Important notice about data usage

[friscoway]

Yesterday I received a letter from sprint abot what title says, and at the same time one call from them (but didn't answer) and today I got another call and I called back to break the ice.

OK the letter says something about they monitor and prohibits certain types of activities, and recently they noticed a type of usage on my account not allowed by their terms and conditions, and after investigating they "determined" that the usage violated at least one of the restrictions using their data services.

Ofcourse the second paragraph it talks about tethering.. that it is prohibited to use the phone as a modem to connect other devices and bla bla bla....

The third paragraph says that in order to avoid termination of my account "change my data use to comply with their terms and conditions, and they will monitor my account to ensure compliance, if a violation occurs after 10 days from the date of this letter they will terminate the service on my account.

And the last says their bullshit that I am a valuable costumer and they want to ensure that I enjoy their services and products and bla bla bla... (bullshits ends).

While in the phone I was playing dumb saying that I like too much netflis and youtube and pandora, and that I only was using the HDMI connection to watch over the TV, they told me that's tethering!!, and I played dumb again asking if watching my photos and recorded video through HDMI was violating their TAC they say yes, and that watching netflix continously all day every day it violates their TAC, I played dumb again asking that if using the HDMI to watch netflix was the cause of too much data usage they say "they believe so" and that I needed to stop doing that in order to comply.

After playing dumb with 2 representatives and arguing about unlimited data and their restrictions to comply, and asking why they offer unlimited data and later they are calling to tell me to not use much data, I noticed they wanted me to accept that I am tethering and ofcourse I denied it and I was always playing dumb.

Finally I found out they cannot see how I am tethering but they suspect because my data usage, last month was 88 GB and the last 10 days I am on the 18,500,300 kb, ofcourse I think this matter was because data usage but not if they really know if I am tethering or not I think they only suspect or suppose, but I got my warning anyway.

Do you guys think they can tell for sure that I am tethering? (I use Klink), or was this matter just for my 88 GB last month, and lately (after my ten days of my billing cycle start) 18 GB ??

Should I continue using klink but moderate usage? or quit it for good.

Experts: what do you recommend?

Newbies: what do you think, happened the same?

 

[Virginmobileguy]

i dont think netlfix ccan take up so much internet I'm sure that Pandora can ttake up alot of space but 88 gbs bro hell nah

 

[falconey]

I'm pretty sure they can't be certain you are tethering unless they focus in on your usage. Maybe there is a way to access a mac address, but I'm not sure. Whatever the case unless you want to get out of ETF free and have to find another carrier I would reduce your usuage. Using 88GB of data in a month is quite excessive.

 

[marctronixx]

if you tether from a mobile phone, it uses a different gateway to the internet versus using a mobile hotspot. so if they look in detail into your account, they can determine if you are using a wifi device or a cellular phone (they each use different gateways). they have been able to do this since vision was born back in the early 2000s. back then counting data was not as big a deal as it is now.

with LTE, they will be able to determine exactly where you go based on the IP's...

 

[Tommydaniel]

I think they have ways other than usage to tell if you are tethering, which is exactly what they called you out on. The tethering you pay for with Sprint only gets you 5GBs, so I don't see why you think you should get unlimited tethering for cheating the system.

 

[RedheadTarn]

i dont think netlfix ccan take up so much internet I'm sure that Pandora can ttake up alot of space but 88 gbs bro hell nah

My wife and I watch Netflix (and projectfree.tv, and 1channel.ch) through the phone hdmi to our TV, and each half hour show runs about 400 megs, with a full length HD movie running almost 1.5 gigs. We use almost 2 gigs per day, so 88 per month isn't outrageous from my view point.

 

[friscoway]

Thank you all then I will have to use moderate data amount to calm them down, ofcourse they suspect when someone is tethering because the data usage, and that is their excuse to call me to lay low in the data usage, plus they threat me with they "investigate" and they will "monitor my activities" bullshit to make me stop using lots of data, but lets say that I only use the phone itself without tethering they will bother me again because practically they don't want me to use data (if nothing the better for them).

Also, the lady told me that I cannot watch netflix all day every day even in the phone itself so WTF??

so **** their Unlimited data "hook" advertisements.

 

[suprmallet]

Dude, you got a phone call at 88 GB. If this were AT&T your "unlimited" would have been throttled at 3-5 GB. If you still managed to use 88 they'd probably just drop you completely.

