In plain English
It lets one phone act as the internet link for other devices. Those devices go online through the phone's mobile data connection.
In context
Here, "hotspot" names the feature that lets other devices use the phone's mobile data connection for internet access.
- Situation
- Choosing mobile plans, allowances, roaming, fair-use, and add-ons
- What it communicates
- names the connection-sharing feature in the plan features.
Meaning limits
By itself, the term identifies only this connection-sharing function, not any separate service beyond that.
Examples
“When the router stopped working, she switched on her phone's hotspot so her laptop could get online.”
“During the outage, two tablets shared one phone's hotspot.”