Question About Disabling AT&T Hot Spot

[PGB1213]

Hi All!
I have a ZTE Z812 using Android 5.1 on AT&T. One of the features they provided with the phone is called "AT&T Hot Spot". The intention of the app is to automatically connect you to a free AT&T wifi hotspot at one of their participating partner locations such as Starbucks. But there is a catch: You have to have a data plan that costs over a certain amount per month to connect. I do not have a data plan, so it is not useful to me.

Actually, even with GPS & WiFi off, if I am near one of the participating locations, the phone pops up a message telling me what a chump I am because I don't have a data plan & can't connect.

While looking at my running apps to see why my battery life is so short, I came across this app. I wanted to stop it and to disable it. The app has no place to disable it. If I stop it, it starts right back up. Location (GPS) and WiFi are off on my phone. The settings screen shows it is using 1.6 MB. The sub- apps on the Hot Spot screen are WispService and com.matchboxmobile.wisp.

I tried to see if there was a work-around to stop the app from auto-starting, but only found internet posts for how to get this app installed on phones that do not already have it. I asked AT&T. You can probably guess how that went: "Buy a data plan. You need it." was as far as I could get with the rep. (Just doing his job)

Have any of you ever had the opportunity to disable this 'always on' app? I'd love to tame it.

Thanks For Sharing Your Experience,
Paul

 

[electricpete]

I guess you tried settings/apps and there is no option to disable?

If rooted, you can freeze the app with titanium backup.

If not rooted, this app b below claims to work. I'm a little skeptical, but you never know..
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.inkwired.hideapps&hl=en

 

[PGB1213]

Thanks, Electricpete for taking time to reply with ideas. I appreciate your help!
Yep- I tried Settings & can't disable it there. (Nor can I disable the many ZTE apps that don't work). I'll look into the linked app you provided and experiment around. Thanks for providing it.

When I am more comfortable with Android in general, I probably will end up rooting the phone. There is a lot of stuff I'd like to do and am locked out of doing either by AT&T or ZTE. I guess I have used Mac computers so long that I am used to being in total control of my devices, so why not carry this mind-set over to the phone? So far, however, I like Android quite a bit and enjoy learning about it.

Enjoy This Day!
Paul

 

[Jfalls63]

Check in Settings - WiFi - Advanced and see if you have anything you can uncheck or turn off, like always scanning or other settings.

This is what it looks like on my Motorola.

 

[Jfalls63]

This is the Advanced WiFi menu on a AT&T S4.
I usually uncheck everything.