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I was in a similar situation as you, but was moving into a new home and had to tether to fill out some forms for a job, this was on 3/23-3/25. Got the notice on 4/20 then a text 2 days later. This was the only time I ever tethered.

Which method of tethering did you use?
 
How many of you have gotten the message and are ONLY tethering to an iPad? I've tethered to my iPad almost daily since May and haven't gotten an email, letter, or sms from At$t about it.
 
Look, I'm someone who got caught tethering myself. But let's not fool ourselves into thinking we have the right to do it because we pay for 'unlimited' data.

Unlimited PHONE data. TIED to your MOBILE device. It says so right in your contract; ask to see a copy from AT&T.

All these posts of "Why shouldn't we take advantage" or "I pay for my data" are highly irritating. Yes, we all have a monthly bill to pay but that doesn't mean we're free to take AT&T's service and tie it to our iPads, laptops, etc. :rolleyes:
 
How many of you have gotten the message and are ONLY tethering to an iPad? I've tethered to my iPad almost daily since May and haven't gotten an email, letter, or sms from At$t about it.

Yes, I would like to know if anybody has been warned for tethering to an iPad? Especially with using mywi...
 
Look, I'm someone who got caught tethering myself. But let's not fool ourselves into thinking we have the right to do it because we pay for 'unlimited' data.

Unlimited PHONE data. TIED to your MOBILE device. It says so right in your contract; ask to see a copy from AT&T.

All these posts of "Why shouldn't we take advantage" or "I pay for my data" are highly irritating. Yes, we all have a monthly bill to pay but that doesn't mean we're free to take AT&T's service and tie it to our iPads, laptops, etc. :rolleyes:
It makes no difference to them how the data is used. They just want every reason they can get to take more of our money. Now sure it's in your contract, but that's not meaningful to me at all. They can put anything they want in there and what choice do we have? You can say that I shouldn't sign it then, but it isn't reasonable to not have a cell phone in 2011. Charging for tethering is wrong imo. Just because they do it doesn't make it automatically right.
 
ATT forced tether plan

I received a tethering notice text about two months ago from att that if i want to tether i should call and activate that plan. I'm on the 30.00 unlimited data plan. So i ignore as i believe its a notice to everyone about a policy change and really doesn't apply to me. So yesterday i receive another text from att informing me i was being switched to a 45.00 4gig tethering plan. Now maybe thats cool if was tethering, but i don't. So i call them to find out whats the deal and was asked did i receive a text in the past about tethering, i replied yes. My explanation was as i thought in the above statement. The rep reply was basically oh well, my reply cancellation. I was transferred to retentions and asked was i tether and if not what was i doing to have 7gigs of data used just this month thus far. I explained i stream netflix, pandora, apps and use the data network for phone calls during peak time. The rep says i understand but the system automatically switches the plans and theirs nothing they can do about it. My reply, cancel my service as it seems to me att is trying to bully unlimited data plan user into a more profitable data plan. Rep insist its not the case and ask me to hold. After a brief hold the rep returns with an offer that if barely use my data on the cell network until next billing cycle, i would remain on unlimited 30.00 data plan and they will give 7500 rollover minutes as compensation. Also from next billing cycle on try and minimize data usage as they know people that have high usage and may not be tethering and still are being switch off of unlimited plan. As i told the rep and imho they are forcing unlimited user to a more profitable plan as i am proof...no tethering here...
 
I received a tethering notice text about two months ago from att that if i want to tether i should call and activate that plan. I'm on the 30.00 unlimited data plan. So i ignore as i believe its a notice to everyone about a policy change and really doesn't apply to me. So yesterday i receive another text from att informing me i was being switched to a 45.00 4gig tethering plan. Now maybe thats cool if was tethering, but i don't. So i call them to find out whats the deal and was asked did i receive a text in the past about tethering, i replied yes. My explanation was as i thought in the above statement. The rep reply was basically oh well, my reply cancellation. I was transferred to retentions and asked was i tether and if not what was i doing to have 7gigs of data used just this month thus far. I explained i stream netflix, pandora, apps and use the data network for phone calls during peak time. The rep says i understand but the system automatically switches the plans and theirs nothing they can do about it. My reply, cancel my service as it seems to me att is trying to bully unlimited data plan user into a more profitable data plan. Rep insist its not the case and ask me to hold. After a brief hold the rep returns with an offer that if barely use my data on the cell network until next billing cycle, i would remain on unlimited 30.00 data plan and they will give 7500 rollover minutes as compensation. Also from next billing cycle on try and minimize data usage as they know people that have high usage and may not be tethering and still are being switch off of unlimited plan. As i told the rep and imho they are forcing unlimited user to a more profitable plan as i am proof...no tethering here...


