A mobile Hotspot is a device that includes a modem for wide area mobile broadband access and a Hotspot Access Point to distribute the internet to local client devices over a local area network such as Wi-Fi. Some of the local client devices may have mobile broadband capability of their own but may use the internet service from the mobile Hotspot when connected to it. In that case the client device may still need to maintain the communication link with the wide area mobile broadband network even when not actively using its services. A method and apparatus are disclosed that enable a mobile Hotspot to maintain the communication link with the wide area mobile broadband network on behalf of the client device. This may enable the client device with mobile broadband connection capability to reduce its power consumption.