VZN tethering discussion

[Wakeborder556]

I got one on my n1 from AT&T, does Verizon actually let people use the data they pay for?

 

[civicsisedan]

We arent allowed to talk about tethering on this forum unless you pay for the service through verizon
..

Google search your question on xda, its been asked before so theres no reason to start a new thread..

 

[BubbaNexus]

lmao

 

[Johndubbya77]

Ut Oh I feel a corporate spanking coming on

 

[lunatic59]

The question is legitimate, although the undertones are a bit of a taunt. The truth is most U.S. customers are in the same boat as far as tethering is concerned.

Personal opinion aside, the site owner has instituted a policy whereby posts instructing members how to circumvent carrier restrictions, or links to that information are not permitted. It is to be considered theft of services. If you are unsure of the exact policy by your carrier you may review them here:

http://androidforums.com/verizon/455585-verizons-official-tethering-policy.html

http://androidforums.com/t/455498-ts-official-tethering-policy.html

We may discuss carrier policy on tethering. We may also assist those with tethering questions who have legitimate tethering plans or those (non-U.S.) members whose carriers permit tethering without a plan.

 

[PhilosoRaptor]

I've heard of and personally known users on AT&T get caught on iPhones, but that's about it. On Verizon, I have yet to hear about any users receiving any penalization whatsoever from illegally tethering. In fact, just a few months ago I saw a user on other forum I frequent use over 100 GBs of data on their rooted Droid X and didn't hear a peep from Verizon about it. Here's the screenshot:

 

[youngzayiles]

I've heard of and personally known users on AT&T get caught on iPhones, but that's about it. On Verizon, I have yet to hear about any users receiving any penalization whatsoever from illegally tethering. In fact, just a few months ago I saw a user on other forum I frequent use over 100 GBs of data on their rooted Droid X and didn't hear a peep from Verizon about it. Here's the screenshot:

Wow 100GB's.. No wonder unlimited data went away SMH.. Thats ridiculous!

 

[riverboat2001]

Wow, seriously, you guys in USA aren't allowed to use tethering?

So is the option not even there on your phones?

I thought this was a "Google" phone, and as such not screwed up by network providers.

 

[lunatic59]

Wow, seriously, you guys in USA aren't allowed to use tethering?

So is the option not even there on your phones?

I thought this was a "Google" phone, and as such not screwed up by network providers.

The option is there, but you must (for most U.S. Carriers) pay for an additional data plan. Each Carrier's TOS and fee structure is a little different.

 

[jackburnt]

It's built-in, but they charge you. Or you could use a 3rd party, but that's against the TOS for this site to talk about.

 

[riverboat2001]

So effectively you have to have two data plans, one for surfing on your phone and one for use via the tethering option.

Hope they don't bring that out here.

 

[redraptor]

Ive been tethering on and off and it freaks me out that I might get caught, but I have yet to have any problems, and most of the time its just for watching a few videos on my girlfriend's new tablet. She doesnt have Wifi in her home so having tethering is great. But like I said, I dont think I use very much, not any more than I would on my phone during the day anyway.

 

[darkuni]

Moderators: Feel free to nuke and punish if this is out of line.

I am not a Verizon rep nor do I have anything to substantiate the claims made below.

Honestly? I believe that's a fair deal on Verizon's part. If you're tethering a PC or Desktop, you're automatically consuming more data (typically) than if you were on a mobile device (there are many reasons - and we could get into that). For that? There should be an additional fee for unlimited plans (you are eating more than your 'fair share') - but NOT for limited plans (your 2GB is your 2GB - if you want to read lightweight news for 30 days on your phone or watch 1 hour of HD porn on your desktop - either way - when it's gone, it's gone).

Now - where I disagree with limiting is when you're tethering your tablet. You're probably not using them both at the same time, you're using a mobile device that should be equitable in bandwidth usage.

 

[alostpacket]

Moderators: Feel free to nuke and punish if this is out of line.

