Swap Your SIM Into a Tablet or Hotspot.You can enable this feature in your Verizon online account management page. If you have a Verizon Unlimited Data plan, it may sting - but paying $30/mo to officially add official connection sharing capability is still a relative bargain for heavy data users. But if you have a grandfathered unlimited plan - do NOT give it up! If you have an old grandfathered plan that does not support tethering, it may make sense to give up the old plan and switch to a new one that includes official tethering support built in.
This can help get a single PC online, but is a lot more limited than sharing a Wi-Fi hotspot.
New phone models that launch in 2017 will likely come with Nougat built in from the start, with no option to downgrade to Android 6.0 "Marshmallow". When / if your phone does offer you an upgrade to Android 7.0 - if you rely on FoxFi you should decline the update! Even some of the flagship devices released less than a year ago will be left behind. They are currently forecasting Samsung phones to get Nougat in January or February, LG phones in November, and Motorola and HTC potentially as soon as October.īut a lot of phones are being orphaned - and will never be upgraded at all. The Android Authority website is tracking the rollout of Nougat, and they have posted estimates when they expect various popular phone models to get the upgraded. Other Android device makers typically take a long time before passing on OS updates to their own customers, often making people wait well over six months for even critical security fixes. Right now Android 7.0 is only available for Google's own Nexus lineup of phones - including the Nexus 5X and 6P - but because Google pushes out updates slowly it may take several more weeks for every Nexus to get offered an upgrade. Should You Upgrade to Android 7.0 Nougat? But in general it worked well - and many people have grown to rely on it.īut FoxFi, and other similar apps, seem likely to be impossible with Android 7.0 Nougat without having a "rooted" phone.
In particular - the grandfathered Verizon Unlimited Data plans charge an extra $30/mo to activate personal hotspot and USB tethering support on a smartphone.Ĭustomers sophisticated enough to Jailbreak an iPhone or purchase a "rooted" Android device could re-enable the tethering capabilities built into their operating system, and this will still be possible with Nougat - assuming your phone model can be hacked open.īut a much simpler option for Android customers has been the extremely popular application FoxFi, which is available directly from the Google Play store.įoxFi provided its own interface for sharing a cellular data connection over a Wi-Fi hotspot, making it the easiest way for most people on these older plans to enable tethering while avoiding a fee.įoxFi however required jumping through some hoops and did not support all phone models (see here for a list). Most modern phone plans include personal hotspot and tethering usage built in, but many older grandfathered plans did not include this capability, or charged extra for it.