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The one thing that I really think makes people jailbreak to tether is the fact that as far as I know, if you add tethering, AT&T considers it a change to your data plan & you will lose your unlimited data palm, which is not an option for me and many others. I pay AT&T $90 a month for data, I'll do what I want with it. I have unlimited plans on my iPhone 4 & my wifes as well as on my 3G iPad, so I should pay them 60 more, & lose my data plan... No thank you... Just saying... They are entitled to make money, yes.... But enough is enough...

This is very true. When I get an iPhone 4 in November, no way in hell am I paying an extra charge to share the same amount of data as if I wasn't tethering. No, AT&T, suck my balls. :p
 
Sounds like a guilty conscious to me. Tell me you called ATT and told them that you are tethering with out paying them and its wrong for them to charge for it. If you cant do that, then your stealing because you know its wrong.

I pay for UNLIMITED data not just limited to what my iPhone can pull up so if I want to tether I'm gonna give AT&T a big FU and tether because it's my unlimited data and I'll do whatever in the hell I want with it!
 
I've been thinking about this, and the argument that tethering for free is like stealing cable, and I came up with a better analogy...

AT&T charging separately for it, even though you are on an unlimited plan, is like your cable company signing you up for a plan that includes unlimited viewing of every channel, and sending the signal for every channel to your house, but charging you an extra fee anyway, for watching HBO, even though you are already paying to receive HBO's signal.
 
I've been thinking about this, and the argument that tethering for free is like stealing cable, and I came up with a better analogy...

AT&T charging separately for it, even though you are on an unlimited plan, is like your cable company signing you up for a plan that includes unlimited viewing of every channel, and sending the signal for every channel to your house, but charging you an extra fee anyway, for watching HBO, even though you are already paying to receive HBO's signal.

That is a good one. As is mine: Think of it this way. If your ISP (Qwest, Comcast, etc) started charging you for sharing your home Internet connection with more than one computer through a switch or to other devices and computers via Wi-Fi or charged you for sharing it to guest that are visiting your house.
 
That is a good one. As is mine: Think of it this way. If your ISP (Qwest, Comcast, etc) started charging you for sharing your home Internet connection with more than one computer through a switch or to other devices and computers via Wi-Fi or charged you for sharing it to guest that are visiting your house.

They used to do that. I remember when Windows 98 Second Edition added internet sharing, and people at work were talking about it.

I never had to deal with that as a Mac user, and it was slightly amusing to me to learn that their ISPs had actually been charging them for multiple connections within the same household!
 
Hrmm..

I can tether on T-Mobile with any of the service plans (it worked for the longest time on the $5.99 mobile web plan without a hiccup). If you go to their forum they'll tell you how to set up your phone/computer to do it, too. XD

This is why I don't like AT&T ;)
 
I justify it because I believe that the tethering policy is unjust.

With the introduction of tiered data plans, users pay to access a certain amount of wireless data per month. It's not acceptable to dictate that the data can not be accessed by a laptop through a tethered connection. There are only two important characteristics of a wireless connection: bandwidth and data usage. It is only just to charge for the service based on these characteristics. The argument for limiting (or charging additional fees for) tethering, therefore, is usually justified by claiming either that it increases bandwidth or uses more more data.

The argument that tethering uses more bandwidth is false because the connection with the cell tower is independent of whether or not the iPhone is tethered. The argument that tethering uses more data is valid, however it is nullified with tiered pricing; more data usage results in greater services charges anyways.

There are people who are satisfied with following the law without question. These are the people you'll never learn about in history.

Then there are people who critically evaluate the law and sometimes question and challenge them. These are the people that change the world.

Racial segregation used to be "policy"; gender discrimination in the workplace used to be "policy"; discrimination based on sexual orientation still is "policy"; but at least the OP is happy he is following AT&T's iPhone tethering "policy".

P.S. I don't have any need for tethering, nor have I ever used it, according to AT&T's policy or not.
 
I justify it because I believe that the tethering policy is unjust.

With the introduction of tiered data plans, users pay to access a certain amount of wireless data per month. It's not acceptable to dictate that the data can not be accessed by a laptop through a tethered connection. There are only two important characteristics of a wireless connection: bandwidth and data usage. It is only just to charge for the service based on these characteristics. The argument for limiting (or charging additional fees for) tethering, therefore, is usually justified by claiming either that it increases bandwidth or uses more more data.

The argument that tethering uses more bandwidth is false because the connection with the cell tower is independent of whether or not the iPhone is tethered. The argument that tethering uses more data is valid, however it is nullified with tiered pricing; more data usage results in greater services charges anyways.

There are people who are satisfied with following the law without question. These are the people you'll never learn about in history.

