Bluetooth tethering an iPad to a Sony Phone (k530)

I'm getting older and so I fancied moving up from an iPod touch to an iPad Mini.

Most use will be at home but occasionally I'll take it away from home. Then I'll need some sort of Internet connection.

The cheapest version of the iPad mini is WiFi only but it will tether (via WiFi or Bluetooth to an iPhone - if your carrier supports it), however the carriers and Apple saw a way of getting more money from the customer and so this tends to be a "premium" feature at extra cost.

However, in the darker corners of the Internet, there have been suggestions that you can tether to other devices, I tried this with my Sony Ericsson k530i (a "featurephone" which is about 5 years old).

It works !

How I did it is as follows.

1) I turned on Bluetooth on the Sony phone.
2) I turned off WiFi on the iPad.
3) I paired the iPad and the phone (from the iPad).
4) Once this seems set up I needed to put the iPad to sleep (I suspect to clear the network from looking at the WiFi).
5) I woke up the iPad and opened Safari.
6) I set the iPad as "authorised" to connect to the Internet on the Sony phone (this avoids frequent connection messages).
7) It all seems to work.

Hope this helps. If you do find this of use then please leave a comment.