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AT&T to force Hotspot users, on Jailbroken devices to Tiered pricing
- Thread starter pugnut
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Is AT&T only going after people on Unlimited plans? I have a 2GB plan and tether a couple of times a month and never go over my limit. I'm usually around 1.5-1.75. Should I be concerned?
I wonder about this myself.
Like, if I have a 2gb data plan, tether, get caught, and they switch me to the $45 data plan... can I just call up and switch it back to the 2gb?
Common sense tells me that I couldn't but I also wonder if an ATT rep would actually say "no, your stuck on a $45 plan and there is no way to switch it back to the $25 plan"
Either calling to switch back or simply going into an ATT store and have a sales guy switch it back to the $25 data plan.
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There is no telling. AT&T is going after the unlimited plans first because there is no contractual recourse if people on those plans pull down multiple gigabytes of data.
If you go over, then you get charged per megabyte for extra data.... so AT&T still gets paid one way or the other.
Am I the only psychopath who is still on 3.1.3? I haven't gotten a single text or email about my tethering yet, I'm wondering if it's only on 4.x firmwares?
I don't tether too much anymore, usually only when I get a broken link because the identified browser is mobile safari and the webpage won't open..
I don't tether too much anymore, usually only when I get a broken link because the identified browser is mobile safari and the webpage won't open..
Wow, why haven't you upgraded? Just curious....
I only tether when I have to be in a different office for work and don't have access to a network cable and/or drop. I'm an IT contractor and my curretn client still doesn't have a wireless network.
I only tether when I have to be in a different office for work and don't have access to a network cable and/or drop. I'm an IT contractor and my curretn client still doesn't have a wireless network.
Your a wise man indeed. I had a suspicion that ATT's ability to find out if we were tethering was linked to iOS 4.
I find it pretty absurd that ATT could just force someone into a different kind of service without approval. Does anybody know if this would open the door for an early contract termination?
I have the unlimited data plan with my spouse. Together we use about 2GB of data monthly. 1.8GB being mine. I usually tether to my iPad four times a month - saturday nights when I'm traveling. I never got a notice. Once every few months I'll go over 5GB myself.
I find the experience of expensive, capped data to be quite ridiculous. Here's a device, the iPhone, which can do basically anything, but the experience is being damaged by the greed of a telephone company. $30 for unlimited is great. 40$ for unlimited is also great. What about $50?
If I were forced into watching how much data I can and cannot use monthly. I would be willing to cancel my contract and give up the iPhone. How many users abandoning their iPhones and their contracts would it take for carriers to change their game?
I have the unlimited data plan with my spouse. Together we use about 2GB of data monthly. 1.8GB being mine. I usually tether to my iPad four times a month - saturday nights when I'm traveling. I never got a notice. Once every few months I'll go over 5GB myself.
I find the experience of expensive, capped data to be quite ridiculous. Here's a device, the iPhone, which can do basically anything, but the experience is being damaged by the greed of a telephone company. $30 for unlimited is great. 40$ for unlimited is also great. What about $50?
If I were forced into watching how much data I can and cannot use monthly. I would be willing to cancel my contract and give up the iPhone. How many users abandoning their iPhones and their contracts would it take for carriers to change their game?
just curious, do Andriod users who activate tethering on their phones without paying extra get the txt and threats as well?
Huh, I would think that violating the terms of your contract would give them reason enough.
By tethering, without a tethering plan, you are violating your terms of service.
There are people that tether that ABUSE the ability and are basically clogging the network. Imagine driving on the highway and straddling two lanes and preventing drivers who want to "play by the rules" from passing and using the highway as intended. It doens't sound like you specifically are a problem but we've seen people brag that they're using 100 GB a month. That kind of use has an adverse effect on others ability to use the network. It's not specifically about AT&T or any provider trying to stick it to you but they want to catch those abusing the system.
I think AT&T should have unlimited plans that do allow tethering but they should make you pay for it. Data should be data whether the traffic is from my iPhone, iPad, iMac or any device. If I pay for a 2GB plan, let me use 2GB however I want to. Create plans for 5GB, 10GB, 25GB and Unlmited and let customers use their data the way they want to.
The most data I've used was 2.2GB during a single month when I moved and temporarily had no home internet connection. I was using handy light though and my phone was not jailbroken. I wonder if they can detect handylight use?