 

[simcha]

88GB sounds like a lot of data. On the other hand, they do advertise "unlimited" and "unlimited" should be, well, unlimited. I hope that one day we will be able to replace many media devices and services with our phones and wireless networks. If we could use our phones to access movies and television programs while playing them on our television screens reliably, that would replace cable, .

I often wonder if there isn't some sort of collusion beween communications and media corporations to avoid making an industry obsolete. It would be a wonderful thing if cable companies would be driven out of business, especially Comcast. They charge way too much for delivering mostly crappy content. And it would be ideal if we didn't need dsl or cable for accessing the Internet on our laptops and we could count on our phones and our phones' networks to deliver the speeds we need.

If a telecommunications company were smart, they would seize the opportunity to blow open their broadband network along with increasing the ability of their phones to communicate with many telecommunications and media devices. If done correctly they could charge a little more because there are people out there (like me) who would rather not have to deal with the cable company, satellite company, or a land line phone company for any of their communication or media needs. I would like to have one wireless device and network that would allow me to access all of the media I want and to allow me to communicate in as many ways as possible with as many people as possible cheaply and reliably.

I don't have a land line. I don't have cable or satellite television. I decided long ago that paying their high prices wasn't worth their inconsistent and crappy services. I use my current Sprint phone for my communication needs including Internet. I use the hotspot and I would appreciate it if Network Vision would deliver on the consistency and speed I would like to match what cable and dsl offers.

I use OTA for television. It's amazing what's available out there and the quality of the HD picture is better than cable.

 

[IOWA]

Yesterday I received a letter from sprint abot what title says, and at the same time one call from them (but didn't answer) and today I got another call and I called back to break the ice.

OK the letter says something about they monitor and prohibits certain types of activities, and recently they noticed a type of usage on my account not allowed by their terms and conditions, and after investigating they "determined" that the usage violated at least one of the restrictions using their data services.

Ofcourse the second paragraph it talks about tethering.. that it is prohibited to use the phone as a modem to connect other devices and bla bla bla....

The third paragraph says that in order to avoid termination of my account "change my data use to comply with their terms and conditions, and they will monitor my account to ensure compliance, if a violation occurs after 10 days from the date of this letter they will terminate the service on my account.

And the last says their bullshit that I am a valuable costumer and they want to ensure that I enjoy their services and products and bla bla bla... (bullshits ends).

While in the phone I was playing dumb saying that I like too much netflis and youtube and pandora, and that I only was using the HDMI connection to watch over the TV, they told me that's tethering!!, and I played dumb again asking if watching my photos and recorded video through HDMI was violating their TAC they say yes, and that watching netflix continously all day every day it violates their TAC, I played dumb again asking that if using the HDMI to watch netflix was the cause of too much data usage they say "they believe so" and that I needed to stop doing that in order to comply.

After playing dumb with 2 representatives and arguing about unlimited data and their restrictions to comply, and asking why they offer unlimited data and later they are calling to tell me to not use much data, I noticed they wanted me to accept that I am tethering and ofcourse I denied it and I was always playing dumb.

Finally I found out they cannot see how I am tethering but they suspect because my data usage, last month was 88 GB and the last 10 days I am on the 18,500,300 kb, ofcourse I think this matter was because data usage but not if they really know if I am tethering or not I think they only suspect or suppose, but I got my warning anyway.

Do you guys think they can tell for sure that I am tethering? (I use Klink), or was this matter just for my 88 GB last month, and lately (after my ten days of my billing cycle start) 18 GB ??

Should I continue using klink but moderate usage? or quit it for good.

Experts: what do you recommend?

Newbies: what do you think, happened the same?

Of course they can tell you're tethering, and that's some pretty blatant data usage there to boot. It's not hard to tell that you're tethering, they are your ISP after all.

I can determine your Operating System, IP Address, Browser, and even where you're from with a few simple Javascript lines. It's kind of hard to explain, but professional network engineers have tools far more powerful than that. They know EVERYTHING that travels across their networks.

My advice is to quit tethering.

EDIT: Keep in mind they can cancel you at any time for breach of TOS, and legally make you pay the remainder of your contract, or the ETF.

