When I saw this article on Gizmodo titled “Turn Your iPhone Into a WiFi Router Without Jailbreaking”, I had some serious hopes and expectations for what I was going to read. I imagined a device that would basically do what MyWi does to your iPhone, without having to jailbreak.
In a sense, the Nexaira Business Class II 3G/4G Wireless Broadband Router does just that. By plugging your iPhone into the router, you can instantly create a secure wifi hotspot using the 3G connection from your phone, and share this connection with around devices up to 200 feet around you…
So far it sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Well don’t get too excited yet because the fun stops here.
For the router to work, you will have to subscribe to the $20/month AT&T tethering plan. It kinda defeats the purpose of it all knowing you’ll have to get on the official iPhone tethering plan from AT&T.
If you ask me, I think jailbreaking and using MyWi to tether your iPhone to use it as a wireless hotspot is still a better deal. However, if you’re a business and you don’t want to deal with jailbreaking for various reasons, I can see this as an alternative to a $60/month MiFi plan.
Still, at about $200, the Nexaira Business Class II 3G/4G Wireless Broadband Router is quite the investment. Is that something you’d buy? Or like me, would you rather stick to MyWi?