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AT&T Cracking Down on Unauthorized Tethering
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I disagree, "I broke the contract". At&t caused it by not offering tethering to me. LOL
They offer it to everyone else now except the GF in people. Its our way of fighting back, plus I do not go overboard on GB per month, people are posting using 10's of GB for streaming products without tether, I'm using way less.
At&t has no real logic in this only that's its a case of money. Money that At&t loses on Unlimited plans.
That is the point that so many of you are missing, its money.
At&t doesn't want to let those of us on the Unlimited plan they use to keep us have any other "freebie"
Yet when you look at the 2+2 plan
2gb Data is $25
each additional GB is $10
If you choose tethering its $20 with an additional 2gb
My math says this is the same price per GB they charge if you go over the 2gb plan
so hence Tethering is FREE! Easy to understand and calculate.
Tethering costs At&t nothing ( no matter how you argue this its nothing Data= Data your arguing that H2O frozen is not the same molecule as H2O liquid, mater is mater and Data is data.)
Look I can build a case if given time.
I feel At&t enjoys a witch hunt and likes to blame its shortcomings on others all the time. Its the 2% of high users fault for the poor system in some areas not At&t for having better equipment or more towers.
As I said At&t has no harm in this, so I've done nothing wrong as anybody else ( until a court says otherwise)
So I'm tired of this debate, Its good
Some think At&t is in the right and
Others think they are not
I'm with the people who think we should not just bend over and take it.
Tether
jail Break
Its our phones and we pay our bills, we should be able to do with it as we want!
Apple and At&t want to control it all..............
Absolutely FALSE.
Call AT&T right now and tell them that you are grandfathered in the unlimited data plan but you want tethering now. You will have no problem switching at all!
Tethering costs AT&T in the form of higher network strain. The assumption is that users tethering on a device will tend towards higher average usage. Since Data = Data, if AT&T has a goal of reducing data usage, cracking down on tethering can be considered "low hanging fruit". They don't need to alter existing terms to allow crack down on it.
Whether they should allow tethering on the metered plans is really an unrelated question. It's also much more difficult to implement since it requires a TOS modification. Carriers are likely hesitant to modify existing TOS since it can lead to invalidating contracts. Like I said before, I wouldn't be surprised to see this restriction removed from the 4G data TOS.
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No not really, tethering is allowed on all current plans when you sign for service.
Unlimited is Grandfathered so its a limited number of people, but will grow this year due to T Mobile has Unlimited plans ( watch out T Mobile customers).
Many tether with T Mobile now so this will get interesting soon.
So what? Its an assumption and simple to police, you police high users, ones using an unreasonable amount of data.
Look you can't have it both ways
Unlimited
People using 50gb a month streaming without Tethering
then policing tethering with a reason of High usage.......
Its inconsistent and points to what I said, they charge for something and want the money.
Logically they can't go after Unlimited for using 50Gb streaming without tether but they can go after high usage with tethering and get the higher fees............but the reason will be high use? Tethering will always use more GB? More Data? It does not make sense and I cannot accept it as answer.
I have read all the posts on Packet sniffing what ever bottom line is usage and money
The usage argument has many holes in it.
The money issue can be easily proven.
And thats my stance.
EXACTLY!!! You are starting to figure it out... "you can't have it both ways". You either keep your grandfathered in plan -OR- You switch to a plan that allows authorized tethering.
"UPDATE
I’ve received a reply from AT&T, and they are basically just trying to keep everything fair for their customers (those who are actually paying for tethering):
We’ve just begun sending letters, emails, and text messages to a small number of smartphone customers who use their devices for tethering but aren’t on our required tethering plan.* Our goal here is fairness for all of our customers.* (This impacts a only small percentage of our smartphone customer base.)
*
The letter outlines three choices:
1) Stop tethering and keep their current plan (including grandfathered unlimited plan)
2) Proactively call AT&T or visit our stores and move to the required tethering plan
3) Do nothing and we’ll go ahead and add the tethering plan on their behalf — after the dated noted in their customer notification.
I then asked if AT&T had a way for checking if someone is using tethering, and here’s the reply:
The ability to manage our network and enforce our policies enhances the quality and consistency of the customer experience; this is nothing new.* In this case, our network is able to determine if a smartphone customer is using the device as a broadband connection for other devices."
I’ve received a reply from AT&T, and they are basically just trying to keep everything fair for their customers (those who are actually paying for tethering):
We’ve just begun sending letters, emails, and text messages to a small number of smartphone customers who use their devices for tethering but aren’t on our required tethering plan.* Our goal here is fairness for all of our customers.* (This impacts a only small percentage of our smartphone customer base.)
*
The letter outlines three choices:
1) Stop tethering and keep their current plan (including grandfathered unlimited plan)
2) Proactively call AT&T or visit our stores and move to the required tethering plan
3) Do nothing and we’ll go ahead and add the tethering plan on their behalf — after the dated noted in their customer notification.
