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Got a 3G smartphone with Wi-Fi? Then you might be soon be able to use it as a Wi-Fi hotspot for connecting your notebook or any other Wi-Fi enabled device to the Internet. North Carolina-based TapRoot Systems announced on Tuesday its WalkingHotSpot software, designed to effectively turn a Wi-Fi- and mobile broadband-enabled handset into a Wi-Fi router.
At launch, WalkingHotSpot will be available only for Windows Mobile or Symbian Series 60 smartphones, TapRoot CEO Bob Bicksler said. A free demo version will be available for individuals to download from TapRoot's Web site, Bicksler said.
However, the demo will only support one Wi-Fi connection at a time. TapRoot ultimately hopes to sell the full-featured product, which supports multiple simultaneous Wi-Fi connections, to carriers, who would be able to offer it to their customers, probably as a paid service.
TapRoot does not plan to sell directly to consumers. Ease of Wi-FiMany 3G cell phones -- phones that support mobile broadband for data services --can already be used as notebook modems, either via Bluetooth or cable connections.
But setup of these connections can be a hassle, whereas Wi-Fi connections are usually fairly easy to set up. Bicksler says WalkingHotSpot will support any flavor of mobile broadband.
However only phones based on HSDPA/UMTS (AT&T Wireless' high-speed service) will be able to support WalkingHotSpot Wi-Fi service and voice calls simultaneously. Those based on EvDO (the mobile broadband technology used by Sprint and Verizon Wireless) cannot handle voice and data connections at the same time.
If a call came in while you were downloading a file through a WalkingHotSpot Wi-Fi connection, the download would be interrupted. However, this is a limitation of EvDO technology, so the same would hold true for use of these phones as modems via Bluetooth or a cable. .
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full story @ source-link: InfoWorld: Top News
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