I'm using Android wifi tether, and I can reproduce your findings. Here's my tracert to cnn.com (hops 2-5 obfuscated to protect my company's identity:
Code:
C:\>tracert cnn.com
Tracing route to cnn.com [157.166.255.18]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 4 ms 2 ms 2 ms 192.168.2.254
2 268 ms 265 ms 128 ms x.x.121.85
3 621 ms 305 ms 305 ms x.x.121.91
4 104 ms 89 ms 80 ms x.x.105.196
5 145 ms 126 ms 84 ms x.x.125.69
6 123 ms 88 ms 131 ms sl-gw20-hrs-10-0-0.sprintlink.net [144.224.112.17]
7 111 ms 80 ms 85 ms sl-crs1-hrs-0-0-2-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.7.133]
8 247 ms 313 ms 239 ms sl-crs1-nyc-0-6-0-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.24.97]
9 90 ms 163 ms 131 ms te-4-3-0.edge1.NewYork1.level3.net [4.68.110.153]
10 207 ms 385 ms 717 ms vlan89.csw3.NewYork1.Level3.net [4.68.16.190]
11 85 ms 93 ms 104 ms ae-81-81.ebr1.NewYork1.Level3.net [4.69.134.73]
12 337 ms 306 ms 192 ms ae-10-10.ebr2.Washington12.Level3.net [4.69.148.50]
13 104 ms 87 ms 152 ms ae-1-100.ebr1.Washington12.Level3.net [4.69.143.213]
14 145 ms 182 ms 181 ms ae-6-6.ebr1.Atlanta2.Level3.net [4.69.148.105]
15 156 ms 290 ms 305 ms ae-11-51.car1.Atlanta1.Level3.net [4.69.150.3]
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
Tracert to gmail.com shows complete trace:
Code:
C:\>tracert gmail.com
Tracing route to gmail.com [74.125.226.117]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 3 ms 2 ms 2 ms 192.168.2.254
2 87 ms 86 ms 80 ms x.x.121.85
3 154 ms 80 ms 84 ms x.x.121.91
4 163 ms 121 ms * x.x.105.196
5 97 ms 66 ms 82 ms x.x.125.69
6 87 ms 86 ms 64 ms sl-gw20-hrs-10-0-0.sprintlink.net [144.224.112.17]
7 90 ms 93 ms 89 ms sl-crs1-hrs-0-0-2-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.7.133]
8 144 ms 154 ms 178 ms sl-crs1-nyc-0-6-0-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.24.97]
9 62 ms 80 ms 89 ms 74.125.49.212
10 92 ms 117 ms 122 ms 209.85.248.180
11 126 ms 91 ms 79 ms 216.239.48.24
12 100 ms 147 ms 103 ms 74.125.226.117
Trace complete.
Sure seems like Sprint is doing something to prevent non google domains from resolving...