Questions for those that received TETHERING notice from AT&T

[brandenwan]

Custom algorithm

I have never gotten the message; I haven't tethered since October, but used MyWi once or twice, and gobbled up maybe 10mb of data. I think AT&T looks at a combination of things including APNs and Usage. I think this is what produces false positives. Honestly, I was appalled at their gall for people choosing to use their "unlimited" data the way they want. You DO REALIZE how ridiculous charging for tethering is? I already paid for the data; you don't get to tell me how I can use it (or you can try, but I'll ignore you). I know I signed a contract, but I also feel some type a way when they constantly modify it to suit their greedy needs. Anyways, I don't tether anymore, but just to SPITE them, I CONSTANTLY run netflix on my iphone for no reason, other than to use as much of my "unlimited" data as possible. I call it bandwidth punishment! lol! SUK THAT AT&T! I hope AT&T realizes that their poor customer service, lackluster network, excessive greed, and their recent "witch hunt" to find unauthorized tether-ers is making people very indifferent about STEALING from their service!

 

[xxBURT0Nxx]

I have never gotten the message; I haven't tethered since October, but used MyWi once or twice, and gobbled up maybe 10mb of data. I think AT&T looks at a combination of things including APNs and Usage. I think this is what produces false positives. Honestly, I was appalled at their gall for people choosing to use their "unlimited" data the way they want. You DO REALIZE how ridiculous charging for tethering is? I already paid for the data; you don't get to tell me how I can use it (or you can try, but I'll ignore you). I know I signed a contract, but I also feel some type a way when they constantly modify it to suit their greedy needs. Anyways, I don't tether anymore, but just to SPITE them, I CONSTANTLY run netflix on my iphone for no reason, other than to use as much of my "unlimited" data as possible. I call it bandwidth punishment! lol! SUK THAT AT&T! I hope AT&T realizes that their poor customer service, lackluster network, excessive greed, and their recent "witch hunt" to find unauthorized tether-ers is making people very indifferent about STEALING from their service!

haha as unethical as it may be I couldn't agree more. If they offered an unlimited data plan w/ tethering for say $45 a month, I would be more than willing to pay for it, but there is no way I'm going to downgrade to a 4gb Data Pro Plan and pay an extra $15 a month to have my data capped. Thanks att, but I'll keep my unlimited data and tether "illegally" until you come out with more reasonable plans. Unfortunately, it seems we will never see unlimited data again!

 

[Cinemagic]

I have never gotten the message; I haven't tethered since October, but used MyWi once or twice, and gobbled up maybe 10mb of data. I think AT&T looks at a combination of things including APNs and Usage. I think this is what produces false positives. Honestly, I was appalled at their gall for people choosing to use their "unlimited" data the way they want. You DO REALIZE how ridiculous charging for tethering is? I already paid for the data; you don't get to tell me how I can use it (or you can try, but I'll ignore you). I know I signed a contract, but I also feel some type a way when they constantly modify it to suit their greedy needs. Anyways, I don't tether anymore, but just to SPITE them, I CONSTANTLY run netflix on my iphone for no reason, other than to use as much of my "unlimited" data as possible. I call it bandwidth punishment! lol! SUK THAT AT&T! I hope AT&T realizes that their poor customer service, lackluster network, excessive greed, and their recent "witch hunt" to find unauthorized tether-ers is making people very indifferent about STEALING from their service!

I agree that ATT's tethering policy sucks and I personally view it as simply charging me twice for the same data. But running Netflix simply to for "bandwidth punishment" doesn't hurt ATT. It hurts people like me who experience slowdowns as a result of your actions. I have personally found ATT customer service to be very good. They have been very responsive to any of my requests. Their network might be faster if some people wouldn't run Netflix simply to "punish" ATT. They do seem to have excessive greed, but doesn't every corporation? Doesn't Exxon, BP and every other oil company have excessive greed? Apple has record profits and charges a lot for their product. Excessive greed? Greed is a fact of life in US business. The "witch-hunt" is no different in principle that Apple closing every exploit that jailbreakers find. Personally, I jailbreak and I tether using MyWi. But I also don't blame Apple or ATT for trying to protect themselves from people like me. ATT's tethering policy does indeed suck.

