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Tether Says Apple Pulled iTether App Over Carrier Burden
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Why would the government look into this? Consumers have spoken with their wallets. A service is being offered and we are willing to pay the entry fee to ride. Now, if there's price fixing, monopoly, or other unethical practices then sure, but basic capitalism is not illegal. There are plenty of options in the mobile telecommunications world, including not owning a cell phone at all.
So because of US carriers we all don't get the app?
The USA is completely backwards when it comes to mobile networks. They have never been able to get it right and are a complete embarrassment to their customers. Apple being an American corp will just pull it - wouldn't want 'outsiders' to get it when those in the states cant I guess!
Apple approved the app.
It was the carriers that forced Apple to pull the app. Apple is in favor of this app, guaranteed. Or at least the concept of it.
It was the carriers that forced Apple to pull the app. Apple is in favor of this app, guaranteed. Or at least the concept of it.
that is why I bought it as soon as I saw it on macrumors. I knew it was going to get pulled so even though it was $15 I pounced on it. These apps don't last too long. i'm sure carriers contacted apple and app got pulled. now I backed up my ipa and its sitting in my itunes as well. i don't use it often but would rather have it just in case. I had cable modem outage that lasted few hours and wifi tether saved my ass when i was using android
I hate that Apple caved to the "carrier burden BS". I wish they would grow a pair and stand up to them. Which carrier in their right mind would drop the iPhone over USB tethering?
A big player needs to bully these companies into doing positive things for their customers. The carriers already nickel and dime people for basic, low bandwidth text messaging. Unlimited data isn't unlimited and worse yet no longer offered by two of the three US iPhone carriers. I can send 15 MB emails all day but they want to charge extra for a 160 kb text message? WTF!?
To anyone who says they understand what the carriers are doing, and think it's acceptable, I feel sorry for you. Clearly you've lost touch with basic human decency.
It's like selling a child a lollipop and telling them that they're free to do whatever they'd like with it unless they want to unwrap it. There's an additional fee for that.
A big player needs to bully these companies into doing positive things for their customers. The carriers already nickel and dime people for basic, low bandwidth text messaging. Unlimited data isn't unlimited and worse yet no longer offered by two of the three US iPhone carriers. I can send 15 MB emails all day but they want to charge extra for a 160 kb text message? WTF!?
To anyone who says they understand what the carriers are doing, and think it's acceptable, I feel sorry for you. Clearly you've lost touch with basic human decency.
It's like selling a child a lollipop and telling them that they're free to do whatever they'd like with it unless they want to unwrap it. There's an additional fee for that.
Why would the government look into this? Consumers have spoken with their wallets. A service is being offered and we are willing to pay the entry fee to ride. Now, if there's price fixing, monopoly, or other unethical practices then sure, but basic capitalism is not illegal. There are plenty of options in the mobile telecommunications world, including not owning a cell phone at all.
As the cellular market is heavily regulated by the FCC due to spectrum limitations, the market is far from purely competitive and borders a monopoly. Heck, read US Cellular's response to the AT&T / T-Mobile merger. He specifically points out where AT&T behaved unethically to gain customers (by denying US a 3G roaming agreement in areas where US doesn't own licenses to transmit 3G).
I personally feel the FCC should not be in the cellular business at all, but that is a topic for another discussion.
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I don't get this. In Australia we don't get charged extra. Most if not all providers give it for free and everyone just uses the built in tethering on the iPhone and it works perfect for I think 5 other devices.
Why are people pissed off at Apple for this. To me this is purely the carriers way overcharging for something that you have already bought and a stupid move from the developer, Apple provides it already, it's the carriers that stop it so why wouldn't they stop the App?
Apple needs to stop any kind of exclusive deals with carriers, its the only thing that will stop this kind of problem.
Why are people pissed off at Apple for this. To me this is purely the carriers way overcharging for something that you have already bought and a stupid move from the developer, Apple provides it already, it's the carriers that stop it so why wouldn't they stop the App?
Apple needs to stop any kind of exclusive deals with carriers, its the only thing that will stop this kind of problem.
Why would the government look into this? Consumers have spoken with their wallets. A service is being offered and we are willing to pay the entry fee to ride. Now, if there's price fixing, monopoly, or other unethical practices then sure, but basic capitalism is not illegal. There are plenty of options in the mobile telecommunications world, including not owning a cell phone at all.
There is a monopoly (or a cartel of companies working together), and it is way too hard or costly to switch.
Basic capitalism says that the consumer gets to pick the best option, yet when the carriers or Apple specifically deny the free market from working and offering cheaper alternatives to the big carriers plan.
And if they worry about network saturation...limit the MB per hour during the day. But it is kind of silly that I can download and read my e-mail on my phone, but not on the mail app on the Mac.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)
My plans as well.
asr10 user said:
My plans as well.
Carriers need to stop complaining.
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The difference is this application charged a one time fee of $15. It costs $20 a month on AT&T to use the official tether option.
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The difference is this application charged a one time fee of $15. It costs $20 a month on AT&T to use the official tether option.
Then what exactly is the point of setting such a high data cap when they actively resist any attempt at using anywhere near that amount?
They set the pricing, they should be able to stand up to their side of the bargain.
I managed to get it (and finally download the .exe) and I love it. I'm surprised how fast the connection is (speedtest read 6.5Mbps down) and I wonder if ATT can consider this "illegal tethering" even though my phone is not jailbroken? I just hope the dev opens it up so it will work with more than just USB.
finally someone who gets whats going on in the USA wireless industry
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What's useless about it?
Official iPhone tethering has been around for quite some time.
So they developed this app knowing that they were allowing people to circumvent the rules the carrier had about tethering (think about it, if tethering was free, like it is for me on Three's network in the UK, then you would be using the iPhone's built in tethering/hotspot software, just like I do) and then whined because the carriers called foul to Apple? Meh.... Non issue methinks.
Just remember when you signed the contract with the carrier, IT DIDN'T COVER TETHERING.
Just remember when you signed the contract with the carrier, IT DIDN'T COVER TETHERING.
My contract I originally signed in 2005 does cover tethering at no additonal charge. This is why generalizations suck.
I don't get the USA.
They design some great stuff but chokehold anyone who tries to use it.
My iPhone plan costs half of what it costs over there and I get free tethering.
You guys can roll into any country and take their oil but you can't stop your own phone networks from screwing you? Hilarious
They design some great stuff but chokehold anyone who tries to use it.
My iPhone plan costs half of what it costs over there and I get free tethering.
You guys can roll into any country and take their oil but you can't stop your own phone networks from screwing you? Hilarious
You can still use the app right? I'm not sure how long the app will be supported as the iOS get's updated.
