# Mobile hotspot (tethering)

> A phone feature that shares its mobile data connection with other devices over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or USB, turning one eSIM into internet for many devices.

Source: https://viasimo.com/glossary/mobile-hotspot/
Also known as: tethering, personal hotspot, Wi-Fi hotspot

---
A mobile hotspot (tethering) is a phone feature that shares the phone's mobile data connection with other devices over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or a USB cable. Your phone acts as a small router, so a laptop, tablet or a companion's phone can get online through your data plan.

For travellers this turns one [eSIM](/glossary/esim/) into connectivity for a whole bag of devices. Most travel eSIM plans permit tethering, though a few restrict it, so confirm before relying on it for work. Speed for the connected devices matches whatever the phone itself receives, and enabling it is a single toggle: Personal Hotspot on iPhone, Hotspot and tethering on Android.

Three realities deserve attention. Laptops consume data very differently from phones: cloud sync, system updates and video calls can empty a travel data allowance in hours, so pause backups and updates before tethering. Battery drain is heavy, since the phone runs its radios hard in both directions; keep a power bank handy. And plans with a [fair usage policy](/glossary/fair-usage-policy/) may slow speeds after heavy consumption, a threshold that sustained tethering reaches much faster than normal phone use.

The usual comparison is with pocket Wi-Fi, the rentable dedicated router popular in parts of Asia. A hotspot does the same job with no extra device to carry, charge or return; the trade-offs are covered in [eSIM vs pocket Wi-Fi](/magazine/esim-vs-pocket-wifi/). Families weighing one shared plan against several individual ones should read the [family data sharing guide](/magazine/family-travel-data-sharing-guide/), because sharing keeps everyone tied to whoever holds the hotspot phone.

A concrete example: on a train through the Alps, one traveller enables a hotspot and a partner's laptop joins the network to catch up on email. One eSIM, one prepaid bill, several devices online. If your connection needs to survive serious remote work, the [remote work internet guide](/magazine/remote-work-abroad-internet-guide/) explains how much data headroom to plan for and when a backup connection is worth having.