What is a Personal Hotspot?

A Personal Hotspot, or tethering, allows you to set up your own Wi-Fi connection using your phone data. You can share this Wi-Fi connection with friends and family members too. Or even use it to hook up your other devices.

Why you might need it

It’s handy if you don’t want to risk using public Wi-Fi. The free Wi-Fi, which you’ll find around places like stations, coffee shops or airports is often targeted by hackers to access information. This can include your emails, logins or credit card details. Some hackers can even send you malicious software over public Wi-Fi, which looks like an upgrade pop-up. And, if you accept them, they could infect your device.
However, your own Personal Hotspot is protected with a password and has our built-in network security. So, you can go online anywhere and feel safe – whether you’re bingeing your favourite show, checking emails, or your bank balance.

Creating your Personal Hotspot

Any of Three’s new Pay Monthly or SIM Only plans will let you create a Personal Hotspot, as long as your phone has that functionality. Plus, if you’ve got Unlimited data, then you can use it as much you want without worrying about cost. Their Support page Create a Personal Hotspot on your phone describes how to set this up on your Android phone or iPhone.

To add another layer of security, we’d also recommend:

  • Turning your Personal Hotspot off after you’ve finished with it.
  • Using a password which is difficult to guess.
  • Changing your password each time if you’ve shared it.

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