Then there are people who critically evaluate the law and sometimes question and challenge them. These are the people that change the world.

Racial segregation used to be "policy"; gender discrimination in the workplace used to be "policy"; discrimination based on sexual orientation still is "policy"; but at least the OP is happy he is following AT&T's iPhone tethering "policy".

Exactly. The amount of bandwidth is impossible to increase through tethering. It still has to go through your iPhone, which has a max bandwidth. All in all, AT&T is just full of over priced asshats.

They used to do that. I remember when Windows 98 Second Edition added internet sharing, and people at work were talking about it.

I never had to deal with that as a Mac user, and it was slightly amusing to me to learn that their ISPs had actually been charging them for multiple connections within the same household!

Wait. So was the ISP charing for the Internet sharing or was it Microsoft through Windows 98 that was charing for it?
 
It was the ISP. Which is the reason I made sure my very first router supported MAC spoofing - it was to trick the ISP into thinking your original computer was connected to the modem when in fact it was the router, sharing the connection among all of your computers. I don't recall people preaching about how wrong that was, when in fact tethering is exactly the same. :rolleyes:
 
It was the ISP. Which is the reason I made sure my very first router supported MAC spoofing - it was to trick the ISP into thinking your original computer was connected to the modem when in fact it was the router, sharing the connection among all of your computers. I don't recall people preaching about how wrong that was, when in fact tethering is exactly the same. :rolleyes:

Wait. I'm confused again. Are you saying people weren't complaining that the ISP was charging to share your Internet connection in which case it is the same as to how AT&T is making us pay to tether or are you saying people weren't complaining that your spoofed your MAC address which, in theory, is the same thing we are doing with the tethering jailbreak and workarounds?
 
think of it like buying a pizza.
so you go into to att pizzeria, and you buy a large pizza, one that you could never eat by yourself.
so you eat a few slices while your there, but you don't want this pizza to go to waste. You ask for a box, but your server informs you that large pizza's aren't allowed to be taken to go. only small, or medium pies are allowed to leave the pizzeria.
you're like, WTF! i just paid for this large pizza that i could never finish by myself! so you just leave with it. you already paid for it, it's yours why can't you bring it home, to eat with friends and family?

kinda crappy analogy. but it's kinda the same thing.
we just want to eat our large pizza with more than one plate.....

No it is more like going to Cici's buffet and demanding you get to take as much pizza as you want home with you.

They are not taking anything away from you. They provide unlimited data to be used on their device, not through their device. Tethering is not included as part of the package for unlimited data.

If it was, the unlimited data plan would be $69.99 a month. I wonder how people would justify it then..

What if AT&T just changes it and they do offer tethering with unlimited data but it is $69.99 a month. The same people who are stealing now would steal then... So it has nothing to do with any of the objections or reasons here. People just don't want to actually pay for the service they use so they steal it.

How many of you stealing data now with jailbroken tethering would pay $69.99 or $79.99 a month for unlimited tethering offered by AT&T?
 
No it is more like going to Cici's buffet and demanding you get to take as much pizza as you want home with you.

They are not taking anything away from you. They provide unlimited data to be used on their device, not through their device. Tethering is not included as part of the package for unlimited data.

If it was, the unlimited data plan would be $69.99 a month. I wonder how people would justify it then..

What if AT&T just changes it and they do offer tethering with unlimited data but it is $69.99 a month. The same people who are stealing now would steal then... So it has nothing to do with any of the objections or reasons here. People just don't want to actually pay for the service they use so they steal it.

How many of you stealing data now with jailbroken tethering would pay $69.99 or $79.99 a month for unlimited tethering offered by AT&T?

Well maybe at that point, but I would stop paying for regular ISP Internet then and would just use that. I still think it isn't stealing since we haven't taken more data than we paid for. For example, people with the 2GB data plan aren't taking more than 2GB and if they happen to be going over 2GB, that's just part of the plan and they are being charged for that.

THEN AGAIN. I still couldn't get tethering whether or not I wanted to since my iPhone is on a GoPhone plan since I'm lame and my mom won't let me sign for a contract. Good thing I'm turning 18 at the end of the month.. Hahaha.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4 (32GB, JB): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

iParis said:
It was the ISP. Which is the reason I made sure my very first router supported MAC spoofing - it was to trick the ISP into thinking your original computer was connected to the modem when in fact it was the router, sharing the connection among all of your computers. I don't recall people preaching about how wrong that was, when in fact tethering is exactly the same. :rolleyes:

Wait. I'm confused again. Are you saying people weren't complaining that the ISP was charging to share your Internet connection in which case it is the same as to how AT&T is making us pay to tether or are you saying people weren't complaining that your spoofed your MAC address which, in theory, is the same thing we are doing with the tethering jailbreak and workarounds?