 

[ZipZap]

I have never gotten the message; I haven't tethered since October, but used MyWi once or twice, and gobbled up maybe 10mb of data. I think AT&T looks at a combination of things including APNs and Usage. I think this is what produces false positives. Honestly, I was appalled at their gall for people choosing to use their "unlimited" data the way they want. You DO REALIZE how ridiculous charging for tethering is? I already paid for the data; you don't get to tell me how I can use it (or you can try, but I'll ignore you). I know I signed a contract, but I also feel some type a way when they constantly modify it to suit their greedy needs. Anyways, I don't tether anymore, but just to SPITE them, I CONSTANTLY run netflix on my iphone for no reason, other than to use as much of my "unlimited" data as possible. I call it bandwidth punishment! lol! SUK THAT AT&T! I hope AT&T realizes that their poor customer service, lackluster network, excessive greed, and their recent "witch hunt" to find unauthorized tether-ers is making people very indifferent about STEALING from their service!

Why is it that people still cling to these falsehoods?

You get to use data on your iphone anyway you choose...but you cannot share that data with an external device. Period. This practice is excluded in the TOS you agreed to follow.

Does AT&T's tethering policy suck? ...yep

Are you within your rights to tether your iphone (or ipad) if you're not on a the tethering plan? ...nope

Are the tethering plan costs ridiculous? ... absolutely

I am not an advocate for AT&T, but all of this angst over your rights to use your data any way you want is, well, silly. Tethering is specifically excluded. If you tether you are in contract violation. Whether you agree with the TOS of not...you cannot legitimately tether.

Do I tether....yes, and I know I am misusing data.
Will I get caught..eventually.
Do I have a leg to stand on in my defense? NO.

I wish there was an alternate choice here...but I dont see one other than getting a hotspot.

If anyone has a cost effective alternate idea...sure would love to hear it.

 

[ZipZap]

I agree that ATT's tethering policy sucks and I personally view it as simply charging me twice for the same data. But running Netflix simply to for "bandwidth punishment" doesn't hurt ATT. It hurts people like me who experience slowdowns as a result of your actions. I have personally found ATT customer service to be very good. They have been very responsive to any of my requests. Their network might be faster if some people wouldn't run Netflix simply to "punish" ATT. They do seem to have excessive greed, but doesn't every corporation? Doesn't Exxon, BP and every other oil company have excessive greed? Apple has record profits and charges a lot for their product. Excessive greed? Greed is a fact of life in US business. The "witch-hunt" is no different in principle that Apple closing every exploit that jailbreakers find. Personally, I jailbreak and I tether using MyWi. But I also don't blame Apple or ATT for trying to protect themselves from people like me. ATT's tethering policy does indeed suck.

Well stated...could not agree more!

 

[TC25]

They do seem to have excessive greed, but doesn't every corporation? Doesn't Exxon, BP and every other oil company have excessive greed? Apple has record profits and charges a lot for their product. Excessive greed? Greed is a fact of life in US business. The "witch-hunt" is no different in principle that Apple closing every exploit that jailbreakers find. Personally, I jailbreak and I tether using MyWi. But I also don't blame Apple or ATT for trying to protect themselves from people like me. ATT's tethering policy does indeed suck.

Do you work for free? If not, you're greedy. Afterall, since you have enough money to buy an iPhone and pay the monthly charges, you clearly have more money than you need so you should work for free.

 

[xxBURT0Nxx]

Do you work for free? If not, you're greedy. Afterall, since you have enough money to buy an iPhone and pay the monthly charges, you clearly have more money than you need so you should work for free.

comparing your average persons yearly salary to the revenue stream of a multi-billion dollar corporation seems a little unfair.

 

[TC25]

comparing your average persons yearly salary to the revenue stream of a multi-billion dollar corporation seems a little unfair.

It all depends on who is defining 'greed' and 'excessive greed'.

 

[AWallen90]

I just got off the phone with them and they clearly don't know if I am tethering or not. The lady "Tanya" exclaimed that it was based merely off a spike in usage and that's why it was sent out. I just said I was streaming over Netflix and Pandora and she looked up my account and was like, "2 gigs...that's not a lot" but she did say that after the 27th they will go into "further review" of my contract but she said everything will be good. We'll see what happens, if AT&T boosts up my plan with tethering, I'll just switch to the 2 gig, only time will tell though.

