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ethical to use MyWi now on AT&T?

MikePA said:
Congrats on packing a lot of trite, irrelevancies into a single post, you must have thought you were on the Huffington Post.
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Was anything that I said untrue? And why are you - as a consumer who had no input into the contract that you signed - so quick to come to the defense of a multi-billion dollar corporation that will rape you for fees every chance it gets? If AT&T wanted to charge you 99 cents every time you turned on your iPhone, and they put it into the contract, would that be okay as well just because you signed the agreement? Does that make it "right"?

Just because it's in the contract doesn't mean it's fair, and just because you agreed to it doesn't make it right. If AT&T agrees to deliver 20 GB (or whatever) to my iPhone every month for a set fee, then what difference does it make to AT&T if that data goes to my iPhone or my MacBook Pro? It's still the same amount of data delivered over a cellular connection. Oh wait, now I know... it's different because AT&T can charge an extra fee for nothing more than a concept called "tethering". This is a pure profit center for AT&T and nothing more.

I won't cry over how much you people think AT&T is hurting over the egregious violations of their contracts and TOS by all of us unethical consumers who actually use our brains and take the time to peel back all the BS to see the truth. Try getting out of an AT&T contract when they unilaterally change the coverage in a particular area to be below what it was when you signed the agreement. See how far your ethics take you then.
 
llarson said:
I fall on the side that if you keep your old unlimited account you should pay for tethering and if you get the new 2gig you SHOULDNT HAVE TO PAY.

My two cents
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I totally agree with this. If AT&T want to cut back on the amount of people using tethering, they should give it away for free with the caveat being everyone will have a 2GB limit (or even 1GB). This would likely cut back on the data being used overall.

What they've done here will not cut back on people tethering. People (smart people, anyway) are not going to give up their limited data plan so they can legally pay for official tethering. And if they do, serves them right for being so dumb.
 
I pay for unlimited data and most of the time use less than a gig of data. I do tether sometimes, maybe 15 minutes a week or so. It's inconvenient to tether and normally is in situations where you just need the Internet real quick. I paid for unlimited data on my iPhone and I am using my iPhone when I connect to the Internet with my ipadmon the go. I am still limited by the iPhones battery life, reception, and having it around. Now if I wasn't having to deal with those limitations and was using the iPhone Internet for my iPad, I would see it unethical.
 
AZREOSpecialist said:
This is a pure profit center for AT&T and nothing more.
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True. So what? Companies are in business to make money, not run their business according to your definition of fairness. No one forced you to buy an iPhone or deal with ATT. You knew what the rules were when you signed up, including the right of ATT to change the plans when they wanted to. The simple solution is, go with another carrier.

This never ending whining by people who

1. Don't like the tethering charges.
2. Don't like the unsubsidized upgrade charges.
3. Don't like the data caps.

remind me of little kids in Toys R Us who stamp their feet and cry when they can't get the toy they want. Everyone who bought the iPhone, made the simple decision that the T's and C's were worth getting an iPhone. To then later start whining about it simply shows lack of maturity in dealing with adult decisions. Life is full of trade offs. This is a minor one.

Other people, when faced with this same situation, actually did something about it. They came up with jailbreaking, which does give people options, like MyWi and unlocking.

The other carriers don't offer better deals because they're nice guys, they do it to attract customers and make a profit. When the iPhone does go to other carriers, ATT will reap what it has sown.
 
Whether you want to break that contract is your choice, but make no mistake, going back on your promises (the contract you signed) is unethical.
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hahaha. ATT made offers of unlimited data, and then renigged.
Looks like 'contracts' aren't really what they're cracked up to be.

I pay for mobile data, how i use it is up to me. This would be an easy answer if someone found a way to 'steal' data from ATT without paying their $30/month. But we're all paying, a lot, and ATT is just going to have to deal with the millions we give them each month. Haha poor att.... i don't think so.
 
deenybird said:
hahaha. ATT made offers of unlimited data, and then renigged.
Looks like 'contracts' aren't really what they're cracked up to be.
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What? You don't even understand what ATT did.

I pay for mobile data, how i use it is up to me.
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No, that's just how you're justifying it. You pay for the services ATT grants you in the contract you signed, tethering is not one of those services. Period.
 
Badandy said:
You said it didn't matter ethically. You just have no ethics. You signed a contract that said you wouldn't tether. Whether you want to break that contract is your choice, but make no mistake, going back on your promises (the contract you signed) is unethical.
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i dont think att even cares. they offer me so many "free" services any how. probably cause my mom has not upgraded since 05 and dad since 07

hell my dad just blasted through 900 minutes on his own and went over our roll over and 700 min plan. att gave us 500 free mins just cause they love us.
 