The second one. ;)

I don't remember hearing people whine about how unethical MAC spoofing was back when ISPs charged extra to share your connection with more than one computer, yet now people are getting their panties in a twist over exactly the same thing with the iPhone - tethering, rather than MAC spoofing in this case. Why the double standard?
 
Huh?!

I currently don't use a jailbroken iPhone, but jailbreaking is perfectly legal. Therefore, tethering without buying it officially is also legal. So what's the deal?

Wait a minute... just because jailbreaking the iPhone is legal doesn't mean that any and everything you can do with it after jailbreaking it is legal. That's like saying that since buying a gun at Walmart by following the normal rules of purchasing said gun is legal, that anything you do with the gun after buying including murdering people is also legal. You've got the rules twisted JUST a little bit, don't ya think?
 
I don't steal so I don't need to justify it. I work very hard for everything I want. Anything I can't afford info without. No one takes care of me but that doesn't justify me stealing.
 
I don't live in the US, but at least here there in no need to jail break to get tethering. I can connect the machine via usb or bluetooth and access internet thru the phone.

So have the iphones in US removed that feature or did I miss something about what tethering is?
 
I have Att's dsl. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But every month I have to pay the bill. I tether my iphone when it doesn't work. I justify this because I pay Att for a service that doesn't work all the time when my iphone works all the time.
 
Wait a minute... just because jailbreaking the iPhone is legal doesn't mean that any and everything you can do with it after jailbreaking it is legal. That's like saying that since buying a gun at Walmart by following the normal rules of purchasing said gun is legal, that anything you do with the gun after buying including murdering people is also legal. You've got the rules twisted JUST a little bit, don't ya think?

Here we go. More fooliness.
I wonder how many I've killed by tethering.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

megapopular said:
Wait a minute... just because jailbreaking the iPhone is legal doesn't mean that any and everything you can do with it after jailbreaking it is legal. That's like saying that since buying a gun at Walmart by following the normal rules of purchasing said gun is legal, that anything you do with the gun after buying including murdering people is also legal. You've got the rules twisted JUST a little bit, don't ya think?

No offense, but that is a terrible analogy.

And as someone pointed out, this tethering charge would have made a lot more sense on AT&T's part back when everyone had unlimited data plans. But with tiered pricing, you're already paying for everything you use over your limit. Again, AT&T's getting paid twice for the same service. The only fair way to charge for tethering with the tiered plans is to offer ADDITIONAL data for that $20 fee.
 
You've paid for the phone and you've paid for that data. So why should you have to pay AT&T so that you are able to use a feature that is already on the phone that uses the data you have already paid for?

Also, $20 JUST for tethering? That's like £15.... and for £15 I get Unlimited data, unlimited texting and 300 any-network minutes. I don't get how you Americans cope...
 
Forgot to mention that I have $186.39 reasons to justify how I choose to use my phone every month.
 
Sounds like a guilty conscious to me. Tell me you called ATT and told them that you are tethering with out paying them and its wrong for them to charge for it. If you cant do that, then your stealing because you know its wrong.

Perhaps he doesn't want to deal with nonsense. I live in Canada so tethering is free. Paying for it is a stupid greedy concept to begin with because I PAID for the data and I should choose how to use it period.

CAPITALISM WITHOUT RESTRAINT is what's hurting north america.
 
I understand that Ill get attacked for this but Im reading all these ways to tether for free, jailbreak for this or that. Im just curious how you justify stealing a service from a company just because you feel that you are entitled to it for what ever reason. If the company is such a rip off, why dont you take your business elsewhere.
Now I completely understand jail breaking to some degree, but to do it to steal services from a company is no different than somebody than tapping into your house for free cable or wifi, something like that. You cant tell me you wouldnt be mad if a year down the road someone did this to you and they got free service off you while they you payed for it. How are you any different than the people that pay ATT for tethering honestly while you steal it?

I dont like the way ATT has it set up, but is is their company. And just because I feel they should give a service like tethering for free, doesnt mean they have to. So flame away and justify taking a service like tethering for free when there are people out there that pay for it honestly.

You must be some kind of ATT employee... If I pay for an unlimited data plan, I should be able to use it how I want to. I don't see any reason ATT should care if I surf on my iPhone's screen or on a larger one, if not trying to steal us more money than they already do. THEY are the thieves.
 
I don't steal so I don't need to justify it. I work very hard for everything I want. Anything I can't afford info without. No one takes care of me but that doesn't justify me stealing.

No one takes care of you? What's your point? Not to say no to a company that is essentially ripping you off?
 
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