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Questions for those that received TETHERING notice from AT&T

just curious, do Andriod users who activate tethering on their phones without paying extra get the txt and threats as well?
 
iMrNiceGuy0023 said:
Jailbreak hotspot-ers: AT&T is moving you to a tiered data plan involuntarily:

http://9to5mac.com/2011/08/04/jailb...move-you-to-a-tiered-data-plan-involuntarily/

We’ve gotten word from some readers that AT&T is moving forward and removing unlimited plans for users who jailbreak iPhones to tether or hotspot off of AT&T’s unlimited data plans (for those grandfathered):

I was just informed that as of Thursday August 11th 2011, if you use MyWi or any tethering on the phone or using the phone as a modem, AT&T will automatically change ur unlimited plan to a 2Gb tethering plan for 45 dollars without the customers consent. This is for those who received emails or texts about the use of tethering without an AT&T tethering plan.

An AT&T spokesperson has confirmed this, but not August 11th as a hard cutoff date, saying:

Earlier this year, we began sending letters, emails, and text messages to a small number of smartphone customers who use their devices for tethering but aren’t on our required tethering plan. Our goal here is fairness for all of our customers. (This impacts a only small percentage of our smartphone customer base.)

The letters outline three choices:

1) Stop tethering and keep their current plan (including grandfathered unlimited plan)

2) Proactively call AT&T or visit our stores and move to the required tethering plan

3) Do nothing and we’ll go ahead and add the tethering plan on their behalf — after the dated noted in their customer notification

Is this fair of AT&T? Well, it is certainly fair that people pay for the data that they are using and unlimited tethering turns your iPhone into a data sucking monster. AT&T’s service to others is obviously affected, so they have to do something about it and this seems like a reasonable solution. The obvious retort is that some may have purchased their unlimited plans back when unlimited really meant unlimited, jailbroken or not.

The matter doesn’t appear up for debate however. MiWi users: get your free data this week and hope AT&T doesn’t decide to move you over early.
Click to expand...

Good find.. can people come back and post aug 12 to see what happened ?
 
Verizon Follows AT&T’s Lead and Starts Blocking Unofficial Tethering

It appears that Verizon is starting to block hotspot tethering for consumers using jailbroken devices without data plans. A ReadWriteWeb employee using a jailbroken tethered Verizon Motorola X without a data plan was sent to this page outlining Verizon's hotspot data plans today when trying to access a hotspot. This is a new development, since the employee used her jailbroken device as a hotspot two days ago.

The move from Verizon comes the day after AT&T started moving jailbroken hotspot users without data plans involuntarily to tiered data plans. Verizon hotspot plans start at $20 for 2 GB of data when added to a data plan of $29.99 or more. Every GB after the 2 GB threshold is an additional $20. The move corresponds with U.S. carriers closing loopholes in their pricing structures to maximize revenue from data as voice and text messaging revenue decreases.

In March, an advocacy group sent a complaint to the Federal Communications Commission that argued Verizon should not be allowed to block tethering applications using Long Term Evolution (Verizon's "4G") found in the Android Market. Google followed up by blocking tethering applications in the market, though users could still acquire tethering apps from outside app store like GetJar.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...tm_campaign=Feed:+readwriteweb+(ReadWriteWeb)

Do you think that we should sent compliant to FCC that argued Verizon & AT&T should not be allowed to block tethering applications (jailbreak tethering apps)on iPhones and other mobile devices?
 
AT&T with grandfathered unlimited data here... just tried MyWi with my iPad2 and its not allowing me to tether (says its connected to hotspot but no data goes through)...anyone else seeing this? = /

Update: i got it working again...whew...just had to hard reboot the ipad.
 
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Just chiming in... I've only ever used Tetherme and really only started to use it more often the past 2 months, maxing out at 4gb last month (I have the unlimited plan). I got the first text last night:rolleyes:
 
jgonzo432 said:
Just chiming in... I've only ever used Tetherme and really only started to use it more often the past 2 months, maxing out at 4gb last month (I have the unlimited plan). I got the first text last night:rolleyes:
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That was dumb. TetherMe doesnt hide usage. Use PdaNet with Stealth Mode.
 
PDANet doesn't effectively hide usage. Brian Brushwood got caught the first time with MyWi. The second time with PDANet on stealth mode. Apparently, AT&T's method can detect whatever "stealth mode" PDAnet uses.

As for # of data used that triggers AT&T, according to the AT&T rep, 1 kb or 1 TB doesn't matter. That is, amount doesn't matter. Just using it once for a minute will still register.

As for iPad tetherers... there is no tether plan available on iPad! Has anybody gotten notice from tethering on iPad??? If so, what plan can they switch you to since the ipad is not capable of tethering (unjailbroken) and there are no tether plans available to buy. So presumably, iPad users are totally safe.... yes?

