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NoExpectations

macrumors 6502a
Sep 23, 2008
672
3
If it says "unlimited data", I expect them to let me do whatever I want with that. Don't EVER call it unlimited unless I literally can download 2 TB or so. Call it 5GB worth of data. It's not unlimited. Secondly, if I get unlimited data transfer, then I can do ANYTHING I want with it. That's MY loophole. You said it, not me. So that means I get to use it how I want.

When you back out on the deal, it's not cool.

I expect a TON of service and perks for no more money than I already spend.

Crap.

Well then, shame on us for signing a contract that excluded tethering....because we did.
 

runeasgar

macrumors regular
May 26, 2004
158
0
Nashville, TN
We can state the evils of at&t all day long. The long and short of it is - we signed a contract, in order to have the iPhone.

To think that Apple and at&t are always going to turn a blind eye to the equivalent of pirating is silly.

Sometimes you get burned. You can get all indignant about something that you should have seen coming, or you can realize that it's your own damn fault.

Personally, I don't hack my iPhone in any form or fashion, and I'm never disappointed when these "unofficial methods" to accomplish things that aren't offered by Apple or at&t get broken.
 

dante@sisna.com

macrumors 6502a
Apr 21, 2006
736
0
What a Shame

It's really a shame that AT&T and Apple don't get together on this issue and provide a reasonable solution right now.

I am sure costs, support, and bandwidth are valid concerns for them, however this is an important issue for mobile users. Charge and extra and reasonable fee -- most of us will happily pay it. Some will gripe, but the majority will happily 'pony-up' the extra funds.

Personally, I carry a Verizon Laptop wireless card on a plan separate to the iPhone. I pay about $69 a month (with all taxes and fees) and have a 5GB cap which I never come close to.

I use the card for conducting sales and technical meetings to promotes the websites, books and print collateral we design and only when a solid wifi signal is not available at the meeting location.

Please AT&T and Apple, help us out with a sane plan for Tethering: those of us who need it are also your best "opinion leader" sales reps—We tend to be technically savy and our peers ask us for technology recommendations.

Butter Your Bread AT&T / Apple! :apple:
 

nagromme

macrumors G5
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
I know we're stuck with AT&T for now. But just to speculate... Which US carriers DO offer tethering at no additional cost?
 

iphone529

macrumors regular
Jul 23, 2007
203
0
When will people stop and realize that ATT is a business and they will always try to get as much money as they can. They do suck, but look at other carriers in the US they all charge for tethering. It sucks but they are no different.
 
I remain convinced that the overwhelming majority of those who tether-without-paying are those who not so much "need" to tether, but rather:

a) The phone is capable of it;
b) It's a way of proving one's uber-geek capabilities;
c) Taking of a service without paying for it causes no moral qualms;
d) "If I steal it from AT&T, I won't have to buy my own 'net access";
e) "Screw them!"

Or any/all of the above, in various combinations.

It's a service. If you need it, you obtain it. If you need it badly enough, it does not matter what it costs. If you don't need it, it likewise does not matter what it costs.

For myself, there have been times tethering would have been *extremely* handy, like sitting in JFK airport with no free wifi nearby, just bloody Boingo. My choices then were to try to create a report on the phone with WinAdmin (remote desktop app), or buy a day's worth of Boingo. I bought the Boingo. The value of report was worth the eight bucks (or whatever). I expensed it -- heck, the cost of the StarBucks and some vague-foodlike bagel-thing was eight bucks or so, and I expensed that as well.

When tethering becomes reliably available, not cobbled together by installing obscure ipcc files, performing SIM-card coitus and/or lying/stealing, I'll look at getting it. And probably paying for it, *if* I decide I need it enough.

I fear we are getting our various body parts all aflutter over a *want*, not a *need*. They are not the same thing, you know.
 

redkamel

macrumors 6502
Aug 29, 2006
437
34
I am sure they will charge for MMS too in addition to the data plan, those bastards.

I hope verizon gets the iphone and cuts out ATT, but I read an article that says verizon only plays ball with 1 app store. Their own.

One of the main reasons I had few qualms to switching to ATT from verizon was when I read why verizon passed up the iphone, which obviously was going to be a big moneymaker and end their reputation of only having uncool phones. Their reason? they weren't allowed to put their junk on it.