EDIT - she did express the concern that the last thing AT&T wants to do is up someones internet plan, I was really nice with her and calm and she said she took notes of our call so I will report back when everything is all said and done.

2GB of ∞GB? I hate how limited the iPhone is because the carriers are greedy.

 

[xxBURT0Nxx]

It all depends on who is defining 'greed' and 'excessive greed'.

I would like to know who defines greed or excessive greed as the ability to pay ~$100 a month for a cell phone, and then qualifies that if one has the ability to pay that much for a phone, then they should be working for free.

 

[chakraj]

imagine if Pizza places followed this business model.
You can buy a Pizza for ten dollars if only you eat it.
but if anyone else eats a piece then we will have to charge you the sharing fee, plus the price of the origional pizza has gone up.

SO the Pizza is now $2.00 a slice times 12 x 2 = $24.00 plus a $10.00 sharing fee or $35.00 for the pizza for you and your familly.

The pizza still cost the same amount, its still just a Pizza.

So now if you give your friend a bite of your pizza you have just ripped off the pizza place for $25.00? (I think not)

Or are they ripping you off by charging you $35.00 for a $10.00 pizza? (bingo)

Hmm thats a hard one, I will have to think about that for a while.


Data is Data, and Pizza is Pizza.

Shoot, now Im hungry.

 

[TC25]

I would like to know who defines greed or excessive greed as the ability to pay ~$100 a month for a cell phone, and then qualifies that if one has the ability to pay that much for a phone, then they should be working for free.

My point is the word 'greed' and the phrase 'excessive greed' are subjective, not objective and are generally tossed around by people who always think everyone but they are greedy.

It's no different than saying someone is 'rich' or a piece of string is 'long', i.e., it's meaningless.

Calling someone or something 'greedy' is meant to incite, not inform.

 

[xxBURT0Nxx]

My point is the word 'greed' and the phrase 'excessive greed' are subjective, not objective and are generally tossed around by people who always think everyone but they are greedy.

It's no different than saying someone is 'rich' or a piece of string is 'long', i.e., it's meaningless.

Calling someone or something 'greedy' is meant to incite, not inform.

fair enough!

 

[err404]

imagine if Pizza places followed this business model.
You can buy a Pizza for ten dollars if only you eat it.
but if anyone else eats a piece then we will have to charge you the sharing fee, plus the price of the origional pizza has gone up.

SO the Pizza is now $2.00 a slice times 12 x 2 = $24.00 plus a $10.00 sharing fee or $35.00 for the pizza for you and your familly.

The pizza still cost the same amount, its still just a Pizza.

So now if you give your friend a bite of your pizza you have just ripped off the pizza place for $25.00? (I think not)

Or are they ripping you off by charging you $35.00 for a $10.00 pizza? (bingo)

Hmm thats a hard one, I will have to think about that for a while.


Data is Data, and Pizza is Pizza.

Shoot, now Im hungry.

Assuming that you use a metered plan, 4GB of data costs the same with or w/o tethering.
If you start with the 2GB data plan for $25 and exceed the limit you are charged $10 per GB. So if you consume between 3GB and 4GB your bill will be $45.
The tethering plan is 4GB to start with and costs 45$

So the cost is the same, but the minimum charge is higher.

 

[xxBURT0Nxx]

Assuming that you use a metered plan, 4GB of data costs the same with or w/o tethering.
If you start with the 2GB data plan for $25 and exceed the limit you are charged $10 per GB. So if you consume between 3GB and 4GB your bill will be $45.
The tethering plan is 4GB to start with and costs 45$

So the cost is the same, but the minimum charge is higher.

i pay $30 for unlimited data.....

 

[Sparky9292]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)

We need to wait till PdaNet and MyWi stop using the iPhones tethering system. Those apps need to code their own routing system so AT&T truly can't detect it from any other high bandwidth app.

 

[OceanView]

Hate it when every one of these threads turns into a legal/morality debate.
It's similar to the legalize pot debate. Some people will use it regardless of it being legal and some will never use it even if it is legal.
Let's just stick to the facts and try to figure out a way to avoid getting caught by AT&T.

 

[Sparky9292]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)

Hate it when every one of these threads turns into a legal/morality debate.
It's similar to the legalize pot debate. Some people will use it regardless of it being legal and some will never use it even if it is legal.
Let's just stick to the facts and try to figure out a way to avoid getting caught by AT&T.

