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Tether Says Apple Pulled iTether App Over Carrier Burden

dBeats said:
What I'm confused about is that nearly everyone with an iPhone has a data plan that is no longer unlimited. That means we PAY for the airtime we use. How in the world is this a burden on the network?!?
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No you don't.

You pay for the average usage that the carrier expects. They don't expect maximum usage.

If you paid for the airtime you use, you would pay by the byte, not for a limited monthly amount. They have to bill this way, because American consumers refuse to pay for actual use. They want a nice, predictable smoothed monthly billing.

If average utilization increases, they will have to increase their prices, or otherwise recover the incremental cost.

Ponder for a minute what would happen if electricity were billed this way.
 
Mr. Pink said:
Specifically what I said. They're huffing and puffing about...
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But see, to all of us, 'huffing and puffing' means getting mad...yelling...saying unreasonable things.

Saying that they're "very disappointed" does not equate to huffing in puffing in most of our books. You seem to be the only one who defines that term in this way.

This explains the gap between you and everyone else. We do not feel you've explained your comment because we want examples of them yelling and lying in order to justify that term. Apparently you don't think of the term in that way.
 
Mr. Pink said:
I'm not deluded at all. I'm fully aware of the tyrannical control. What you're deluded about is the fact that you're all complaining about a control that you happily signed on the dotted line to be under.
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Please just stop. Just because Apple *may* legally be within its rights to pull apps from App Store (at least for now) - that doesn't make it right, fair, or justified. No one said here - "Apple broke the law by pulling Tether after initially approving it".

You were critical of Tether for their very reasoned and measured response to a grossly unfair act. Tether is hardly out of line here. Apple is.
 
No Tether for iOS

Hi,

I hate to say it, and I know I'll sound like a Troll.
This is why I have a ....... God forbid......... Android Phone...
BTW - I own 5 Mac's, 4 iPods *AND* Apple stock.
 
Small White Car said:
To all of us, 'huffing and puffing' means getting mad...yelling...saying unreasonable things.

Saying that they're "very disappointed" does not equate to huffing in puffing in most of our books. You seem to be the only one who defines that term in this way.
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I agree the phrasing wasn't well chosen. I'll edit it. I meant to express that I picked up on a "huff and puff" tone that I read between the lines. They're pissed, we all know that. Let's not think someone wrote that statement with a smile on his face.
 
The carriers' goal:

$30 / month for "Data package" for your phone.
$5 / month for "Web access" for your phone.
$2 / month for "email access" for your phone.
$10 / month for "Netflix access" for your phone.
$8 / month for "Pandora access" for your phone.
$5 / month access for "Premium web access" (news sites, sports sites, etc) for your phone.
$5 / month for "Someone might be looking at your screen" mult-user access for your phone.
$1 per MB if you actually download anything.
$5 / month for "convenience fee" to provide you with such great service.
$5 / month "advertising recuperation" fee.
$3 / month "I think that lady over there is trying to get a free peek at your screen" fee.

Want to tether?
$20 / month additional "tethering" access fee.
$20 / month additional "just in case" extra GB limit fee.
$5 per day for any client that actually connects to your phone's tethering program.
$5 / month "IP address access fee".
$60 per GB over the limit fee.

But hey, now you get 80,000 FREE "mobile to mobile" minutes per month, instead of just 50,000 free mobile-to-mobile minutes you use to get (but never used in the first place).
 
I'd like to know what carriers are pressuring apple over this, so I can go ahead and boycott them.

I know it won't do anything directly but I don't want to be giving them my money, especially as they are thwarting technological progress.
 
ouimetnick said:
Why do carriers care? If I have say a 1GB per month plan, why does it matter if I use that 1GB over the month on my phone, or in one day (or week) on my computer? 1GB is 1GB, why does it matter how I use it, on which device, or how fast I use it? 1GB is 1GB, and its my 1GB to use.. after all the customer is paying for the 1GB, shouldn't they be able to use it how ever THEY wish?
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Common sense thinking doesn't earn a profit.

Next up, charging for every device connected to your home broadband connection.
 
