Help Tethering on an Optimus V repercussions?

[WalkerRD]

Are there any repercussions to tethering with my Optimus V? I've heard about the possibility of warnings or termination of service from various places on the web, but no reports of it actually happening to anyone with Virgin Mobile.

Also, can anyone explain to me what exactly these companies don't like about tethering? Its the same service you're getting through your phone just through another device, so what is the problem here?

 

[koopakid08]

Are there any repercussions to tethering with my Optimus V? I've heard about the possibility of warnings or termination of service from various places on the web, but no reports of it actually happening to anyone with Virgin Mobile.

Also, can anyone explain to me what exactly these companies don't like about tethering? Its the same service you're getting through your phone just through another device, so what is the problem here?

There has never been any reports of anyone getting cut off because of tethering but they are going to start throttling in October. The reason they don't like tethering is because you use much more data by tethering say your laptop then you would if you would just use your phone.

 

[PFX7]

Sprint recently announced that it will start 'throttling Virgin Mobile data users that went over a limit of 2.5GB'.

Even watching youtube videos on your laptop with tethering will probably make you go over that limit very quickly.

IMO this cap is okay for a $25 per month unlimited data plan as long as you use it on your phone but if you do use tethering and go over the limit then expect painfully slow data speeds!

 

[WalkerRD]

Thanks guys.

 

[zrobot]

I don't tether, I don't stream videos, and I'm already at 4.4 GB for the month. I'll be capped by the third week of every month.

The good news is most of my data use is low bit rate, so even after they cap my speed, I'll still suck down 4-5 GB a month. I'm not sure what they hope to accomplish, other than pissing-off their paying customers, but the cap will absolutely not hurt me nor reduce the amount of data I use beyond their cap. So the cap fails.

 

[tli]

... I'm not sure what they hope to accomplish, other than pissing-off their paying customers, but the cap will absolutely not hurt me nor reduce the amount of data I use beyond their cap. So the cap fails.

The VM cap is intended for the REAL data hogs that are sucking down data nearly 24/7 at rates of more than ~80GB per month... 2.5GB could easily be downloaded in about 2-3 hours at download rates of 2-3 Mbps. As VM had stated, about 97% of its users would be unaffected.

 

[rocketspank]

The VM cap is intended for the REAL data hogs that are sucking down data nearly 24/7 at rates of more than ~80GB per month... 2.5GB could easily be downloaded in about 2-3 hours at download rates of 2-3 Mbps. As VM had stated, about 97% of its users would be unaffected.

Read - People who install Netflix and didn't expect anything like this to happen.......

 

[tli]

... People who install Netflix ...

The occasional video streamers are not the culprits. The real abusers are those that tether their VM connections to their entire households with multiple Internet clients/appliances for nearly constant streaming and torrent downloading... sucking down every bit of bandwidth.

 

[EmeraldFusion]

From what I have read....if you have had an account before the 27th of July 2011 you will not be affected by this "throttling" of data.

 

[MacFett]

From what I have read....if you have had an account before the 27th of July 2011 you will not be affected by this "throttling" of data.

Where did you read that? Customer Care said that all subscriptions were going to be throttled. I would love to hear otherwise though.

 

[tcat007]

If your speed is 150k/150k and they throttle to 256k/256k... how can anyone complain? Yeah many get better speeds, but maybe if they controlled "unlimited" data use, maybe everyone's data could be more constant. I'd be happy with 400/400 if it never went below 256/256. The only reason I would ever tether is to check email when not near Wifi... but I don't have another device to tether to (yet). The only time I would stream a movie is on Wifi, and they aren't going to throttle that.

 

[koopakid08]

From what I have read....if you have had an account before the 27th of July 2011 you will not be affected by this "throttling" of data.

nope everyone is included in throttling

 

[Predrag]

I don't tether, I don't stream videos, and I'm already at 4.4 GB for the month. I'll be capped by the third week of every month.

The good news is most of my data use is low bit rate, so even after they cap my speed, I'll still suck down 4-5 GB a month. I'm not sure what they hope to accomplish, other than pissing-off their paying customers, but the cap will absolutely not hurt me nor reduce the amount of data I use beyond their cap. So the cap fails.

I can't possibly imagine what kind of "low-bit-rate" data use could suck down 5GB in a month. That comes down to the average continuous, constant streaming rate of over 50kbps. Even if you Skype all the time, you couldn't possibly suck down that much.

I am really not judging; I'm sure your usage is not in violation of your Virgin contract. Obviously, if it is as you say it is, the data bandwidth cap will not affect you.

However, data bandwidth cap will most certainly NOT fail. I have no doubt it will quickly and effectively chase away those who gobble up BANDWIDTH (i.e. who continuously stream a HIGH RATE), whether downloading torrents on a tethered laptop, watching HD Netflix, HD Youtube, HD Vimeo or any other HD video stream, or doing similar stuff that clogs the pipes constantly.
Your usage clearly doesn't fall into this category, but theirs does, and they are the ones who severely degrade the network performance for the rest of us. Once they are gone, the remaining 97% of users will most definitely feel the improvement. In my area I can get 1.5Mbps speeds almost all the time. If everyone around me were to tether a laptop and stream Hulu in HD, we'd be clobbering the network pretty badly.

 

[tli]

I can't possibly imagine what kind of "low-bit-rate" data use could suck down 5GB in a month. That comes down to the average continuous, constant streaming rate of over 50kbps. Even if you Skype all the time, you couldn't possibly suck down that much.

...

Quite possible... for example, Internet radio streaming, such as Pandora, requires a minimum of 150Kbps for standard audio and 300Kbps for HD audio. Several hours a day, and the 2.5GB cap could be seen within a month.

 

[EmeraldFusion]

Where did you read that? Customer Care said that all subscriptions were going to be throttled. I would love to hear otherwise though.

Took me a little bit but I found where I read it.
And it seems like I have misread misinterpreted the article.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9OF1NHG0.htm

 

[agianne]

I'll be capped by the third week of every month.

When we run out of voice minutes, we have the option to re-up early. I assume (which is dangerous, of course) that re-upping early will also set data usage back to zero.

If someone hits the cap and wants to go back to "high speed" data, they probably have the option to re-start their plan month early. Compared to other provider's plan costs, someone could re-up early several times a year and could still spend less in a year than they would with another provider.

Using zrobot's situation as an example, he hits the data cap after three weeks, so he'd be re-upping 16 times in a year vs. 12, spending $400 for 40 GB of data vs. $300 for 30 GB. That's still a good price for one's year's worth of mobile voice/text/data services.

If you know how much data you're using, you can do the math to figure out how often you'll have to re-up, calculate an annual cost and compare that cost to competitor's offerings.