+1

 

[TC25]

Hate it when every one of these threads turns into a legal/morality debate.
It's similar to the legalize pot debate. Some people will use it regardless of it being legal and some will never use it even if it is legal.
Let's just stick to the facts and try to figure out a way to avoid getting caught by AT&T.

+1 Toss in the irrelevant 'ATT is greedy' posts, too.

EDIT: Toss in the equally irrelevant analogies. The correct analogy is;

1. You, your wife and 2 kids go to a pizza place.
2. You buy the 'all you can eat (aka unlimited)' buffet.
3. You fill your plate with pizza.
4. You take it back to your table where you, your wife and 2 kids all eat from the same plate.
5. Since the four of you are still hungry, you go back and fill the plate up again.

That's fair, isn't it? Afterall, you paid for an 'all you can eat' buffet? What right does the pizza place have to tell you how you use their unlimited pizza offer? Why, they're just greedy.

 

[ZipZap]

imagine if Pizza places followed this business model.
You can buy a Pizza for ten dollars if only you eat it.
but if anyone else eats a piece then we will have to charge you the sharing fee, plus the price of the origional pizza has gone up.

SO the Pizza is now $2.00 a slice times 12 x 2 = $24.00 plus a $10.00 sharing fee or $35.00 for the pizza for you and your familly.

The pizza still cost the same amount, its still just a Pizza.

So now if you give your friend a bite of your pizza you have just ripped off the pizza place for $25.00? (I think not)

Or are they ripping you off by charging you $35.00 for a $10.00 pizza? (bingo)

Hmm thats a hard one, I will have to think about that for a while.


Data is Data, and Pizza is Pizza.

Shoot, now Im hungry.

Really...Seriously???

If you agree to the terms of the pizza purchase...then you are bound to them.

Did you agree to the AT&T TOS?
Yes you did...therefore you cannot tether.

It would be different if there was no mention of tethering the TOS. You be free to tether until...

AT&T floatted a new TOS and gave you 30 days to opt out (close your account). Then the new TOS would be in effect and they could hassle you for tethering.

You cant argue for rights you dont have.

 

[DirtySocks85]

+1 Toss in the irrelevant 'ATT is greedy' posts, too.

EDIT: Toss in the equally irrelevant analogies. The correct analogy is;

1. You, your wife and 2 kids go to a pizza place.
2. You buy the 'all you can eat (aka unlimited)' buffet.
3. You fill your plate with pizza.
4. You take it back to your table where you, your wife and 2 kids all eat from the same plate.
5. Since the four of you are still hungry, you go back and fill the plate up again.

That's fair, isn't it? Afterall, you paid for an 'all you can eat' buffet? What right does the pizza place have to tell you how you use their unlimited pizza offer? Why, they're just greedy.

I love how you +1 that post and then insist on throwing in your own analogy, which is still irrelevant to the discussion at hand.

 

[TC25]

I love how you +1 that post and then insist on throwing in your own analogy, which is still irrelevant to the discussion at hand.

Deleted - Not worth the effort.

 

[dmk1974]

I got the email as well. I don't want to lose my unlimited plan, but was thinking...maybe it's worth paying for the $45 tether plan. My iPhone costs me $30/mo for data and my iPad 3G is another $15 for only 250mb. If I cancel the iPad service and then succumb to the 4GB/$45 plan, it's the same cost. Checking my iPhone usage, with heavy tethering, I'm usually only between 1.1 and 1.8 gb monthly usage.

Of course, getting undetectable mywi working again would be preference #1

 

[chakraj]

Yes the all you can eat pizza buffet, does blow a hole in my analogy.

oh well.

I am still hungry.

 

[err404]

I love how you +1 that post and then insist on throwing in your own analogy, which is still irrelevant to the discussion at hand.

His analogy was far more accurate. Buffet service (unlimited) offers different pro's and cons compared to À La Carte service (metered).

À La Carte provides more selection, but the cost has not upper bound. The full menu is offered. The chef specials include a side of Tethering. Plate sharing is allowed, but there is a per person minimum.

Buffet provides all-you-can-eat and fixed prices. A limited selection is available, but there is no tray of Tethering. Plate sharing is not allowed and you are not offered a doggie bag.