Verizon tells “The LA Times” (http://macte.ch/WuCA1) the Verizon iPhone 4’s Personal Hotspot feature will pause web data when a call is taken on the handset.
Ken Muche, a Verizon spokesman, said that the company has a policy of pausing any web data on any phone with Wi-Fi hotspot capabilities when a call comes in and is answered, so as to maintain the call’s quality. ”If you do two things at once and you do both of them poorly, what’s the point?,” Muche told the “Times.” “That’s part of the reason we don’t have the same dropped call issues that other carriers do. We really do believe that a phone is only as good as the network it’s on and this is the way we have always looked at it and that’s why we aren’t willing to sacrifice call quality.”
While using the Personal Hotspot on the Verizon iPhone, or any other phone with the feature if a call isn’t answered web data will go on uninterrupted, he said. If a call is answered, the web data is paused and the Wi-Fi signal returns when the call is done, Muche said.
The Verizon iPhone will let you create a Personal Hotspot and share your data connection via WiFi with up to five other devices, such as laptops or other cell phones. It’s similar to Verizon’s Mifi data cards which let users share their wireless broadband with other people.