I'm curious if the FCC's ruling against Verizon will affect other carriers? Will this force AT&T, for example, to allow free tethering via an iPhone?
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Free Tethering from Other Carriers?
- Thread starter WildKarde81
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No. Simply because that ruling only applies to Verizon 4G LTE. When they bought the spectrum, there were usage stipulations with it. That's why tethering has to be included, via 3rd party apps. The Verizon tethering can be charged, but third parties are totally green lighted on c-block spectrum.
While the 700Mhz spectrum Verizon bought came with strings they didn't adhere to (a $1.25 million fine seems low given how much they bilked the users for) it could cause some competition with other carriers.
So if Verizon is saying iPhone w/ LTE has tethering included like the iPad 3 LTE does it may put pressure on AT&T to do something. Of course we know the CEO of AT&T doesn't like doing anything for their users other than gouge their wallets so probably not.
So if Verizon is saying iPhone w/ LTE has tethering included like the iPad 3 LTE does it may put pressure on AT&T to do something. Of course we know the CEO of AT&T doesn't like doing anything for their users other than gouge their wallets so probably not.
The ruling only affects grandfathered tiered data plans. Unlimited data is still allowed to block tethering. New share plans include tethering for no extra charge. AT&T's new share plans include this too: "Additionally, all Mobile Share plans include mobile hotspot on applicable devices."
So, really, this doesn't change very much.
Yep. I'm on AT&T and i have been tethering for a while. Would never pay to use data that I already paid for.
And what happens when IOS 6 comes out & people can FaceTime over cellular networks? Right now it appears that AT&T might be thinking about charging more (for data that's already been paid for).