Verizon unlimited plan hotspot = $30 unlimited 4g hotspot

I just got off the phone with Verizon. I had explained I have an unlimited plan and preordered the ip5 outright but was curious how much hotspot would cost and for how much data?

He put me on hold and when he got back he said hotspot will cost $30 and because the ip5 is 4g its unlimited.


Yay!

mpossoff said:

Don't you have to pay full retail to keep it?

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Yep, I bought the ip5 outright. (Full retail price)

I use about 7, 8gb a month and after including my wife's ip4s and my iPad 3(why I want hotspot) in the shared plan it wouldn't be worth it. I'd be paying an extra $20 a month for 6GB for three devices. That's 2gb for each device a month. :-|

iTalk said:

I remember reading somewhere that it was $20 per month. Also, I wonder when they will start to throttle speeds for us UDP grandpas

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Hopefully never. And I hope cust rep was wrong and is $20. That'd be nice.

mpossoff said:

Don't you have to pay full retail to keep it?

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But I also sold my ip4s to amazon for $420. And I use amazon all the time so what I did was when I used the money from my tradein on amazon I'd transfer the same amount from my checking to my credit card.

So really my ip5 32gb was really $380. Almost as much as the 2 year contract subsidized pricing scheme. $80 bucks extra but that to me is worth keeping unlimited. Now lets hope they don't pull off an AT&T and throttle unlimited after so much GB is used.

We will see.

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einmusiker said:

I think there is language in the legalese of verizon's purchase of the LTE bandwith that prevents them from throttling the data. It's a beautiful thing. They also aren't supposed to be charging for hotspot that goes against their contract so they are ripping the OP off on that $30 charge

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I thought that was for third party hotspot apps they couldn't charge. (Jailbreak anyone?)

kilj0y said:

On 3G, for those with unlimited 4g data, if they see you using a third party tether and not paying them they could technically drop your unlimited and force you to a data share plan.

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http://venturebeat.com/2012/07/31/verizon-fcc-tethering-settlement/


"In a double-whammy for Verizon, the Federal Communications Commission announced today that the carrier must let its customers use third-party apps to turn their phones into mobile hotspots, and Verizon will also have to pay a $1.25 million fee to settle with the FCC over blocking the tethering apps so far.

Verizon Wireless charges customers $20 a month to use the mobile hotspot feature on their phone, which allows them to share Internet access with other devices. But plenty of Android apps, like PDANet, also do the same thing for free, and it wasn’t too long before Verizon decided to clamp down. The FCC found that Verizon ultimately couldn’t block the tethering apps, since it acquired 700 MHz spectrum for its 4G LTE network in 2008 that required it to maintain an open network."

jbromer said:

Same article, 2 paragraphs down:


"Verizon will still be allowed to charge for tethering on customers with grandfathered unlimited data accounts (but since it can’t detect the tethering apps anymore, that doesn’t really matter.) Verizon’s recent tiered data plans already include free tethering, so the carrier likely saw this settlement coming for a while. The news mainly affects Android, as iOS and Windows Phone don’t have legitimate third-party tethering apps in their app stores."

So it sounds like if they can figure out you are tethering, they can charge you? I'm confused...

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At one time android had legit tethering apps on its market for sell. Then the carriers got involved and had them removed as oppose to iOS, apple never allowed tethering apps on its appstore but you can jailbreaking which it in itself isn't illegal but isn't common among the main stream users. Notice they didn't bring anything up for androids roms cyanogen which could work around the tethering on phones.

I think that is why its worded that way. Honestly verizon probably won't do anything (tethering for free via jailbreak). I currently have my phones sim in my iPad 3 and hotspot whenever I want for free. And to be frank I want to think that will be the same for ip5 but I'm not exactly getting my hopes up lol.

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jbromer said:

Have looked into this some more.

The bottom line is: Verizon seems to have gotten it cleared that the FCC agreement does not apply to the grandfathered plans. They can no longer ask the App store to block tethering apps, but that doesn't really matter, since Apple doesn't allow them anyway.

Bottom line: if you keep unlimited data, you either: 1) pay $20 or $30 (not sure which) to tether, or 2) jailbreak, and fly under the radar as people have always done...

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I complete agree with you on this.

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Lol so really how much do you think a tethering app really is?


$20 or $30 a month or a one time $20 fee via cydia lol.

bogatyr said:

Just to clear it up: tethering is 30/mo not 20/mo.

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I remember it being $20 a month with my ip4s but the ip5 is LTE it might be $30 now. The rep told me $30 a month but let see what happens when we have it in our hands.

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CheesyTators said:

This....It is $30/mo for unlimited 4G tethering if you're on a grandfathered unlimited plan and have a 4G phone. I just added this to my account today to make sure I have it when my iPhone arrives, in case they decide to end the promo.

I will gladly pay $30/mo for unlimited tethering when I use as much as 20Gb/mo with it. I'd rather not risk having my bill all jacked up by using a 3rd party app under the radar and getting caught. This is just my personal choice and I realize not everyone will feel the same way.

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You have a good point, I never thought about "What if verizon jacks the price up on their hotspot to scare people away from their unlimited plans into shared."

Good point

jbromer said:

Exactly right, they can just discontinue this if they want...



With my 22% discount, this is actually a very good deal. I was already going to downgrade my minutes from 1400 to 700 - this will then only add 7 or 8 bucks a month...

With wifi in a hotel or airport charging at least 10 bucks a night, this pays for itself. Done.

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Are you guys getting corporate discounts? I'm in the Navy and wonder if I can get a discount on hotspot as well.

PhoenixMac said:

Military discount is 15%. 12% for hotspot feature though.

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Thanks PhoenixMac!