Here's a question; are we even going to be able to get away with mywi tethering after the iPhone 4 comes out? I mean, tethering on a given wireless account can be easily identified if you look at the packets close enough. What if AT&T decides to start monitoring data usage for iPhone customers to make sure they have the $20 surcharge on their account?
 
mrblack927 said:
Here's a question; are we even going to be able to get away with mywi tethering after the iPhone 4 comes out? I mean, tethering on a given wireless account can be easily identified if you look at the packets close enough. What if AT&T decides to start monitoring data usage for iPhone customers to make sure they have the $20 surcharge on their account?
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I doubt they'll do it based on what they've done in the past, but they could always stick you with a big overage if they do find you.
 
My take on it was that it was fair game for AT&T to not allow tethering when it was an unlimited plan. It's kinda like when you go to an all you can eat buffet but they do limit what you can do (like you can't take food home, you can only stay for so long, you have to eat everything you put on your plate, other such stuff I've seen at all you can eat). It's all you can eat but they have to put some limits to make sure they still come out ahead (they are there to make money after all). I think it's reasonable for them to say it's an unlimited data for a phone (cause they can't handle unlimited data for a notebook and the plan was for the phone, not a notebook).

I think it would have been fair for them to charge extra to tether then. I think though they simply don't want to support the large amounts of data that some tethering can cause (people using it to game on like WoW for example).

But... now that they charge you per data (which I don't like but I can understand why), I think it's completely unfair they charge you extra to tether. You now have bought that data and how you use it does not affect AT&T since you can't use more whether you are using it on a cellphone or a laptop. So there really is no excuse for AT&T to charge more for tethering except they can get away with it and make money (yes, I realize that is what they are there to do, make money, but I still think it's unreasonable on their part).

I'm hoping they find no one pays to tether and find some different pricing structure (maybe to give incentive if they do want to make money off of tethering by giving you extra data to use while tethering, actually offering you something for the extra you pay).
 
MikePA said:
True. So what? Companies are in business to make money, not run their business according to your definition of fairness. No one forced you to buy an iPhone or deal with ATT. You knew what the rules were when you signed up, including the right of ATT to change the plans when they wanted to. The simple solution is, go with another carrier.

This never ending whining by people who

1. Don't like the tethering charges.
2. Don't like the unsubsidized upgrade charges.
3. Don't like the data caps.

remind me of little kids in Toys R Us who stamp their feet and cry when they can't get the toy they want. Everyone who bought the iPhone, made the simple decision that the T's and C's were worth getting an iPhone. To then later start whining about it simply shows lack of maturity in dealing with adult decisions. Life is full of trade offs. This is a minor one.

Other people, when faced with this same situation, actually did something about it. They came up with jailbreaking, which does give people options, like MyWi and unlocking.

The other carriers don't offer better deals because they're nice guys, they do it to attract customers and make a profit. When the iPhone does go to other carriers, ATT will reap what it has sown.
Click to expand...

what if we have no other options?
i live in alaska. as far as i know, we have only 4 wireless carriers (at least with 3g coverage). ATT, ACS, GCI, and recently T-Mobile. ACS is a CDMA network, so i cant use the iphone there. I can get a better deal with GCI but they dont have 3g coverage with GSM, only CDMA, and thats spotty at best. and T-Mobile, well thats just ATT anyways. its been a trend up here. people were getting unhappy with ATT so they switched to cingular. then ATT bought cingular. when T-Mobile showed up, a lot of people switched to that, I was almost one of them. then ATT bought them too. Verizon is also supposed to be available soon, if it is not already, but the website says no. Anyways, it doesnt look like its a 'better' option pricewise anyways.

i dont know what most people are complaining about anyways. just get yourself a real internet connection, since you can. i am paying $90 a month for a 3Mb connection that has a 15GB bandwidth limit. no provider has an unlimited package up here anymore. most of you can probably get twice as fast for half as much, with a reasonable bandwidth limit if any. i would not not even have it if there was 3g coverage at my home and i could tether to that.

it is my opinion that paying for the tethering option should double your cap. cause seriously, it is not hard at all to exceed the cap without tethering. by opting in for the option you are saying that you are going to be using more bandwidth, so it stands to reason that you should have a higher cap.
 
I think it's pure BS. I pay for a data plan, what difference does it make how that data is being used or how many devices can utilize it?

EDIT: Didn't realize this thread had been necroposted, sorry. Probably should let this one die again.
 
lol at talking about ethics for a company that is essentially a duopoly and has massive profit margins and strongly discourages any sort of competition. you guys are funny.
 
it's in the Ts and Cs... You signed a contract... Blah blah blah. That doesn't mean squat. Have a look at the following link and educate yourselves about contracts a little. The fact that you signed a contract doesn't automatically imply that what ATT is doing, when it charges and denies tethering, is enforceable. And if it isn't, then there is nothing unethical in breaching that aspect of the contract.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconscionability
 
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