As for Android, VZW blocks downloading wifi tethering apps from the Android Marketplace - only while connected to the cell network. If you connect to the internet via wifi, the tethering apps become available again.
 
i got this DOA letter back then, but i think because of my usage at the time was close to the 5GB per month CAP that ATT has. ever since i have tried to keep my data usage to a reasonable amount but kept tethering using TetherMe and so far nothing. I'm still grandfathered in the $30 unlimited plan, and so far so good. they sent those letters based on usage.
 
Sparky9292 said:
So far I haven't recieved any nasty grams from AT&T so it looks like PDANet's Stealth mode is a win!:D
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Lack of notice means you're clean. It can take them several months to catch up and put you on their hit list.
 
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Maybe it also depends on how profitable you are as a customer / how close your contract is to expiring? If for example you're the type of person who has an unlimited plan but barely uses 200MBs, barely uses any minutes, and has an unlimited texting plan - then perhaps they take into account that they have more to lose (by pissing you off enough to send you to Verizon) than they have to gain (by getting an extra $15/month from you). For example, I only stick with AT&T because their data speeds are significantly faster than VZW... which only matters to me because of tethering. If I couldn't do that anymore, I'd just switch to Verizon for the better overall coverage (and am in the position to do so if I want to)
 
Ohai.

Hello everyone. Some of you may have heard of me already. I've been reading these forums for several years, but I couldn't be bothered to make an account until now, mainly because this is the first time I've had what I believe is valuable input. (I also want to setup tethering for a friend, etc etc.) (I could go on with meaningless stuff, but I think this is far enough.)
(I know this thread is 5 days old with respects to last reply, and a couple months old with regards to thread start, but I think it's still important that we try to figure this junk out.)
(Last one. In case anyone wants to know, I read the first 17 pages of this thread in its entirety.)

I setup MyWi for a family friend and my father as a sort of present some time ago. (More than 6 months ago.) During the month before MyWi they were both using about 4GB a month, and afterwards they were using about 50GB a month. Neither has received a single notice. The catch? The family friend is on a corporate account, and my father has an apple developer account. It seems that this is the first mention of a corporate account being a viable workaround, let alone a corporate account at all.

On the other hand, I setup MyWi for my mother a month after that, and both of my parents, me, and my sister are on the same FamilyPlan. (We have ATT.) While the average tethering use has been about 10MB a month, there have been months where we've used 25MB of it. She has not received a notice either.
On this same note, not long ago, a friend of mine got MyWi, tethers regularly, and hasn't had a problem.

So now, information aside, I wanted to summarize the as-of-yet mostly unchallenged or challenged without reason/evidence theories as of how to get around the issue.
1. Corporate ATT account
2. Apple Developer Account
3. Extremely low usage (Not 200MB, 10MB.)
4. Get a Droid.
Not exactly good options. Here is a summary of the as-of-yet mostly unchallenged or challenged without reason/evidence theories as of how AT&T sends out their messages.
1. Complete freaking accident
2. Random
3. The absolute latest build of MyWi (The one with the OnDemand DLC and the three quick toggles on the bottom)

Thoughts? Arguments?
 
I think someone should file a lawsuit against AT&T based on targeting iPhone users over any other subscribers who also illegally tether. It's profiling.
 
iMrNiceGuy0023 said:
just curious, do Andriod users who activate tethering on their phones without paying extra get the txt and threats as well?
Click to expand...

I tether minimally on my android - max 100mb/month and I've been fine.

I basically just use it for HTML, mostly for opening reading material on my wifi only iPad. They really let android users off the hook on this one...
 
From my own experience and from what I've gathered from others, tethering on the EDGE network with AT&T and the original iPhone using PDANet will not result in any warnings from AT&T. The reason? There is no tethering data plan available for EDGE (and the original iPhone) and EDGE is slow enough as is it so as not to garner interest. It's possible too AT&T is simply unable to detect tethering using the above.
Unlimited data, tethering for $20. a month.

Sure, it is slower than 3G but guess what? From someone who used the hotspot offered with AT&T for months on an iPhone4, really not that much slower.
Certainly a consideration.
 
jesusplay said:
700GB's of data used this year, 5 notices, still tethering, still unlimited.

AT&T is full of ****.:cool:
Click to expand...

This. Are there any actual reports of AT&T following through on their threat? Like someone got the notice, continued tethering, then next month they were on the $45 4gb tethering plan or something.
 
Bawstun said:
I think someone should file a lawsuit against AT&T based on targeting iPhone users over any other subscribers who also illegally tether. It's profiling.
Click to expand...

Difference is the iPhone seems to use the built in tethering in the phone which cause it to tell the network that it is tethering. Android current methods on rooted phones do not report this and does not shoot up any flags
 
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