iPad Tethering on Vodacom

Update:
As of iOS 7 , Personal Hotspot has been enabled by default on MTN and Vodacom.
I can't say for sure if it on Cell C or Telkom Mobile , but it's probably also enabled.

There's been a fair struggle with Vodacom users relative to tethering their New iPad's.
It just doesn't seem to be there no matter how many times you try different settings or reboot the tablet. Why?

Personal Hotspot, the missing setting

The Truth About Tethering ... on Vodacom.

When the iPhone 4 was released in South Africa in 2010 it came with a feature called "Personal Hotspot" , previously on the iPhone 3G and 3GS it was known as "Tethering" where you could share your iPhone's data connection to your computer through a connected USB cable or through Bluetooth or both.
With the iPhone 4 though , you could share the data connection with WIFI as well and this works on Vodacom right now, there may be an issue for some users with the iPhone 4S but I'll come to that later. The iPad( ofcourse only the 3G/Cellular models ) has never had Tethering or Personal Hotspot until the release of the "New iPad", only the New iPad , not iPad 2.  For Tethering or Personal Hotspot to function at all, you first need the correct Access Point Name(APN) to be entered into some settings on the device.

In some countries there is a charge for using Tethering on a mobile device like an iPhone or iPad, lucky for us Vodacom and other ISP's in South Africa don't charge for it and I don't see why they should since using one data connection for multiple devices consumes more data resulting in the need for more data.

Using Vodacom that APN would be "iphone.vodacom.za" . However , this does not work for the New iPad. The reason it's not functioning is actually not a fault by Vodacom, Apple is restricting the iphone.vodacom.za APN and Vodacom needs Apple's blessing in order for their subscribers to use Personal Hotspot on the New iPad regardless if the feature works on the iPhone. Vodacom is currently in negotiations with Apple on a high level to bring Personal Hotspot  to the New iPad on Vodacom and from what I heard from it's going well , we should see the feature enabled on New iPads on Vodacom later on , they couldn't give me an ETA on when this will happen.

For some users the problem with Personal Hotspot on the New iPad is also effecting the iPhone 4S.
Confusing isn't but there you go , works on iPhone 4 but not 4S . I am not certain but this may be an iOS 5/6 difference for the iPhone 4S.

If you do want to use this feature on the New iPad, using 8ta or Cell C works quite fine, might need to reboot your device after editing the APN but it sure does work. I can't say if it works on MTN or Virgin Mobile but i'm guessing it does. The APN for 8ta and Cell C is "internet" , for Virgin Mobile it would be vdata, probably need to chop that Virgin Mobile SIM to fit.