I then asked if AT&T had a way for checking if someone is using tethering, and here’s the reply:
The ability to manage our network and enforce our policies enhances the quality and consistency of the customer experience; this is nothing new.* In this case, our network is able to determine if a smartphone customer is using the device as a broadband connection for other devices."
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you're missing the point, tethering is a high margin service aimed mostly at business users. anything aimed at business users always costs more.
i get a telecom newsletter in my email and a year or so ago it said carriers were still trying to figure out what the razors and the blades were in the new business model. tethering is like the razor blades.
everything else is just break even, tethering and the ipad/business 3G services are where the profits come from which is why they started to crack down on it
it's like going large on fast food. you get a few pennies worth of potatoes, salt and sugar water for an extra $.50 or whatever the price is. or why a tall starbucks is $1.50 and a venti is $2.40
i get a telecom newsletter in my email and a year or so ago it said carriers were still trying to figure out what the razors and the blades were in the new business model. tethering is like the razor blades.
everything else is just break even, tethering and the ipad/business 3G services are where the profits come from which is why they started to crack down on it
it's like going large on fast food. you get a few pennies worth of potatoes, salt and sugar water for an extra $.50 or whatever the price is. or why a tall starbucks is $1.50 and a venti is $2.40
They can't directly police high volume users so long as they are abiding by their terms of service.
Tethering, on the other hand, is outside of your TOS; therefore this is something that can be policed.
And yet I feel your missing the point, tethering costs nothing, its a function.
If I have unlimited Data it does not matter if I tether or not Data=Data
IF I do not not use high data then your argument is moot, nothing is protected.
Thats my point and even At&t knows this, they do not want people on true unlimited plans. Thats the point.
Getting tired of repeating everything in 10 different ways, this is the point and the truth.
Fairness as the letter above says has nothing to do with it since it will never be fair I have unlimited data and others cannot have it. At&t is full of crap!
This is crap:
This is crap, to be fair they should allow us to pay a fee so we can tether.
They wont because they do not want us on unlimited.
I expected this kind of skillful worded letter, its crap and should be understood as such.
Is it Fair that I have unlimited and my son who signs up for an Iphone tomorrow can't have it? No
Fair has nothing to do with deals.
At&t gave me a deal once and now wants to short change me and not give me tethering without weaseling out of the deal..............
I have Tetherme going, which so far no one has been detected that I know of yet.
ANd no I do not use more then 3 to 5gb a month I'm not a high user.
Agreed. But there is little that they can about it, outside of enforcing the TOS.
This in incongruous with your initial point of Data=Data.
And yet I feel your missing the point, tethering costs nothing, its a function.
If I have unlimited Data it does not matter if I tether or not Data=Data
IF I do not not use high data then your argument is moot, nothing is protected.
Thats my point and even At&t knows this, they do not want people on true unlimited plans. Thats the point.
Getting tired of repeating everything in 10 different ways, this is the point and the truth.
Fairness as the letter above says has nothing to do with it since it will never be fair I have unlimited data and others cannot have it. At&t is full of crap!
This is crap:
This is crap, to be fair they should allow us to pay a fee so we can tether.
They wont because they do not want us on unlimited.
I expected this kind of skillful worded letter, its crap and should be understood as such.
Is it Fair that I have unlimited and my son who signs up for an Iphone tomorrow can't have it? No
Fair has nothing to do with deals.
At&t gave me a deal once and now wants to short change me and not give me tethering without weaseling out of the deal..............
I have Tetherme going, which so far no one has been detected that I know of yet.
ANd no I do not use more then 3 to 5gb a month I'm not a high user.
Great way to show your children how to "Beat the System". I'm sure they are very proud!
I feel I'm doing nothing wrong, I'm using Data I pay for Sir.
No different then having WFI at home, this too was not allowed at one time, Just like you could only hook up one TV to cable or satellite per account, oh how we forget!
Just wondering how they are monitoring this. How do they know if you are tethering? I average 6-8GB a month in data usage. I never use Wi-Fi because TWC sucks in NYC and have been streaming videos to my iPhone over 3G. I tether once in awhile to my Dell Streak, but not enough to stir up a red flag. Am I going to get this message?
If you "Feel" like your not doing anything wrong, then you shouldn't feel the need to explain or justify. Especially 21 pages of comments.
Hey now - I got into deep packet sniffing but ended up checking myself into rehab. Let me tell you, it's definitely not legal!
facts
so much useless jabber here ...
any who. got 3GS w/ 3.2.1 on it (before you laugh ...) still tethering off mywi & bluetooth carrier hack for the past 4 days since ATT started "cracking down" ... NO problems! no f&ck u txt from yAckTT
anybody with iPhone 4 iOS 4.2 got cease txt from those bastards ?
so much useless jabber here ...
any who. got 3GS w/ 3.2.1 on it (before you laugh ...) still tethering off mywi & bluetooth carrier hack for the past 4 days since ATT started "cracking down" ... NO problems! no f&ck u txt from yAckTT
anybody with iPhone 4 iOS 4.2 got cease txt from those bastards ?