This is kind of odd. One reason is because it sounds illegal since you have "unlimited" data (to your phone) they can't say... Hey wait your at 7GB don't use any more this period or we will switch you!.. Because you have unlimited. Unless you actually are tethering.

Also this sounds odd to because last month I used 11GB and I usually use around 6+ a month due to netflix, pandora, and also safari download manager and I haven't received anything. Which I shouldn't because I don't tether... So I don't know your story sounds really weird...
 
This is why I love Sprint, yes they don't have the Iphone, but I teather about 20+ GB a month and never get anything in the mail or phonecalls for that matter
 
i basically called and told them...yeah I tethered.

not any more.

lol.

I don't care anymore.

2GB is a joke.

time to activate line number 2 :D
 
This is why I love Sprint, yes they don't have the Iphone, but I teather about 20+ GB a month and never get anything in the mail or phonecalls for that matter

Gonna wait till Apple announces the new iPhone.
If it's not a big deal, I will dump AT&T and go to sprint.
Tired of the nickel and dime charges and fees.
 
This is kind of odd. One reason is because it sounds illegal since you have "unlimited" data (to your phone) they can't say... Hey wait your at 7GB don't use any more this period or we will switch you!.. Because you have unlimited. Unless you actually are tethering.

Also this sounds odd to because last month I used 11GB and I usually use around 6+ a month due to netflix, pandora, and also safari download manager and I haven't received anything. Which I shouldn't because I don't tether... So I don't know your story sounds really weird...

Believe me i have no reason to post a lie. Give some time and they will accuse you to. I averaged around 6 gigs monthly myself, but at this point i really don't care. If sprint gets an iphone their I go....
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Saw a tweet from the MyWi developer saying that there is no way AT&T can tell if you are you are MyWi or Pandora or YouTube as his App has always used the same APN as any AppStore app.

He says that only people who use TetherMe or PdaNet have received the warning since those apps use the official tethering APN
 
Sparky,

Only problem with that analogy is that
we have had MyWi users report they were
caught tethering by AT&T.
 
Gonna wait till Apple announces the new iPhone.
If it's not a big deal, I will dump AT&T and go to sprint.
Tired of the nickel and dime charges and fees.

Same here about being tired of the over-priced, full of restriction costs. If the next iPhone doesn't 'wow' me, I'm not only dumping ATT, but I'll probably go back to as basic a phone and service I can get.

$81/month after all the made-up and real taxes/fees - it's just not worth it.
 
Believe me i have no reason to post a lie. Give some time and they will accuse you to. I averaged around 6 gigs monthly myself, but at this point i really don't care. If sprint gets an iphone their I go....


If it's true I am not worried. They have to have actual proof to just throw you out of a contract... They cant just "think" your tethering. If you actually are they can easily tell the data is going to your phone... Then to another device. If I am using alot of data on my phone it's allowed. Hence unlimited data on the iPhone plan? I also have a friend that every month average 15 or more GB.. And nothing. People on these forums use a shi t ton as well.


Basically your the only post ive read of someone that got the notice yet never tethered. Everyone that got it here says they tethered... And the ones that didn't get it.. Haven't. So just saying you might be that one guy with horrible luck but I highly doubt this will be a common occurrence. They can't just toss people out of contracted plans with 0 proof .. Especially if the user didn't do what they are accused of.

My dads on a super old plan (10+ years) and sprint tries super hard to get him off but can't. Why not say he's doing something he's not and force em off? Just doesn't make sense
 
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For the record, I called AT&T and told them I hadn't tethered (as I wasn't) The woman was very rude to me and said they would investigate it but that I should prepare to have my plan changed. I said that if they laid one finger on my account I wanted a phone call before hand, and followed up with threatening to jump ship to VZW if they upped my plan Never heard back from AT&T, and still have my unlimited plan.

