Virgin Mobile iPhone bluetooth iPad tethering

I'm thinking about getting an iPhone 4S through Virgin Mobile with their $30 prepaid plan. I'm trying to find out if they allow the built-in iOS bluetooth tethering to an iPad. I emailed them twice but the CS reps were clueless and kept telling me about the mobile hotspot feature for an additional $15.

Does anyone know if you can use iPhone to iPad bluetooth tethering on the Virgin Mobile pre-paid plan?

Short answer: no.

The Bluetooth implementation in iOS devices is fairly limited, restricted largely to audio/headset use and some gaming purposes (oh, and there is support for BT keyboards). That's about it though.

The real answer there is to create a Wi-Fi hotspot using their "mobile hotspot" feature, which apparently costs an extra $15 (but probably does come with some additional data I should think).

It doesn't help getting around buying an additional Internet Hotspot/tethering addon but you can tether from the 4s to the iPad by wifi or bluetooth

chas_m, this is the iPhone to iPad data tethering feature in iOS that I'm referring to: Use Bluetooth to tether your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad | Macworld

I'm guessing that the Bluetooth teething feature will incur the extra $15 hotspot charge per month but I was hoping that wouldn't be the case.

Ah, I see what you mean.

Yes, you guess correctly: since hotspot ability has to be enabled in the first place, you will most definitely incur the extra charge.