How does TetherMe and MyWi show up under AT&T Data Usage?

[Nightowl4272]

I used TetherMe 2 months ago and got the AT&T letter and texts threatening that I would be automatically signed up for the tethering plan. But I checked my bill and all of my tethered data showed up as "DATA" not "Internet".

I emailed the TetherMe developer and he said that as far as he can tell, AT&T is just detecting tethering based on behavior. So that's good news. However the OP's observation of data charges showing up as Data for handset data and Internet for tethered data is a bit concerning.

I think I used a total of about 4GB which incurred an extra $20 for the extra 2GB over my cap. I just called and told them I had used Netflix and Skype heavily that month because I was out of town. I was a little irritated because I realized that the bastards had gotten their extra $20 out of me anyway and were still threatening me. They backed off.

There is no way in Hell that I'm paying an extra $20 a month for something that I'll most likely only use a couple times a year.

Sorry for the rant...

 

[Nightowl4272]

I do have the Mywi hack but I never use it. I watch a lot of netflix on 3g and my data use is like 5-6gb per month. So read below, this is bs....

I deleted the AT&T letter from the quote...

That tells me that AT&T is just guessing based on download/upload behavior and haven't taken the steps mentioned earlier in this thread to actually confirm it. Shouldn't be too hard for them to figure out who's tethering based on behavior. If AT&T sees someone downloading excessively they might give you the benefit of the doubt and say you're just using Pandora, Netflix...etc a lot. But if you're uploading a lot as well, they're might suspect that you're tethering and have a P2P file sharing program running on your PC/Mac. But wouldn't Skype upload a lot of data?

Sidenote - I didn't realize this but uploaded data count's towards your cap.

By sending out this letter, they might just scare a few customers into upgrading. Plus they're probably also getting lots of people to unwittingly sign up who will never even use tethering by trying to sell them the additional 2GB that comes with the tethering plan (which of course they already get on a pay-as-you-go basis if they go over the 2GB cap).

 

[TC25]

I emailed the TetherMe developer and he said that as far as he can tell, AT&T is just detecting tethering based on behavior.

Based on behavior? What's that supposed to mean?

 

[Nightowl4272]

Based on behavior? What's that supposed to mean?

Hmmm, I assumed that he meant the sudden spike in my data usage but now that you mention it, "behavior" could mean they type of data that's being downloaded according to DNS queries as was suggested by blevins321 in a related thread (for ex. if my PC were to download from Windows Updates while tethered...something my iPhone would never do).

Dam...I need to press him for a more specific answer but he probably doesn't know either.