Do you normally have SIMless service? π€¨
The hotspot function basically just lets you connect other devices to the Internet through the phone's cell service. No service == no hotspot.
Apps may allow you to use it as a range extender tho.
this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2025
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Mildly Infuriating
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This phone is broken (broken screen) and was given to me, so I figured I'd use it as a WiFi extender, but I guess I can't.
My phone will hotspot when it's connected to WiFi. I can even tether it to a desktop PC and use it as a WiFi adapter.
Well, technically that's not a "hotspot". Β―\_(γ)_/Β― it's a Wi-Fi extender.
And a poor Wi-Fi extender as well, since you halve your network bandwidth by using an extender with a single radio chip.
I've only seen that option on phones with two radios, it uses the 2.4GHz radio for one connection and the 5GHz radio for the other
I am not entirely sure what kind of radio fuckery happens, but my phone (Oneplus 6 with LineageOS) can be connected to a 5 Ghz wifi network and have a 5 GHz hotspot open at the same time.
I am assuming the wifi chip has two (or more) somewhat independent frontends, since my home wifi and the phone hotspot are on two different 5 GHz frequencies.
That's kinda required. I doubt one antenna can simultaneously send and receive.
Anyway, there's still only one controller, so your bandwidth is still halved.
An antenna can absolutely send and receive at the same time. It's called duplex .
Oh, I should clarify; this is more than send and receive - there's some amount of network routing involved with being a Wi-Fi extender or relay or whatever.
What I probably meant to say is one antenna cannot send/receive simultaneously on more than one network.
But, yes, duh, thank you for calling me out on that one!
I am not sure if the bandwidth is really limited by the controller, or by the modulation / signal-to-noise ratios in practical scenarios.
I'll have to disagree on that one, WiFi extenders extend an existing network, keeping the same network and DHCP is done by the original access point.
A hotspot creates a new network, and DHCP is handled by the hotspot, not the network on the WAN side.
My phone does that just fine. It's a Samsung limitation. All it does is create an access point and forward traffic via its default route.
Your phone works without service?
Of course it does(*).
(*): assuming you mean "works" in the sense of "turns on, lets me use it just fine, does everything that does not require an active cell connection"
Hotspots share your phones mobile data as a local wifi access point. If you don't have a sim, you don't have mobile data, and so, no hotspot.
you can do "wifi sharing" which shares the phones wifi connection.
Not all phones can act as a repetitor. I've had several where wifi gets disconnected when hotspot is activated.
Thats not the same thing, though.
Well to be fair, on my pixel at least, those are literally the same setting. Which it actually is just depends on if you're currently on WiFi or not. Kinda Google's fault for labelling it like that.
what if you want to use the wifi hotspot for a LAN party in a plane?
There's Bluetooth and USB (with Ghirehtet over ADB or external wireless/Ethernet card) that you can use to make a Wi-Fi internet hotspot without mobile data. Also, you could NOT connect to the internet and use LAN-based apps (KDE Connect, network printers) without extra hardware in a pinch, or just broadcast an SSID in a public space for fun.
Absolutely yes. So many phones have USB 2.0, so the Wi-Fi speed is often going to be faster than cable.
I find it hard to believe all your other phones could do this as it required dual antennas.
If you just want a local network with DHCP and WPA to do whatever, no uplink is necessary.
Totally useless for 99.999% of users (not even exaggerating). Would be nice to have the option though but would mostly just confuse users with was would appear to most to be a totally useless option.
So is ADB, and Bluetooth tethering, and wired Ethernet, and OTG,...
This can be solved with a warning like "You are not connected to the internet, hotspot will only allow access within local network."
It is useful for LAN games so not 99.999% but more like 90%
Maybe 90% back in the good ol' days π₯²
Yeah but he said wifi extender.
Does it have to be a SIM card with service on it? If not, maybe grabbing a random old SIM card would work.
Random sim card work thankfully
Custom ROM also
Samsung used to have their WiFi sharing under the Hotspot setting. Then they changed the layout, and now WiFi sharing is buried deep in menus to make sure (for some terrible reason, I'm sure) it's not found without a web search. They change the exact location of it with every OneUI update also, to further piss me off. They are surely the company that is actively trying hardest to lose customers.
Many carriers sell hotspot as a data capped premium feature. They probably want a SIM so you can be monitored and charged for using your own device on your own network and services that you've already paid for. Because greed.
I really hate how mobile hotspot is considered separate from regular data. It's the same especially if your mobile speeds are are capped anyway. It's like dental not being included in your health insurance as if your teeth aren't part of your body.
Both of those are such a scam. Greed has ruined this country.
But didn't you know that teeth are just luxury bones?
On that note, I finally tried Comcast's xfinitywifi service this month, and was pleasantly surprised. They run a WiFi hotspot service accessable to Comcast users, but non-Comcast subscribers can also get a la carte access for $10/month. It's not a full drop-in replacement for cellular data
no system of WiFi access points is going to have that degree of coverage
but if you live in an urban area, an awful lot of the place is within range of an access point, and my experience thus far has been that it's considerably faster than running off cellular data.
OP, how old is the phone / what version of android is it running?
Just tested this on my s24u, connected to wifi with no physical SIM and my eSIM turned off I can still turn on mobile Hotspot. Seems weird that you can't especially since iirc Samsung let's you share your wifi connection through Hotspot as well.
Edit: goto settings>connections>mobile Hotspot and tehtering>mobile hotspot> click on the network name field. You'll be taken to a screen to change the name but at the bottom there's an advanced button. Click that and near or at the bottom will be "wifi sharing" turn that on and you can share your wifi connection through hotspot.
Unless specifically using the phone as repeater, just connect directly to wifi?
Any laptop can also be converted into repeater.
Edit: Missed the little paragraph, look for wifi extender apps.
How would a hot spot work without a sim? Isnt it using the sim 5g to rebroadcast locally?
What kind of tethering?
"Hotspot" is always going to be referring to having the phone act as a WiFi wireless access point, rather than USB or Bluetooth tethering.
That would be cellular to wifi tethering. How can someone expect to have cellular internet without a sim.
Is OP trying to use his phone as an routerless wifi access point? That would be a crazy edge case. And it still wouldnβt be tethering.
OP likely has an esim
That would be cellular to wifi tethering.
No, like...what he's trying to do is to put the phone on an existing WiFi access point, then have the phone itself act as a second WiFi access point:
This phone is broken (broken screen) and was given to me, so I figured Iβd use it as a WiFi extender, but I guess I canβt.
He's trying to use it as an ad-hoc range extender. Like, he presumably has one device that can't see the existing wireless access point, is out of range, so he wants to put the phone somewhere that's still in range of the first access point, then chain access from the phone to his device by having the phone act as a second wireless access point.
Android can do that
I've done it
but this check that shouldn't be done and disrupts his use case is causing him annoyance.
That sounds like a hardware limitation more than anything. Is it normal for standard consumer wifi chips to be able to receive and broadcast simultaneously on two different networks? I know that's definitely not something you can usually do with PC hardware.
That sounds like a hardware limitation more than anything.
According to one of OP's follow-up comments, he says that it works if he puts a random SIM in without service on it, so it's not a limitation on his phone, at any rate.
EDIT: Actually...hmm. Now that I think about it...was I using Bluetooth tethering on my phone at the time rather than a WiFi hotspot? I was just remembering being startled that the phone would link the laptop to a WiFi network, and I'd used multiple approaches (WiFi, Bluetooth, USB) to link the phone at the time.
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