Good news everybody! Well, everybody on Telstra’s Windows Phone 7 devices anyway; you’ll be getting Internet Tethering by year’s end. In best Professor Farnsworth fashion, however, there’s a sting in the tail; it looks like you’ll never get Visual Voicemail.
Sheeds over at WPDownUnder chased Telstra over the issue of whether specific Windows Phone 7 Mango features would be offered by the carrier — specifically Internet Tethering, Visual Voicemail and Group Text. First, the good news, direct from Telstra:
Wi-Fi sharing
The Wi-Fi sharing functionality is currently supported by the Mango version of Windows Phone but requires the manufacturer to make some changes in their part of the phone software to work. To simplify the release of Mango Microsoft did not include these updates in the initial release. Currently HTC and LG are in the process of submitting new software to us that will enable this feature. We hope to have it available to customers in December.Group text
The feature is supported by the Telstra network but is switched off by default to protect customers from inadvertently sending a lot of MMS. It can be switched on by heading to the messaging tile and selecting ->settings->group text on your handset.
And then the bad news:
Visual voicemail
We have no current plans to introduce visual voicemail on Windows Phone. Unfortunately it requires more development work and investment than simply flicking a switch. We will consider it in the future.
(Thanks to Sheeds for the tip!) [Telstra CrowdSupport via WPDownUnder]
WPDownUnder
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 1:24 PMCheers Alex :) Unfortunately I have a Samsung Focus (well actually I love this handset!) and ATT US appear to be blocking the update….so no Tethering for me as yet even though Telstra will offer it to me on their network at zero cost extra.
brent3000
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 1:25 PMIt seems no one will support Visual Voice mail…
Voda and optus both confirmed they wont support it :(
Schmoo
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 3:26 PMWifi sharing working perfectly well on my Samsung Omnia 7 through Optus. Got the update last week!
dude
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 2:36 PMshame your reception isnt perfect too lol :)
wsDK_II
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 3:57 PMYES YES YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MotorMouth
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 4:23 PMI don’t have much need for tethering, as my only internet access is via 3G and it is not cost-effective to have a phone plan that includes 12Gb of data. It is way cheaper to have a PocketWiFi and a phone plan with enough data to get by.
TheLesserSpotted
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 4:38 PMGreat news for us who have the non 3g ipads. Sure, pocket wifi might have the speed, but unnecessary extra device for functionality that should be a given on mobile phones (tethering).
MotorMouth has a point though. This is reason enough for me to change to Telstra, depending on the data that’s bundled with the mobile phone plan.
Sam
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 4:46 PMIf you’re going to reference Farnsworth, at least get the catchphrase right; it’s “Good news everyone!”
codework
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 5:19 PMYay, Finally.
So what I was promised when I got my launch phone (Mozart) over a year ago, might finally come to fruition. The battle between WP7, iOS and Android for my next phone is really getting tight now.
Steve
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 6:43 PMThey’re bringing WP7 up to par, but as for ‘tight’, I’m not so sure. WP7 is starting from beyond 3rd position, they needed to have features like tethering, multitasking etc far earlier than they were. MS has the most to gain and should be playing catch up. Instead they’re lazily rolling out basic features and letting Android/IOS increase the gap.
MotorMouth
Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 11:31 AMHa! In what way is Android increasing the gap? i.e what might I want to do with an Android phone do that I couldn’t with my WP7 phone? AFAIK they both do pretty much all the same things now. The difference is that WP7 is slicker, way more stylish and more efficient.
chilme
Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 8:32 PMI just got Internet Sharing on my HTC Mozart connected to Telstra. Works well!