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.

Vodacom and their useless Data Bundles

Last month I purchased a 2GB Data Bundle (Standard) for my prepaid number from Vodacom which

cost a hefty R389 the reason I purchased it was because I had a serious deadline for a website I was

building and needed the data as I wasn't at home or at the office where I have access to an ADSL line, now I purchased 2GB for the Rand/MB rate , I don't know who in their right mind wants to spend

R2 per MB especially when you're uploading lots of media or downloading it. 19 cents per MB is a lot better than R2 and unfortunately you need to spend over R300 for a bundle to get that rate. Granted that

Vodacom will be giving up to 50% more data for free on Bundles under 3GB starting on the 1st of May , which is quite nice you can read about it here , here and here , I will tell you something that will make you think twice about that.

When you're buying a data bundle from Vodacom , think carefully how you're going to use it because for you to make it worth while you have to use it all , when the time comes for it to expire (which can be confusing to figure out) you will lose every last kilobyte you didn't use and all your Rand you spent buying them. Take me for example two days from now I'm going to lose about 1.9GB of data , as it will expire and there's not a thing I can do about it. I want to try to use it all up if I can but so far I've only been able to use about 100MB from the bundle I purchased , mainly for that emergency I had with the deadline. 95% of my bundle will certainly go for waste and so will 95% of my money. In a fair world , or what I think should be fair , it should cost me R19.45 for the 100MB I used. Instead it will cost me R368,55 for the 100MB I used which equates to R3.70 per MB, fantastic deal from Vodacom. I will never buy a bundle ever again. If you're like me who thought you could extend your expire window by adding more data from buying another bundle you're wrong. And it's easy to have that misconception , if you're used to buying more prepaid data for your ADSL line , you will know that it wont expire at a certain date and be rendered void. I purchase prepaid data from Webafrica or Afrihost and that NEVER expires , and it costs much less. I should have just used the standard rate of R2 per MB and I wouldn't have been in this ridiculous situation with Vodacom, I've phoned them about options on how I can keep my data and extend my expire window and they just kept telling me how it will expire and it's how the network operates and I can't do a damn thing about it.

Here's a screenshot from my phone of my Data Balance

See how I've added 5MB , which has a completely separate expire date. Who ever thought that was cool should be pointed at and stared down in public constantly.

Why don't they let you extend the time for your bundle to expire? Why can't the support guys help me out? Why are they being so stuck up?

On the other hand with the "Advanced Data Bundles" Vodacom offers , which includes the "Out of bundle rate = In Bundle Rate" feature. it costs R4099 to get a rate of 20c per MB , how in Sam Hill does that work? Yes yes it's twice as fast as standard , cool awesome.
R389 for 19c/MB versus R4099 for 20c/MB . Yeah...
I'm not sure if I'm correct but according to this Vodacom states “The offer applies, regardless of whether the customer subscribes to a Data Contract or buys a once-off bundle to use on an ad-hoc basis and is available on both the Broadband Advanced and the Broadband Standard services,”
Excuse me if i'm wrong here , what the hell , the only "feature" the Advanced Data Bundle would offer is the out of bundle rate = in bundle rate

Take a look at this
According to what Vodacom said from the 1st of May things will look like this:
Using 2GB as the bundle

• For Advanced it will cost 23c/MB (if it costs R599 for 2GB adding 512MB free(2048+512=2560)
• For Standard it will cost 17c/MB (if it costs R389 for 2GB adding 307MB free(2048+307=2355)

If you're not going going out of your bundle which one would you pick? Remember both will be 14.4Mbps since someone(Vodacom) said
"available on both the Broadband Advanced and the Broadband Standard services"

Seriously why should there even be a charge for going out of your bundle? Is it because None of the ADSL ISP's offer the amazing benefit of going out of your bundle? Because I prefer those other ISP's who can let me buy my data at a far better rate with no flippin' out of bundle rate and no bundle expire date. Heck you can get unlimited data from Mweb and Afrihost for less. Thank you Vodacom for wasting my money you greedy rapist.

Follow Me CrimsonZA
complain to this guy


Peace.