Another Edit:

Prohibited Network Uses. To ensure the activities of some users do not impair the ability of our customers to have access to reliable services provided at reasonable costs, you may not use our services in a manner that is unlawful, infringes on intellectual property rights, or harms or unduly interferes with the use of Sprint’s network or systems. Sprint reserves the right, without notice or limitation, to limit data throughput speeds or quantities or to deny, terminate, end, modify, disconnect, or suspend service if an individual engages in any of the prohibited voice or data uses detailed below or if Sprint, in its sole discretion, determines action is necessary to protect its wireless networks from harm or degradation. Examples of prohibited voice uses: Sprint voice services are provided solely for live dialogue between, and initiated by, individuals for personal use and as otherwise described in this policy. Sprint services may not be used for any other purposes, including, but not limited to: monitoring services, transmission of broadcasts, transmission of recorded material, telemarketing, autodialed calls, other commercial uses, or other connections that do not consist of uninterrupted live dialogue between individuals.

Examples of prohibited data uses: Sprint data services are provided solely for purposes of web surfing, sending and receiving email, photographs and other similar messaging activities, and the non-continuous streaming of videos, downloading of files or on line gaming. Our data services may not be used: (i) to generate excessive amounts of Internet traffic through the continuous, unattended streaming, downloading or uploading of videos or other files or to operate hosting services including, but not limited to, web or gaming hosting; (ii) to maintain continuous active network connections to the Internet such as through a web camera or machine-to-machine connections that do not involve active participation by a person; (iii) to disrupt email use by others using automated or manual routines, including, but not limited to "auto-responders" or cancel bots or other similar routines; (iv) to transmit or facilitate any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, telemarketing, promotional materials, "junk mail", unsolicited commercial or bulk email, or fax; (v) for activities adversely affecting the ability of other people or systems to use either Sprint’s wireless services or other parties’ Internet-based resources, including, but not limited to, "denial of service" (DoS) attacks against another network host or individual user; (vi) for an activity that connects any device to Personal Computers (including without limitation, laptops), or other equipment for the purpose of transmitting wireless data over the network (unless customer is using a plan designated for such usage); or (vi) for any other reason that, in our sole discretion violates our policy of providing service for individual use. Unlimited Use Plans. If you subscribe to rate plans, services or features that are described as unlimited, you should be aware that such "unlimited" plans are subject to these Sprint Prohibited Network Uses.

That's in your contract, and you agreed to it OP.

https://manage.sprintpcs.com/output/en_US/manage/MyPhoneandPlan/ChangePlans/popLegalTermsPrivacy.htm

 

[JMac202]

People tethering and not paying for a hot spot feature are going to be directly involved as the reason or part of the reason why Sprint will do away with unlimited data. Taking advantage of them will only last so long and you'll ruin it for other customers.

 

[IOWA]

People tethering and not paying for a hot spot feature are going to be directly involved as the reason or part of the reason why Sprint will do away with unlimited data. Taking advantage of them will only last so long and you'll ruin it for other customers.

This might sound greedy, but I'd rather just have them boot the abusers off the network and let the rest of us be. Just my humble opinion on the matter though.

 

[dan330]

using MHL to HDTV.. to watch your vids and pics is not tethering. that is BS!!!

watching Netflix on your devices/phone.. as much as you want..is part of unlimited.
using MHL to HDTV.. is not tethering... (my assumption). because the phone is eating the data.. and then transferring the image to the TV. not tethering.

yes... your huge usage .. flagged you.. to be watched.

yes.. they can tell if you are tethering.

yes.. it is a breach of contract for you to tether and not pay for it.

yes.. 88GB .. is a crap load of data usage... crazy amount..
yes.. you might want to reduce that by a lot!!! or pay the $30/month for tethering.

 

[ironbrewer]

using MHL to HDTV.. to watch your vids and pics is not tethering. that is BS!!!


using MHL to HDTV.. is not tethering... (my assumption). because the phone is eating the data.. and then transferring the image to the TV. not tethering.

Is this true or not? I'm new to Android and would really like to know.

 

[dan330]

i am 99% sure... it is not tethering...

using your phone and connecting it to your TV via the MHL/HDMI cable.. has nothing to do with tethering! example: watching your own personal recorded video of your vacation.