I am not a Verizon rep nor do I have anything to substantiate the claims made below.

Honestly? I believe that's a fair deal on Verizon's part. If you're tethering a PC or Desktop, you're automatically consuming more data (typically) than if you were on a mobile device (there are many reasons - and we could get into that). For that? There should be an additional fee for unlimited plans (you are eating more than your 'fair share') - but NOT for limited plans (your 2GB is your 2GB - if you want to read lightweight news for 30 days on your phone or watch 1 hour of HD porn on your desktop - either way - when it's gone, it's gone).

Now - where I disagree with limiting is when you're tethering your tablet. You're probably not using them both at the same time, you're using a mobile device that should be equitable in bandwidth usage.

No worries, you were not really out of line. It's perfectly OK to talk about the rights and wrongs of tethering and the policies of the carriers. In fact, I personally highly encourage such discussions.

The thing we can't allow is talk about how to get around the ToS or contract.

It's a new policy here at AF so we're just mainly trying to get the word out


Thanks for understanding

 

[dockmaster]

What if I only want to tether 1/2 a GB to my daughters Ipod when were in the car? I have unlimited and VZW want to ALLOW me to pay 30 for Unlimited tethering a month, on top of my unlimited Data I already pay for. Now, were in the car a few time a month like mabey 3-4 and use like probably a few MB's. If they were smart they would make under 2gb free.
Personally none of it has to do with bandwidth, because they are willing to sell you all you can use. It all has to do with using you 4g phone a s a internet connection and replacing the local ISP. Period. My 4g is faster than my ISP and would be perfect to use if I didn't game a little. We may come to find out that the big ISP's are behind the tethering issue. I know quite a few peps right now that use wired tethering to there laptop for there internet connection.

The day a phone company truly has unlimited everything at a reasonable price of like what were paying now (29.95) at 4 or 5g is the day VZW, ATT, Sprint and T mobile will be sweating bullets. I'm really surprised T Mobile hasnt already done it to gain customers. Probably goes to show you how in collusion the 4 companies are.

Of course all this tethering talk is a moot point if the frigging phone cant keep a frigging connection!!

Rock on
Billd

 

[prostang]

I have the unlimited plan on my phone and my wife's. I had to pay $50 per line, per month BC we use exchange for our email. It worked out great for vzw BC we never went over 2 gB per month BC we had slow crappy phones. Now that we have great phones that can tether, we still have to pay more. It NEVER works out for the customer!

 

[OfTheDamned]

I think this a great discussion. I agree with a lot of you that a basic tethering plan should be included, especially if you are already on a restricted data plan. It shouldn't really matter how you use your data at that point.

BTW, I am moving this over to the Verizon Galaxy Nexus part of this forum.

Edit: Also, since I think this is a great discussion I will echo what alostpacket has already said about keeping this within the boundaries of the new forum rule. If you need clarification, please use the link in my signature. If you are still unsure of the discussion boundaries feel free to contact one of us for clarification. I don't want to see anyone get in trouble over something.

 

[Crashumbc]

I think charging for "tethering" on the "limited" plans is outrageous...

That said I can understand VZW's view on tethering on unlimited plans, mostly due to folks like the IDIOT in that screenshot above. If it wasn't for people like that, VZW probably would never have removed the unlimited plan....

 

[eddieruko]

perhaps someone here is smart enough on the topic... what's the difference between a modem (DSL, Cable, etc) in your house and the data connection you get on your phone? (outside of the obvious physical differences)

for $20 you can get unlimited data (i get abt 5-10Mbps) and connect an infinite amount of devices to your home network. doesn't matter what ISP. wanna blow through 100GB of music, movies, you name it... go ahead. sure you have bandwidth issues, but we don't hear anyone having to pay for a data plan for that.

what gives?