I may have missed it, but does this the app give any indication to the carriers that you are tethering? I know some jb apps try to hide it?
 
Expected, but also disappointed. This tells you that Apple has no backbone, allowing carriers to dictate and censor apps from Apple's own app store. Apple, I expected more from you.
 
I downloaded the file yesterday as I knew it won't last long here....But it is no good for me as I uses my iPhone 4 with ugly TMobile... UGHHH.

let me know if someone wants it, ill send the IPA file.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Well I still have unlimited data! Let's see if AT&T catches me when I use it once and a blue moon!
 
ArcaneDevice said:
Common sense thinking doesn't earn a profit.

Next up, charging for every device connected to your home broadband connection.
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You do know they used to do that, right? Routers and people with network know-how basically made it moot, so they gave up.
 
TheOrioles33 said:
Thats what I dont understand. You can stream Netflix and Pandora all day long but you cant tether. Makes no sense.
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You can use GoogleTalk, AIM, Yahoo! Instant Messenger, and now iMessage all day long, but SMS (which uses less than 2MB per month for most users) still costs $20 per month unlimited with AT&T and $30 per month for the family plan.

One SMS Message = 160 characters (max, most are less on average)
10 SMS Messages = 1.5K (1600 characters)
10000 SMS Messages = 1.5MB

If anybody is using more then 10,000 SMS messages per month I would be amazed, but even at 100K messages you are looking at 15MB. Somehow I don't think the SMS messaging is burdening the carrier network in any way.

I think the carriers should use some of that SMS revenue to help expand that network that is supposedly overburdened by tethering/wifi hotspot functionality.
 
I haven't caved. Anyone that cares to text me and from which I care enough to receive a text, knows they have to text my Google voice number and not my cell number. Then it pops up on all my iOS devices and in my email inbox so I won't miss it.

Tethering would be useful on occasions when I'm not near wifi, but it's certainly not essential enough to pay more than double what I pay for data right now.

Like texting charges, it's simply taking advantage of their customers in the same moral category has grabbing candy from a baby.



Kid A said:
:apple:

100% AGREED!

And :apple: (partially) f'd (stuck it to) the carriers with iMessage, no? Too bad most folks are probably already on an overpriced unlimited texting plan. (I myself eventually caved due to pre-iMessage social life pressures). But iMessage could in theory prevent texting overages from folks on limited plans, satiate (for a while) kids with iPod touches (who may otherwise get an iPhone sooner), or encourage folks (if enough of their friends/family are on iOS 5 devices) to move to lower-tier texting plans, IF the carriers continue to offer them.

I'm sure someone will say tethering is somehow different than texting... But my point is, if :apple: has shown it is willing to offer a feature to users that help them avoid stupid/extra/excessive carrier fees. Why shouldn't iTethering be next.... eventually?
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hitekalex said:
Please just stop. Just because Apple *may* legally be within its rights to pull apps from App Store (at least for now) - that doesn't make it right, fair, or justified. No one said here - "Apple broke the law by pulling Tether after initially approving it".

You were critical of Tether for their very reasoned and measured response to a grossly unfair act. Tether is hardly out of line here. Apple is.
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I'll stop when I don't have an opinion any longer. I'm not asking you to stop. Express yourself as you wish.

I'm critical of all parties involved, actually. In this case though, I feel most critical of the developer because it was their decision to attempt to enter the store knowing the manner in which Apple regulates it. They knew that stuff like this happened in the past and would probably happen to them.

I'm not saying Apple is "right" to pull it. Heck, I want the damn thing on the App Store. I bought it for Christ's sake. My point isn't that it doesn't belong on the store. My point is that everyone has agreements to make:

We, the customers, agreed to buy the phone that has the App Store.

The developers agreed to develop for and attempt to sell on that store a product they created.

The carriers agreed to provide the data pipe through which all of this stuff is accessed.

Then we have Apple who agrees to nothing lol They run the show.

Just don't forget that it all starts with us! We agree to this stuff from the beginning. I'm all for wanting to change how it all works out, but getting mad at Apple for doing what it's always done and then going out and buying 44 million iPhone 4S' isn't really helping a damn thing.
 
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