Tethering is when you let your phone .. become a router for other devices to use Data/Internet from your carrier's service (sharing the data). the data is consumed by other devices.. not your phone.

so.. if your phone is watching netflix/youtube... it is not tethering.
and then you .. mirror the image on your phone via MHL/HDMI to your TV.. this is not tethering.

if you tether your ipad to your phone.. surf the net ..or watch netflix on your ipad... that is tethering.

on sprint.. you have unlimited data.. so it should not be an issue.
NOTE: but tethering that data to another device is a breach of contract

if you are on a carrier that has data plan... then will be charged if you go over the usage. but not charged for tethering.

 

[IOWA]

i am 99% sure... it is not tethering...

using your phone and connecting it to your TV via the MHL/HDMI cable.. has nothing to do with tethering! example: watching your own personal recorded video of your vacation.

Tethering is when you let your phone .. become a router for other devices to use Data/Internet from your carrier's service (sharing the data). the data is consumed by other devices.. not your phone.

so.. if your phone is watching netflix/youtube... it is not tethering.
and then you .. mirror the image on your phone via MHL/HDMI to your TV.. this is not tethering.

if you tether your ipad to your phone.. surf the net ..or watch netflix on your ipad... that is tethering.

on sprint.. you have unlimited data.. so it should not be an issue.

if you are on a carrier that has data plan... then will be charged if you go over the usage. but not charged for tethering.

Even though using HDMI isn't tethering, the excessive use for streaming to another device is still breach of contract. Besides, the OP admitted he was tethering in his first post.

 

[dan330]

yes.. i know the OP said he was tethering..... I was answering ironbrewer's question.

 

[ironbrewer]

I don't think there is anyway I could go through 88gb of data on my phone. I was just wondering if I could hook my phone to a tv once in a while to watch netflix. Right now I'll probably use 8 to 10 gb a month. (and thats with all the downloads of new apps to set up my phone and figure out what I like) I have highspeed internet at home so wouldn't use it there.

 

[Timanator]

I use Netflix online as well, and I go no where near the 2 gig mark for the month.

 

[dan330]

I use Netflix online as well, and I go no where near the 2 gig mark for the month.

my guess.. it is because you use wifi most of the time.
watching 1 movie a week.. would put you at or over 2gb

 

[la sal]

I use Netflix online as well, and I go no where near the 2 gig mark for the month.

Netflix uses a lot of data. I find that hard to believe.

 

[IOWA]

Netflix uses a lot of data. I find that hard to believe.

Netflix on Android by default uses some pretty heavy compression, and low resolution, so it's possible, but still unlikely.

 

[chrlswltrs]

The last time I used a lot of data I used 2GB in a day while I was watching Xfinity On demand. I think I watched 2-3 movies while I was at work.

I don't think that is excessive... but if I was to do that everyday and use 50GB+ of data a month, I would fully expect my service to be cut off. Right now we are lucky that we have unlimited data without Sprint planning to end it any time soon. If people start abusing it though that will change.

"With great power comes great responsibility" and right now I consider unlimited mobile data great power!

 

[dan330]

The last time I used a lot of data I used 2GB in a day while I was watching Xfinity On demand. I think I watched 2-3 movies while I was at work.

I don't think that is excessive... but if I was to do that everyday and use 50GB+ of data a month, I would fully expect my service to be cut off. Right now we are lucky that we have unlimited data without Sprint planning to end it any time soon. If people start abusing it though that will change.

"With great power comes great responsibility" and right now I consider unlimited mobile data great power!

that is very true... but...

the prices that we are paying... $80/month for service on sprint.. and much more on other carriers.

i think for the price.. we DESERVE more data access.
home broadband.. for $20-30/month.. we get over 100gb and faster speeds.

i personally think we should have over 25gb (maybe 50gb) of data for these prices.

 

[IOWA]

that is very true... but...

the prices that we are paying... $80/month for service on sprint.. and much more on other carriers.

i think for the price.. we DESERVE more data access.
home broadband.. for $20-30/month.. we get over 100gb and faster speeds.

i personally think we should have over 25gb (maybe 50gb) of data for these prices.

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree. The only thing people deserve is the service they agreed to pay for, at the rate they paid for them.

Comparing wireless data to wireline data is a complete fallacy, as the two are hardly comparable for a rather long laundry list of reasons. (Google can help you figure out why they are so different)

This all boils down to supply and demand. The prices will be dictated by what the people are willing to pay, not what people feel they deserve. This is why carrier feedback is so important, as is voting with your wallet. As a fellow wallet watcher I share your concern about saving money, but right now for me, the service benefits outweigh the costs.