 

[lunatic59]

perhaps someone here is smart enough on the topic... what's the difference between a modem (DSL, Cable, etc) in your house and the data connection you get on your phone? (outside of the obvious physical differences)

for $20 you can get unlimited data (i get abt 5-10Mbps) and connect an infinite amount of devices to your home network. doesn't matter what ISP. wanna blow through 100GB of music, movies, you name it... go ahead. sure you have bandwidth issues, but we don't hear anyone having to pay for a data plan for that.

what gives?

In a word, infrastructure. It takes much less of an investment to maintain the wires and cables that deliver home internet as they are piggybacked onto other services (phone and cable TV) With mobile data, it's an entirely separate network to mobile voice, even they share some hardware on the towers. Wired networks can currently handle much more bandwidth than mobile networks. If you break it down to megabyte per dollar to deliver data, you'll find mobile networks cost at least an order of magnitude more to get that megabyte to your device.

 

[AntimonyER]

I think charging for "tethering" on the "limited" plans is outrageous...

That said I can understand VZW's view on tethering on unlimited plans, mostly due to folks like the IDIOT in that screenshot above. If it wasn't for people like that, VZW probably would never have removed the unlimited plan....

I think Verizon realized this, which is why you get a bump in your data limit when you sign up for tethering with a limited data plan (I think it doubles if I am not mistaken). However I agree with those that feel tethering should just be included, and then you can decide if you want to pay more for the bump in data.

I have unlocked and rooted my phone, and so the option is there for me to use it. From time to time I will use it briefly, but if I plan to use it for an extended amount of time (Vacations mostly), I will call up Verizon and add the feature, then remove it when I get back. Its prorated for the amount of days I have it active, so comes down to basically $1 per day, a whole lot cheaper than most resorts charge for internet usage.

 

[LiQUiDBuD]

I've got unlimited data and this is my first month with the Nexus. Billing cycle ends today and my data is sitting at 93GB.

Hey, sue me. But don't give me 35mb/15mb 4G and expect me not to use it.

 

[Crashumbc]

I've got unlimited data and this is my first month with the Nexus. Billing cycle ends today and my data is sitting at 93GB.

Hey, sue me. But don't give me 35mb/15mb 4G and expect me not to use it.

I have to ask HOW you used that much data? Unless you're tethering and using it as your only internet connection?

 

[OfTheDamned]

Despite what some believe, the people at Verizon aren't stupid. They will catch on to people who are abusing things and start to crack down. They have already started to throttle 3G users and they will end up doing the same with 4G users as long as people are willing to abuse unlimited plans. While I do subscribe to the "it's your data" idea, I also think that that has certain limitations and that there is a realistic limit to what someone should be able or willing to do. I know that most individuals don't care about others, but the more people are willing to abuse the service the more it will end up costing everyone and the more restrictions will be placed on things. I just hope that when they do crack down they will chose the obvious offenders instead of those that use data normally.

If you want to run your home network off of a tethered phone that is fine, but pay the extra $30 a month to do it. It is only fair.

Personally, I could probably get by with about 5 GB a month and stick to wifi most of the time. I use 4G in the house to stream movies on netflix only so that I don't slow anyone else down (we have 4 computers and 2 consoles on our network). With tethering, I really don't need to use it 99% of the time. My phone will do just about everything I need to do when I am out and about so carrying my netbook or laptop around with isn't necessary. The only time I have actually used tethering in the past year was when I lost my home connection due to maintenance and I was in the middle of a poker game. Then I just switched on mobile hotspot and connected. As AntimonyER said, the cost was right for the day that I used it and it prevented me from losing money. BTW, the vacation idea is excellent. It makes perfect sense when you think about it and the price is right.

 

[daddyd302]

My personal feeling is Verizon and all other carriers should charge $1 for each Gig. This will prevent anyone from abusing their network. So you use 5G, you pay $5, you use 50G you pay $50 and so on. You pay for what you use. I believe this is a fair deal for everyone. You want to tether, do it, and pay for it with your data usage. I know it will never happen as the carriers want free money from people who barely use their networks.