Root Prevalence of Tethering - Will There Be Repercussions?

[nstallion]

It seems to me that as more people get Android devices through Verizon, tethering is getting talked about more and more. People ask about it and others answer "oh yeah use PDANet it's great I use it all the time" "sure root your phone and replace your satellite internet with a wifi tethered connection" "I connect my PS3 through it and it runs fine".

Rarely does anyone mention that it IS a violation of your contract and most people dismiss it saying Verizon won't catch you. It would certainly be nice if tethering was included in our data like other devices Verizon has, but it isn't.

If things keep following this trend, is there a risk that Big Red is going to do something about it? Currently the data plan for the smartphone itself is unlimited. It would probably be a real pain in the ass for Verizon to find every single customer who has been tethering without a tethering data plan, but mightn't Verizon decide to put a cap on our smartphone plans?

I'd like to think that I'm overestimating the potential problem. To me it seems that as more people get Android devices, perhaps people who don't really know much about what they are doing, and this lax attitude towards violating your contract spreads, Verizon might take some action.

P.S. I put this in the root section because it seems that wifi tethering is one of the reasons a lot of people seem to want to root but move it if it's more appropriate somewhere else.


Also, I should mention that I'm sure a little bit of tethering really doesn't do anything, but I'm not sure those same people who are exchanging advice on how to commit insurance fraud because they want a new phone are responsible enough not to overuse it.

 

[inssane]

It is of my opinion that the user is responsible for rules that are and aren't broken.
Just because one person here may tether and torrent for days, they might be pointing out that it can be done, even though they may be breaking the rules.
Comcast cable in Chicago has a 200gb download cap per month (I think still) and most people don't know it.
Not knowing doesn't erase responsibility.

That being said, yes VZW will find out if they don't know already. It's all over the WWW just by putting these posts up.

People will continue to tether until VZW does something about it. Just like rooting

 

[nstallion]

It is of my opinion that the user is responsible for rules that are and aren't broken.
Just because one person here may tether and torrent for days, they might be pointing out that it can be done, even though they may be breaking the rules.
Comcast cable in Chicago has a 200gb download cap per month (I think still) and most people don't know it.
Not knowing doesn't erase responsibility.

That being said, yes VZW will find out if they don't know already. It's all over the WWW just by putting these posts up.

People will continue to tether until VZW does something about it. Just like rooting

Rooting isn't against any terms of service agreement, it just voids your warranty.

 

[CRPercodani]

They know we are tethering and are supposedly working on a way to sniff packets that are masked by pdanet and wifi tether. However it will always be a cat and mouse game. Just play it safe and you wont come up on their radar, a little tethering here and there shouldn't set off any alarms.

 

[Dan in PA]

iPhone users have been tethering for years with no consequences, but that's a different phone and network.

 

[CRPercodani]

WinMo users have been tethering even longer and on all networks. That is where most of he reports of getting extra fees come from.