In plain English
It means sharing a phone’s internet connection with other devices. The phone serves as the device that connects those devices to the mobile network.
In context
Here, “tethering” labels the use of a mobile phone to provide one or more other devices with internet access through the phone’s mobile network connection.
- Situation
- Choosing mobile plans, allowances, roaming, fair-use, and add-ons
- What it communicates
- labels the connection-sharing use case in the terms.
Meaning limits
The term itself identifies this kind of connection sharing only and does not by itself say whether a plan permits it or applies separate limits to it.
Examples
“When the train Wi‑Fi dropped, she used tethering from her phone for her laptop.”
“During the outage, one mobile phone provided tethering for both tablets.”