Lol that's terrible.
my ISP gives me 15mbps down... You're entering dial-up territory over there.
Blah Blah Blah...
I love how every time they make a change like this, it "only affects a small number of our customers". Just like the limited data plans are "good for the average user".
The bottom line is that they suckered subscribers in for years with the promise of this and that. Now that they have recruited a large number of people who are actually using the services, they realize that their infrastructure sucks, and that the only way to keep their network viable is to limit users.
THey should have never promised unlimited data if they could not support it. Tethering was not specifically restricted in the early days of most contracts, because it wasn't natively available on the device. Now apple provides an easy slider to enable it, and AT&T wants you to pay big bucks. It's all about greed, and milking the customer.
I'm still pissed about the bait and switch pulled with the iPad w/3G.
... off my soapbox.
I love how every time they make a change like this, it "only affects a small number of our customers". Just like the limited data plans are "good for the average user".
The bottom line is that they suckered subscribers in for years with the promise of this and that. Now that they have recruited a large number of people who are actually using the services, they realize that their infrastructure sucks, and that the only way to keep their network viable is to limit users.
THey should have never promised unlimited data if they could not support it. Tethering was not specifically restricted in the early days of most contracts, because it wasn't natively available on the device. Now apple provides an easy slider to enable it, and AT&T wants you to pay big bucks. It's all about greed, and milking the customer.
I'm still pissed about the bait and switch pulled with the iPad w/3G.
... off my soapbox.
This is exactly what I want to know. (My post from yesterday) I really don't think AT&T cares enough to do anything if you free-tether on a limited plan. It's the unlimited plan which can easily be abused that they want to kill. Being able to charge an extra $10 per GB overage fees is what they are after.
For those abusing the system I really have no sympathies. You had fun while it lasted.
They should just implement an tethering rate for those on unlimited data. That will get them to stop. Tethering abusers would hope that the rate wouldn't be the same as international data ... $20/MB.
My main issue with anything 4.X was that I hated having 20 apps in my "Quick switcher" (including Settings, who really needs Settings running in the background?!?), when with Backgrounder and Kirikae (jailbroken) I can decide what I want running in the background.
I also hated going to Settings>Sounds, then pressing home. If I went to Settings again, it would keep me still in the Sounds page, and I hated that. If it's fixed by now, I'll be less bummed when I have to get the next iPhone
Is it as traceable with a socks proxy? I have handy light on my unjailbroken iPhone, which I would like to use in those rare occasions where I need to. Will they crack down on me? I have already gotten a warning a while ago while my phone was jailbroken. But the thing is, I hadn't used mywi in 5 months when I got the warning from AT&T, so I'm afraid they are just going after people based off bandwidth consumption, and I download quite a bit, (I do lots of sling box and splashtop streaming).
Which is why --- when Netherlands became the first European country to enact net neutrality laws --- all three carriers promptly and drastically raise the price plans for data to become one of the MOST EXPENSIVE in Europe.
http://www.mobileguru.co.uk/blogs/2...et-neutrality-by-raising-mobile-data-tariffs/
This is what I'd like to know as I also occasionally use handylight. So far, all I've read is that only people who have jailbroken iPhones have encountered these warnings.
It doesn't seem to make sense that AT&T is only using data consumption to go after people it believes is tethering--since you could easily use several gigabytes of data in a month if you use netflix to watch movies while travelling. I think they may be cross referencing high data usage *and* are able to detect a jailbreak somehow. If both criteria are met, you get warned.
The market will bear what the market will bear. Net neutrality won't automatically or magically double the amount of traffic on wireless networks. The carriers raised fees in order to cover their position.
When people start dropping their data plans due to the higher prices, then the carriers will realize that they aren't making as much money and lower them accordingly.
Your current contract states no tethering allowed without buying a tethering plan. So if you are tethering you are already in violation of your side of the contract.
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Which is why net neutrality laws are not the panaceia everything thinks they will be. There is only so much bandwidth available. Currently providers use technical methods to try to control the amount of data used. If those are outlawed ("net neutrality") the only way to control the amount of data is by making it very expensive. Sure some people will drop to lower bandwidth plans but that is good since they will be using less data.
if something like net neutrality for wireless was enacted and all prices stayed the same the result would be a congested data spectrum that was useless to anybody.
Sometimes be careful what you wish for. Companies are not doing a lot of this to be mean, but because they need to manage a finite amount of bandwidth.