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Jailbreak hotspot-ers: AT&T is moving you to a tiered data plan involuntarily

Jailbreak hotspot-ers: AT&T is moving you to a tiered data plan involuntarily:

http://9to5mac.com/2011/08/04/jailb...move-you-to-a-tiered-data-plan-involuntarily/


We’ve gotten word from some readers that AT&T is moving forward and removing unlimited plans for users who jailbreak iPhones to tether or hotspot off of AT&T’s unlimited data plans (for those grandfathered):

I was just informed that as of Thursday August 11th 2011, if you use MyWi or any tethering on the phone or using the phone as a modem, AT&T will automatically change ur unlimited plan to a 2Gb tethering plan for 45 dollars without the customers consent. This is for those who received emails or texts about the use of tethering without an AT&T tethering plan.

An AT&T spokesperson has confirmed this, but not August 11th as a hard cutoff date, saying:

Earlier this year, we began 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 letters outline 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

Is this fair of AT&T? Well, it is certainly fair that people pay for the data that they are using and unlimited tethering turns your iPhone into a data sucking monster. AT&T’s service to others is obviously affected, so they have to do something about it and this seems like a reasonable solution. The obvious retort is that some may have purchased their unlimited plans back when unlimited really meant unlimited, jailbroken or not.

The matter doesn’t appear up for debate however. MiWi users: get your free data this week and hope AT&T doesn’t decide to move you over early.
 
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Oh, well, the free ride couldn't last forever.
 
if people are abusing this then I guess att is doing the right thing...

Don't you require a signature for a new contract? I'm sure a company can't put me on an other contract without my signature or approval?

If AT&T would put me an other contract, I'll simply transfer my money from my bank account to an other account. Good luck withdrawing money from an empty account :D
 
Don't you require a signature for a new contract? I'm sure a company can't put me on an other contract without my signature or approval?

If AT&T would put me an other contract, I'll simply transfer my money from my bank account to an other account. Good luck withdrawing money from an empty account :D

well you might want to read your terms of agreement carefully.
 
Sucks for people who don't abuse it. You can thank the selfish idiots who tether their phone to their computer while they sleep as they download torrents of every episode of Scrubs to watch on the bus ride to the unemployment office.


Not the early good seasons too, the **** new ones that make you wanna slam your tongue in the front door.
 
Sucks for people who don't abuse it. You can thank the selfish idiots who tether their phone to their computer while they sleep as they download torrents of every episode of Scrubs to watch on the bus ride to the unemployment office.


Not the early good seasons too, the **** new ones that make you wanna slam your tongue in the front door.

LoL I felt the same way about scrubs. After season 3/4 it just started going downhill fast :(

Guess its 200mb for me from now on. With 15% student discount on a 550 minute family plan it comes to just $30/month I'm paying for my iPhone compared to $43 with "unlimited" data...
 
Sucks for people who don't abuse it. You can thank the selfish idiots who tether their phone to their computer while they sleep as they download torrents of every episode of Scrubs to watch on the bus ride to the unemployment office.


Not the early good seasons too, the **** new ones that make you wanna slam your tongue in the front door.

I like that comment!
 
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apollo1444 said:
if people are abusing this then I guess att is doing the right thing...

Yup
 
So does that mean they're only changing unlimited plans to tiered plans for those who've receive notices?

I don't tether much at all, but my AT&T DSL was just down for about 2 hours and I was reading forums, making a few email replies, and whatnot and decided to use MyWi for the first time in months. I only used about 3.4 MBs after that timeframe (which boggled my time because I visited many sites but no streaming), so that's not much at all. I'm hoping this is minuscule and I'm targeted with a message.

I can't justify having a tethering plan for these ratites, as I absolutely would never use tethering (or my unlimited plan for that matter) to download huge files or torrents because, in addition to me loving my battery life, I'm all for making sure others actually have access to the network. You never know when an important call/text/etc. would need to get through and wouldn't because someone's tying up the network. If I'm completely off-base with this sentiment (if AT&T towers differentiate and allocate calls/texts/data accordingly, so to speak) then I suppose that train of thought is silly. But, I like to still think in those terms.
 
They have given fair warning and sent out notices.

I occasionally tether with the HandyLight app, which still works great with iOS 4 and OS X Lion. I never use much data at all and usually just for a few minutes.

It's one thing to use a ton of data on your phone: you're paying for unlimited data and I am against caps or throttling for that. But you are not paying for tethering.
 
So many sheeple on these boards. The FAIR way is to charge users for the amount of data they transfer and not worry about whether the packets are going through to another device (via tethering) or not.

AT&T doesn't do this because they like being able to charge you twice for the same amount of data.
 
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