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Do you think tethering without a carrier tethering plan is immoral?

Do you think tethering without a carrier tethering plan is immoral?

  • Yes, tethering without a carrier tethering plan is immoral

    Votes: 35 12.9%

  • No, tethering without a carrier tethering plan is not immoral

    Votes: 237 87.1%
  • Total voters
    272
KJmoon117 said:
I think it's unethical for carriers to even have a tethering plan.

It's my data that I paid for and it's my phone's function that I bought, what difference does it make to the carrier?
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I'll explain it to you.

The carrier offers a deal. The carrier estimates what the average cost of that deal will be, and sets the price accordingly. Usually, the carrier offers a choice of different deals, and they will have different costs and therefore different prices. Each deal will attract some set of customers.

Now a carrier might offer two deals: Unlimited without tethering, and unlimited with tethering. They cost different amounts of money. Why? Because people on a "without tethering" plan use less data on average than the people on a "with tethering" plan. Tthe cost to the carrier depends on the _average_ use of all users on that plan, and so does the price that is set. People on the "with tethering" plan will use more data on average so the cost is higher.

If you use the "without tethering" plan and tether, then you are likely to use more bandwidth than the average. Therefore, you increase the cost for the carrier. Therefore, the price goes up. So you are punishing all the people who don't tether, because they are going to pay for the additional data that you will use by tethering.
 
gnasher729 said:
I'll explain it to you.

The carrier offers a deal. The carrier estimates what the average cost of that deal will be, and sets the price accordingly. Usually, the carrier offers a choice of different deals, and they will have different costs and therefore different prices. Each deal will attract some set of customers.

Now a carrier might offer two deals: Unlimited without tethering, and unlimited with tethering. They cost different amounts of money. Why? Because people on a "without tethering" plan use less data on average than the people on a "with tethering" plan. Tthe cost to the carrier depends on the _average_ use of all users on that plan, and so does the price that is set. People on the "with tethering" plan will use more data on average so the cost is higher.

If you use the "without tethering" plan and tether, then you are likely to use more bandwidth than the average. Therefore, you increase the cost for the carrier. Therefore, the price goes up. So you are punishing all the people who don't tether, because they are going to pay for the additional data that you will use by tethering.
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Yes but this is only the case if you have an unlimited amount of bandwidth.

If you have let's say 2GB a month. Then what difference does it make if I decide to tether or not? Regardless one way or another I will spend the 2GB of data.

Before for Verizon, they charged us $20 a month to have the wireless hotspot functionality enabled on our phones. Now they are giving it to us for free while raising the price by $10 from the old base plan ($90). It really doesn't cost these carriers much to allow tethering on a limited data plan.

It's just a way for carriers to milk the **** out of someone who NEEDS to tether because what other options do people have other than jailbreak?
 
WhoisMedina said:
Agree but you signed a contract that goes against it.
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just to be devil's advocate, if the contract in itself is immoral, than it is not immoral to go against it necessarily. So really, signing a contract is not morally bound, only legally, and even then not in all cases. ie you sign a contract that says you have to kill a baby. If you go against it, then you are not being immoral. So if the terms of the contract are wholly unfair for one party...
 
Not immoral. The manner in which you use the data that you pay for should be immaterial.

I would like the people who say it's against the law to produce the law that states this. It may be against the carriers' rules but not against the law. I don't recall seeing anything in my VZ contract saying that tethering is not allowed, just that when I go to activate it on my phone I have to contact VZ.

BTW who'd want to use their painfully slooooooooow 4 or 4s to tether (at least on VZ)? Why not use dialup??? :rolleyes:
 
It's not illegal, it's a violation of your contract with your service provider.

They catch you, they bill you for services you have not been paying for, or they cancel your service.

It's that simple.

Don't like their contract terms? Don't do business with them.

It is not your right to steal services from them because you don't like your contract terms.
 
thewitt said:
It's not illegal, it's a violation of your contract with your service provider.

They catch you, they bill you for services you have not been paying for, or they cancel your service.

It's that simple.

Don't like their contract terms? Don't do business with them.

It is not your right to steal services from them because you don't like your contract terms.
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I think it is in the providers best interest to make tethering as attractive as possible to lure people away from illegal tethering. It's good for business. It's way too easy to tether via jail breaking. The good tether apps are fairly cheap. If there is a data cap for some customers, then tethering should be free since they are paying for a set amount of data per month regardless of what device they are using for. For those of us with unlimited plans, it's not so simple, but it's the providers fault for promising unlimited data that they now can't handle or don't feel like providing anymore just because it eats into their already massive profits.

Remember that they can change the terms of the contract at any time for their best interests, so why is it that we have no say besides leaving the contract, except we are charged a termination fee? Jailbreaking and less than legal methods is the elephant in the room that they should deal with. Already, heavy users with unlimited are getting throttled. If that is the price they pay for their unlimited data, then why should it matter to the providers how they obtain the data besides the fact that they see potential profit slip away? In other words, stop screwing the customers over with the bait and switch on so-called unlimited plans, and make it attractive enough that they don't feel so ready to strike back.
 
VZ does not explicitly say NO TETHERING. The T's & C's say that you may not use to your mobile device to commit fraud, run a botnet, or commit copy write infringement. They never mention tethering in the prohibited uses.
 
Last October our area was hit by early snow. It created chaos. No electricity, no internet. I spent a week without internet and I was lied everyday that they will fix it. Do you think I saw credit for those days on my bill? Of course not.
 
sentinelsx said:
Not immoral. Although illegal for sure (contract violation).
Click to expand...

