Tethering is the term used for broadcasting your phone’s mobile signal as a Wi-Fi network, then hooking a laptop – or any other Wi-Fi-enabled device – up to it to connect to the Internet. It can be referred to as a mobile hotspot, personal hotspot, portable hotspot or Wi-Fi hotspot.
When tethering, a phone essentially becomes a portable Wi-Fi hotspot.
If you’ve ever been in a public location, such as a train, and discovered someone’s phone listed as an available Wi-Fi hotspot, it means that someone’s phone is set up for tethering.
Tethering works by forming a connection between a laptop (to use the most common example) and a mobile phone. That connection can be a physical one in the form of a USB cable, or wireless through Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. These days, wireless is by far the more common method