WPCentral broke the exciting news today that internet sharing/tethering is not only coming in Windows Phone but is actually baked in to the impending Mango update. Since the details are still sketchy, I started digging around to find out how this feature works.
Following the breadcrumb trails of a tip from Aleksandr “@Arktronic”, I came across some localization files which gives some clues about how the tethering functionality can be enabled.
The two strings that caught my eye, “To enable tethering on this device dial {0}” and “To enable tethering on this device, go to {0}”, would suggest tethering will not be enabled by default. Instead, users will have to call their operator or visit their operator’s website to have the feature enabled (provisioned) remotely.
The localization files also reveal users will be able to choose between no encryption (Open) and WPA2 encryption for hotspot security and the number of guests allowed is also customizable, presumably by the carrier.
With registry editing access locked down in Mango, manually overriding this functionality may prove difficult but I’m sure top minds are at it already. As someone who has used the same feature on Android many times over, this couldn’t come soon enough.
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