Now they are saying the same thing. Verizon will you ever learn? you could have me back in an instant if you ended your propietary junk. Provide tubes and towers, nothing more.
 

redkamel

macrumors 6502
Aug 29, 2006
437
34
Well then, shame on us for signing a contract that excluded tethering....because we did.

that may be true (haven't read the contract and I dont doubt you), but the way they tell if you are tethering is the amount of data you download. Which is not be a valid argument if you have an unlimited data plan. That is the tetherers argument. (I don't tether, I am just trying to crystallize the problem).

If they say "unlimited data, no tethering", by logic and what I hope is law, they need to find another way to determine if you are tethering. File type sent, upload/download speed, using a flash only site, browser logs, whatever (then its a privacy concern, but thats another thread).

For me its more of a logic/honesty problem on ATTs part than a real concern about tethering.
 

therumorbadger

macrumors newbie
Jul 15, 2009
1
0
For those saying that they're going to stick with 3.0, it's probably worth pointing out that 3.0 has a flaw whereby your iPhone can be remotely compromised with root access via malicious SMS messages. The specifics of this flaw will be made public at a conference later this month.

That more or less means that it will be possible for someone to completely take over your phone without you even being aware of it. I'm not sure that the tethering hack is worth that kind of vulnerability.
 

MarkAK

macrumors newbie
Jul 1, 2009
28
0
I remain convinced that the overwhelming majority of those who tether-without-paying are those who not so much "need" to tether, but rather:

a) The phone is capable of it;
b) It's a way of proving one's uber-geek capabilities;
c) Taking of a service without paying for it causes no moral qualms;
d) "If I steal it from AT&T, I won't have to buy my own 'net access";
e) "Screw them!"

Or any/all of the above, in various combinations.

It's a service. If you need it, you obtain it. If you need it badly enough, it does not matter what it costs. If you don't need it, it likewise does not matter what it costs.

For myself, there have been times tethering would have been *extremely* handy, like sitting in JFK airport with no free wifi nearby, just bloody Boingo. My choices then were to try to create a report on the phone with WinAdmin (remote desktop app), or buy a day's worth of Boingo. I bought the Boingo. The value of report was worth the eight bucks (or whatever). I expensed it -- heck, the cost of the StarBucks and some vague-foodlike bagel-thing was eight bucks or so, and I expensed that as well.

When tethering becomes reliably available, not cobbled together by installing obscure ipcc files, performing SIM-card coitus and/or lying/stealing, I'll look at getting it. And probably paying for it, *if* I decide I need it enough.

I fear we are getting our various body parts all aflutter over a *want*, not a *need*. They are not the same thing, you know.

brrrrr,,,,,,,brrrr,,,,,
That's the sound of crickets:eek:
 

Xian Zhu Xuande

macrumors 6502a
Jul 30, 2008
941
128
I second that. Why does AT&T have to be so money hungry? I understand they are a business and need to make a profit, but at what cost to them? If verizon gets the Iphone in 2010, AT&T are going to lose 75%+ of their iphone customers. We shouldn't have to wait to tether and pay the $60 EXTRA to tether. Look at all of the other carriers that are offering it to free or next to nothing. They are making a killing in profit because of all of the increased business. I am gone as soon as possible even if I have to pay the $180 early termination fee. Is anyone with me? And Apple...why are you biting the hand that feeds you. AT&T are not keeping you in business, WE are!
1) Do you think Verizon would encourage free tethering? Don't mix being 'money-hungry' with protecting their ability to receive revenue from standard practice. And if you're going to use the word 'money-hungry' to describe this, apply it to the whole industry. And even if these companies didn't mind, Apple would probably be interested in resolving a known hack regardless.

2) Verizon has only one thing going for them--they've got the best coverage for phone calls. I would *never* go back to them, though, because their customer service is utterly abhorrent (they make AT&T look like angels), and they're by far the most 'money-hungry' cellular service provider of all.
 

uberamd

macrumors 68030
May 26, 2009
2,785
2
Minnesota
I second that. Why does AT&T have to be so money hungry? I understand they are a business and need to make a profit, but at what cost to them? If verizon gets the Iphone in 2010, AT&T are going to lose 75%+ of their iphone customers. We shouldn't have to wait to tether and pay the $60 EXTRA to tether. Look at all of the other carriers that are offering it to free or next to nothing. They are making a killing in profit because of all of the increased business. I am gone as soon as possible even if I have to pay the $180 early termination fee. Is anyone with me? And Apple...why are you biting the hand that feeds you. AT&T are not keeping you in business, WE are!