Violating a contract is not "illegal".

----------
thewitt said:
It's not illegal, it's a violation of your contract with your service provider.

They catch you, they bill you for services you have not been paying for, or they cancel your service.

It's that simple.

Don't like their contract terms? Don't do business with them.

It is not your right to steal services from them because you don't like your contract terms.
Click to expand...

2 questions:

1. How do I negotiate a contract when all providers have the same terms?
2. What is being "stolen"? I'm paying for the data, they are just restricting how I can use it.

It's like a newspaper company saying "We'll sell you a paper, but all you can do is read it. If your going to use it to start your fireplace, light your charcoal, or line the bird cage, were going to have to charge you more."
 
No I don't consider it immoral, but then we all have different opinions and morals so that will cause this thread to go on forever.

I jailbrake my phones just so I can tether my iPhone to an iPad and PC when needed. I don't download gobs of data or raise any flags and have never been busted or what not. Don't care either.

I pay for an unlimited plan that I've been grandfathered into and don't care that AT&T permits it or not. I pay for data period, what device I use shouldn't matter. AGain, I don't care what the agreement I have no means of altering says.

Even just today I called to inquire about doing it via a paid plan but they are rediculous in it's requirements. I would have to give up my $30/mo. unlimited grandfathered plan. NO WAY. Also, it's $50/mo !! for some rediculously limited amount of data. How's that even remotely worth it.

No thanks, I'll continue to JB and not only tether without issue but add in a ton of other features that Apple and AT&T won't allow such as call blocking, etc....

I sleep just fine too.
 
The ways that the Carriers gouge their customers and stifle the creativity of the phone manufacturers is insane. According to a contract it may not be legal to do so but I would feel absolutely NO remorse for tethering without a contract.
 
Still thinking about it.

If EVERYBODY tethered, would the wireless infrastructure cope, with zero impact on anyone else? Anybody know the answer?
 
Do you think it's immoral when I call the carrier and tell them the 3g (internet) is down in my area and they tell me we don't promise internet everywhere just because they can't figure out the problem. Yes, the story is longer and happened over many calls but just because they couldn't find out the problem they are going to tell me that internet is not provided everywhere. Now this everywhere is in the middle of a big city and had been going on for a month when that spot previously had some of the fastest internet connections.

That is just one issue, I pretty much had the same issue in my neighborhood except is wouldn't make phone calls. That lasted a month too. Operators denied, denied, denied there were issues in my neighborhood but finally I talked to someone that would tell the truth and told me it was a big issue for a mile radius around my house and had tons of reports.

So to summ it up they will try to deceive you too!!! that would be AT&T. Other than that I have had great service and fast internet but it shows they are told to lie to you.
 
Beenblacklisted said:
What if you turn your phone into a hotspot and then use phone as a wifi on your comp still immoral?
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why would what device I apply the data I paid for impact the decision?

the way I see it, I pay for a data plan that's linked to my phone and it's use to bring down bits and bites. I think it's bull....that AT&T wants to limit me from using it to make this post (which I'm tethered now) from my iPad vs just making this post from my phone.

What's next are they going to charge users additional to drive their cell phones and ipads off their home internet service?
 
Nope. You are already playing the carriers so much. You should be able to use that data for whatever.
 
Technarchy said:
If someone sells something and you take it without paying for it that's theft.

Theft is immoral.

No this does not mean the carriers are not scumbags.
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This has absolutely nothing to do with theft, or something similar to theft.
 
Do I think so? No, especially if you have limited data.

What do I think if you do it? Yes, it's unethical since you signed a contract.
 
gnasher729 said:
I'll explain it to you.

The carrier offers a deal. The carrier estimates what the average cost of that deal will be, and sets the price accordingly. Usually, the carrier offers a choice of different deals, and they will have different costs and therefore different prices. Each deal will attract some set of customers.

Now a carrier might offer two deals: Unlimited without tethering, and unlimited with tethering. They cost different amounts of money. Why? Because people on a "without tethering" plan use less data on average than the people on a "with tethering" plan. Tthe cost to the carrier depends on the _average_ use of all users on that plan, and so does the price that is set. People on the "with tethering" plan will use more data on average so the cost is higher.

If you use the "without tethering" plan and tether, then you are likely to use more bandwidth than the average. Therefore, you increase the cost for the carrier. Therefore, the price goes up. So you are punishing all the people who don't tether, because they are going to pay for the additional data that you will use by tethering.
Click to expand...

There is one little thing wrong with your argument. The cost to the carrier does not depend on how much data you use. The marginal cost of an additional megabyte is in most cases zero. The reason is that at the top level the large telcos are not paying for usage as much as they are paying for capacity. At some point when the capacity is reached but the user wants more bits and wants them now, the marginal cost becomes millions of dollars - upgrading large scale infrastructure is not cheap. So while individual user's data usage is related to the total costs to the operator, the relation is far from straight forward and is very indirect.

In short, they are not charging anyone based on their actual costs - they are just trying to come up with highest prices they can get away with. The data caps and tethering restrictions are just smoke and mirrors to try to convince some people to pay more than others for essentially the same thing.
 
If you have limited data then its a little unethical, but if u have sprint or any other unlimited company, i don't even think there're none left, then its ok. Think about it, if you have a 3GB data plan, would you wanna waste your data on tethering?
 
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