Fair!? I live in a rural area and pay for 3G service but get Edge. We have one AT&T tower for the town. When that goes down (every couple of months) everybody with AT&T loses all service. How is AT&T being "fair" to this customer. The word is greedy.
p.s. When 100 visitors come to town with iPhones for a local event, the whole thing shuts down. No data and most calls go to vm.
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rkahl- who the ****** are you dude- AT&T's shining white knight protector of all that is good and right?
You act like you have the inside line on everything going on at AT&T just cuz you got a damn email. Seriously- you have no idea who is at risk, how hard they are cracking down, what data they have- any of that. If they have it, good for them..if not...good for them. Why are you so worried about anyone out there trying to "beat the system" as you love to say?
Something tells me you would have been saying the same garbage back when the music and movie companies 'cracked down' on downloads of copyrighted material. Yeah- that was pretty successful wasn't it. Everyone who has ever downloaded a movie or song is now in jail or paying fines through the nose huh...nobody ever does that anymore, lol.
You act like you have the inside line on everything going on at AT&T just cuz you got a damn email. Seriously- you have no idea who is at risk, how hard they are cracking down, what data they have- any of that. If they have it, good for them..if not...good for them. Why are you so worried about anyone out there trying to "beat the system" as you love to say?
Something tells me you would have been saying the same garbage back when the music and movie companies 'cracked down' on downloads of copyrighted material. Yeah- that was pretty successful wasn't it. Everyone who has ever downloaded a movie or song is now in jail or paying fines through the nose huh...nobody ever does that anymore, lol.
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If you are talking about this email, I copied this email from another forum mentioning the same topic. Hence my edit at the bottom...
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Theives
It's fun to watch thieves complain. AT&T did not hide their requirements. YOU KNOW you are bypassing what you agreed to, and are taking something you are intentionally not paying for. If you don't like the price of a service, say having your heater fixed, if you use their service, and then just don't pay for it, you get sued, you get reported, you get in trouble, they garnish your taxes. Why old you expect anything different because you didn't ask first?
Furthermore, detecting what kind of data is going through their networks. They can see for instance, if the type of device that originated the request, say, a Laptop running Google Chrome on Windows 7, or an iPhone 3,1, running mobile Safari. They also can simply look at the content that is delivered. If requests are sent to sites that have a mobile version, and they are always sending the desktop version of their page, this is a pretty good indication.
If you even remotely understand how the web collects data, they do not have to do anything special to any device to 'track' dishonest behavior, the data they need to look at is already there. It's been there for years, even before they offered any tethering whatsoever, this is how websites know what kind of content to deliver to your device.
Why don't thieves win? because they are stupid. If they were smart, they would not behave like thieves.
It's fun to watch thieves complain. AT&T did not hide their requirements. YOU KNOW you are bypassing what you agreed to, and are taking something you are intentionally not paying for. If you don't like the price of a service, say having your heater fixed, if you use their service, and then just don't pay for it, you get sued, you get reported, you get in trouble, they garnish your taxes. Why old you expect anything different because you didn't ask first?
Furthermore, detecting what kind of data is going through their networks. They can see for instance, if the type of device that originated the request, say, a Laptop running Google Chrome on Windows 7, or an iPhone 3,1, running mobile Safari. They also can simply look at the content that is delivered. If requests are sent to sites that have a mobile version, and they are always sending the desktop version of their page, this is a pretty good indication.
If you even remotely understand how the web collects data, they do not have to do anything special to any device to 'track' dishonest behavior, the data they need to look at is already there. It's been there for years, even before they offered any tethering whatsoever, this is how websites know what kind of content to deliver to your device.
Why don't thieves win? because they are stupid. If they were smart, they would not behave like thieves.
So far, VZW has that limit on their USB based modems. The separate MyFi devices might be unlimited. Since they haven't actually gotten to the stores, we don't know for sure. I did mention that Verizon has to offer that in my previous post.
I think he is just saying that if AT&T is sending this text/email out to high volume data users, then they aren't doing any real investigating for tethering violators.
Can AT&T tell the difference between someone tethering to a computer or laptop running Firefox or a jailbroken iPhone running User Agent Faker saying that it's Firefox 3.6? I hate that some websites don't even have a location to switch to the full version.
Mifi is NOT unlimited. They wanted to upgrade a line I was canceling. They had the 1,3,5 and 10 gb options
I guess that's why hundreds of thousands of people still download all their music and movies and nothing has happened to them... lookout for the CRACKDOWN!!!!!!!oneoneeleven!
come on dude- get what you can, how you can. It's the American way...and these corporations everyone wants to defend... those are the one who taught us that mentality
I agree AT&T is 100% in the right on doing whatever they can to stop it. The thing is- I just don't care. They will try to stop it, and people will come up with a new way to circumvent. Good luck to both sides and let the games continue!