcast broadband for the Wi-Fi tethering feature of the … Read more

Tether for free via PdaNet

Just because the Moscone Center in San Francisco hosts a veritable plethora of techie conventions, that doesn't mean it offers Wi-Fi. If your phone can pick up a 3G signal, you might not care--and you might not have to pay for it, either. Thanks to PdaNet's phone app and laptop drivers, and the unlimited data plan that you're already paying for, you can use many of the major smartphones as your Internet connection.

From the improbably-named software publisher June Fabrics, PdaNet is known for offering tethering solutions for PalmOS, but it also offers iPhone, Windows Mobile, and … Read more