Oh sorry ridx. Your the 2nd* that i have heard about.



Also now I've been thinking on it. Doesn't the txt/email state that your plan will be changed if you don't contact Att to say "I'll stop" or "I'm not doing it"? You prob should of contacted them on the first text.. Explained it and your plan would of never changed.
 
Tried this... didn't work...

Let me preface all this by giving my facts. I'm a consultant so I'm on the road and traveling 3/4 weeks a month and since 3G is usually better than hotel wifi and I have slingbox... i tear through about 8-12 gigs a month, even without teathering. I now use my ipad and since using mywi, haven't noticed any huge jumps in data usage... still average 8-12 gigs. I had been laying off the mywi and hadn't used it for about 2 weeks when the first batch of notices started rolling in. I didn't recieve anything. I finally got brave enough to start using mywi again late last week and only used it lightly... low and behold i get the email yesturday!

I called in, played dumb and went through the whole "i use a ton of data" and I travel alot, i don't know how i could teather since i'm still on the original OS and havent' upgraded to the one where apple enabled it... yadda yadda...

The rep seemed VERY smart and knew what she was talking about. I doubt she was buying my playing dumb but she iterated to me multiple times that it has nothing to do with the amount of data being used or spikes in data usage, that they were able to detect how the data was used and at some point i had used my phone to transmit data to something other than my phone. She said I don't need to do anything and my account wouldn't be touched... as long as i don't teather anymore.

I wasn't a believer that they were actually doing packet sniffing or anything like that, I was convinced it was entirely data driven, but seeing that they caught me litterally days after using mywi for the first time in about a month, and i was blatently told that they could see my data... I'm now confident they CAN detect teathering and they will eventually nab everyone who's currently doing it.

It was a fun ride while it lasted, and my ipad just took a big usability hit, but oh well. I'm willing to pay for teathering, but not at the expense of $40 more a month just to go from unlimited data to 2 gigs with only 2 more gigs to teather. With my current usage and overage fees, it would cost me over $100 more a month to keep doing what i've been doing..... no thanks!

Just figured I'd inform you all of my scenario since there seems to be a lot of confusion out there right now!


Also this post reiterates what I said about how they can tell tethering.



Seems your just unlucky ridx. Just call get angry and only speak to a manager. That's what I would do if I was in your situation.
 
Just received a txt that my plan has been updated to the ($45/mo incl. 4GB) and that I will soon see the change reflected on an upcoming billing statement. Oh well it was good while it lasted
 
That's funny...but the things have been going lately...I am that one unlucky clown...i did complain kinda and got those 7500 rollover minutes. So i am just using email and twitter on the data network for the next 20 something days...this is very hard waiting to get to wifi for full iphone freedom. haha...
 
Just received a txt that my plan has been updated to the ($45/mo incl. 4GB) and that I will soon see the change reflected on an upcoming billing statement. Oh well it was good while it lasted

Could you provide more information in regards to your behavior before getting changed? What program(s) were you using and what were you tethering to?
 
Could you provide more information in regards to your behavior before getting changed? What program(s) were you using and what were you tethering to?

Solely used mywi until I received the first notice, I then switched to tetherme and have been using it over the last few months. My usage is relatively low averaging anywhere between 2-5 GB and have never gone over 7GB. I logged in to my account and my data plan is still unlimited, but will probably change soon.
 
Sparky,

Only problem with that analogy is that
we have had MyWi users report they were
caught tethering by AT&T.

Yep just read that.

No one knows which of the tethering apps are undetectable by AT&T
PdaNET has two Stealth Modes - I got a response from the developer who told me that he has no idea if AT&T can detect his apps. Basically you are beta testing them

The MyWi developer is delusional then.

Haven't heard from the author of TetherMe

I've seen a few reports that people who ONLY tethered to their iPads never got caught. This suggests that the traffic generated from the iPad looks the same as traffic from the iPhone. I know that some people think that the TTL value is what AT&T is using to detect and some have tried to change network settings on their laptops to fool AT&T but no confirmation.

What we need is for everyone to tether for about 10 minutes then call AT&T demanding to know if there's any illegal tethering. Pretend that you loaned your phone to a friend or you think someone is hacking your phone.
 
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