Mmmmmm, I love the taste of statistics without any base to support them. Delicious. You sir have no idea what you are talking about. If you think that Verizon will charge $0 for iPhone tethering, you are nutso.
 

harrier

macrumors member
Feb 26, 2008
58
0
Springfield, VA
I remain convinced that the overwhelming majority of those who tether-without-paying are those who not so much "need" to tether, but rather:

a) The phone is capable of it;
b) It's a way of proving one's uber-geek capabilities;
c) Taking of a service without paying for it causes no moral qualms;
d) "If I steal it from AT&T, I won't have to buy my own 'net access";
e) "Screw them!"

Or any/all of the above, in various combinations.

It's a service. If you need it, you obtain it. If you need it badly enough, it does not matter what it costs. If you don't need it, it likewise does not matter what it costs.

For myself, there have been times tethering would have been *extremely* handy, like sitting in JFK airport with no free wifi nearby, just bloody Boingo. My choices then were to try to create a report on the phone with WinAdmin (remote desktop app), or buy a day's worth of Boingo. I bought the Boingo. The value of report was worth the eight bucks (or whatever). I expensed it -- heck, the cost of the StarBucks and some vague-foodlike bagel-thing was eight bucks or so, and I expensed that as well.

When tethering becomes reliably available, not cobbled together by installing obscure ipcc files, performing SIM-card coitus and/or lying/stealing, I'll look at getting it. And probably paying for it, *if* I decide I need it enough.

I fear we are getting our various body parts all aflutter over a *want*, not a *need*. They are not the same thing, you know.

I agree but what ticks a lot of us off is, we're paying for the access so why should it matter if we use our laptop or the phone? (Understand part of the answer could be the laptop usage would probably consume more bandwidth than typical iphone usage.)

The $30 data plan, the $30 unlimited texting, and the base service fees already put most of us at or above the limit for cell-related expenses. Maybe they could put together some bundles like the evil cable companies so at least we get some kind of break.
 

theITGuy

macrumors 6502a
People really must imagine AT&T's logo as the Death Star...for every happy Verizon customer out there...there's a few grumpy ones as well...these telcos are in business to make money...

I sincerely doubt that a Verizon iPhone would cause AT&T to loose a significant number of customers...

Cheers.

-J.-
 

Scallywag

macrumors regular
Dec 21, 2007
121
0
NYC
Please AT&T and Apple, help us out with a sane plan for Tethering: those of us who need it are also your best "opinion leader" sales reps—We tend to be technically savy and our peers ask us for technology recommendations.

Butter Your Bread AT&T / Apple! :apple:

This is very true for me. Not that it matters, but my recommendations here at work have lead to dozens of sales for Apple, from laptops to iPhones and everything else (which, in turn, lead to thousands of $ in iTunes sales.) I could use a little kickback, I've earned it!!!

(no??...oh well...)

Here's an Idea...make tethering a real pain in the ass to enable, and don't promote it, but make it free. 98% of iPhone users will never bother to set it up, and those of us that have helped Apple make sales through our recommendations gets a nice gift in return!! (or so we can tell ourselves.)

(no??...oh well...)

I think a huge majority of iPhone users would never use tethering, free or not. AT&T's is being overly greedy, and Apple should flex it might and stop them. At least make it free to Apple laptop users... charge windows users!!!!
 

co.ag.2005

macrumors 68020
Jun 17, 2009
2,363
1,809
Fort Worth, TX
If any of you honestly think Verizon is gonna be your savior for cheaper service, guess again.

Not only will they attempt to cripple the iPhone's abilities to hell (or at least control it more than AT&T would ever attempt to do), but they're just as bad if not worse when it comes to monthly plans.

You really, REALLY want to pay out the rear? Get the iPhone to move to Verizon. Maybe they'll lockdown your GPS, and God knows whatever else on the phone. That's what they're good at.

+1

I don't know why it is so difficult for posters to get this through their head.. I mean people think Verizon is some miracle network that would never charge people for their services... geez...
 
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