Tether - Use and Abuse

RavenTai, they do have a tethering plan, just not any unlimited one. When Verizon decided that feature phones like the EnV Touch would now require a $10 data plan, I was not required to pay for it as I had the EnV Touch on a normal voice plan but had added the VPAK as it gave me unlimited data for $15. I was also able to tether with it but at EVDO 1X, it wasn't quite worth it.

The contract was up for the EnV Touch and my Verizon rep told me that if I just let to contract roll over, they would just continue to charge me the $15 for the VPAK. The unlimited feature phone data package is $30 while the initial package would give you enough to check your email and browse the web a bit.

If VZW moves to tiered data plans, they might do what they were going to do for me and allow us to roll the plan over at the price we're paying now but the next contract would be at the new prices. (Sometimes those prices are lower. They change things around a lot as demand changes.)

IxI Dan IxI said:

Call #data -- then you get a text from verizon sent to your Droid

It tells you how much data you have used so far in the billing cycle.

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My billing cycle ended Wednesday. I wish it would also let you look at the last one or even several months of them so that you could see a trend. Big Red's site is too slow.

bluemsw said:

look at your online screen for data usage under your verizon account. mine says unlimited. it doesn't say that for the wireless air card. If it says unlimited it is unlimited. the tos for the air card says it has a 5gb limit per month then there is a cap. what else needs to be said.

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see the article & link above that talks about the confusion about the fact VZW was saying "unlimited" but there was verbiage still saying 5gb cap.

that is where I got my info, as I had read that article, and similar ones, early on when I got my "unlimited" account. but as the article clears up, it was an error in VZW not keeping their info up to date. so, I stand corrected.

Okay, I was actually going to post a thread with this question but it sort of applies here. I've been looking at getting 3g data card, not from verizon but thats besides the point. The reason is, on my long weekends off I like to take my laptop random places and surf the web and such. Things I can perfectly do at home on the home wifi, but I like to get out of the house. Now, sometimes I'm at a place for anywhere between an hour to three hours. Let's say I use wifi tether (im rooted) during that time. With no downloads, just web browsing, would I be in danger of my account being noticed? If so, I am thinking of picking up the data card.. If not, I'll just use wifi tether. The data card's like 100 bucks and the data plan is 60 a month, so I wanted to investigate before I pulled the trigger.

Having used the USB tether for exactly that, it hasn't been noticed. It might have something to do with the fact that when I hook up the laptop, I am using less data because I am not streaming Pandora and watching cat videos on YouTube or trying things out from the Market.

Verizon would probably ask me to hook up the laptop and play casual facebook games/read email/etc more so that I am not playing with my phone!

Haywire said:

Okay, I was actually going to post a thread with this question but it sort of applies here. I've been looking at getting 3g data card, not from verizon but thats besides the point. The reason is, on my long weekends off I like to take my laptop random places and surf the web and such. Things I can perfectly do at home on the home wifi, but I like to get out of the house. Now, sometimes I'm at a place for anywhere between an hour to three hours. Let's say I use wifi tether (im rooted) during that time. With no downloads, just web browsing, would I be in danger of my account being noticed? If so, I am thinking of picking up the data card.. If not, I'll just use wifi tether. The data card's like 100 bucks and the data plan is 60 a month, so I wanted to investigate before I pulled the trigger.

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well, if you follow what others have been saying here, and I have seen in other tether threads, I would likely just start out with tether (being rooted matters not) and bypass the card based on what you said your criteria is "With no downloads, just web browsing". It seems likely, from what others say, you will not be that noticed so it would be my first bet. I set up tethering to do exactly what your talking about, just not had a chance to do it for hours on end.. just getting prepared for IF I want to do it

Lock-N-Load said:

well, if you follow what others have been saying here, and I have seen in other tether threads, I would likely just start out with tether (being rooted matters not) and bypass the card based on what you said your criteria is "With no downloads, just web browsing". It seems likely, from what others say, you will not be that noticed so it would be my first bet. I set up tethering to do exactly what your talking about, just not had a chance to do it for hours on end.. just getting prepared for IF I want to do it

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Well, thats comforting to me. While I don't always do it for Hours at a time, there are some days that I do. Now, if I were to use slacker on my computer while I do this, do you think that will hurt? I almost always listen to music while I'm online.

Given the responses, I'll try with wifi tethering for now. I really didn't want to add another 60$ a month expense if it could be avoided.

Edit: right now vzw sites shows me at 332 mb, but does that mean i'm over the 5gb cap yet? I can't remember the conversion rate.

Haywire said:

Edit: right now vzw sites shows me at 332 mb, but does that mean i'm over the 5gb cap yet? I can't remember the conversion rate.

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ha ha.. 332 MB is not even close to 5 GB, as a matter of fact, it is not even close to half a GB.. it is 0.32421875 GB

it would take 5120 MB to make 5 GB

@Haywire This is (IMHO) exactly what tethering should be used for and it also how I use it. Moderate, responsible usage will keep you off the radar and you could easily use it a lot more than you currrently have been.

The blatant abuse by some folks to replace home internet connections or see how much they can stream is the kind of thing that will ruin it for us all. It just takes a few people with that mentality to draw more attention, and force VZW to take action.

@OP Please don't be the one to screw it up for all of us out of your need to be spiteful.

Haywire said:

Well, thats comforting to me. While I don't always do it for Hours at a time, there are some days that I do. Now, if I were to use slacker on my computer while I do this, do you think that will hurt? I almost always listen to music while I'm online.

Given the responses, I'll try with wifi tethering for now. I really didn't want to add another 60$ a month expense if it could be avoided.

Edit: right now vzw sites shows me at 332 mb, but does that mean i'm over the 5gb cap yet? I can't remember the conversion rate.

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First of all, thanks to everyone on this thread for clearing up the confusion about the 5GB cap. I was wrong

Haywire, to address your question about streaming Slacker on your computer over your tethered connection, I wouldn't. Everyone says that the data on our phones is truly unlimited, but as mentioned previously, tethering is a violation of VZW's policy and if you start running up large amounts of data, they may look into it and see that you're tethering and do whatever it is they do to people who break the rules... Though, that brings up an interesting question... I haven't tethered before so I'm not exactly sure about the more technical aspects of how it works but could he tether his laptop to his phone but still stream Slacker on his phone at the same time?...Is the phone completely unuseable for data while it's tethered?

I'll go ahead and admit it... I was playing Parallel Kingdom (networked android game) while someone was on my laptop tethered so that they could take care of their farm in Farmville...

I also will go ahead and admit that the Farmville user was my husband because I am feeling puckish.

3devious said:

RavenTai, they do have a tethering plan,

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I am aware Verizon offers a tethering plan in general, up until the beginning of this month I was paying $49 for the capped 5GB plan on my Motorola V750

The question is do they offer a tethering plan on the Motorola Droid specifically? my understanding is that as of right now they do not. The droid is not listed as a "Mobile Broadband Connect Device"

Capability Details


And that was a sticking point for me on buying the droid as when I am on the road tethering is my only source for internet, that is when the salespeople explained PDA net.

The rep in the VZW store I bought my Droid in told me that if I wanted to tether, I had to use the enterprise data plan AND pay another $30 a month for tethering. It sounded a bit steep so I didn't inquire further.

I thought the enterprise plan was for blackberry devices? is it also available on the droid?

Just to add something extra (This is from the Terms and Conditions of my contract with Verizon):
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"Unlimited Smartphone and BlackBerry Plans and Features
These Wireless Email plans and features cannot be used: (1) for access to the Internet, intranets or other data networks except as the device

I'll tell ya right now that the lack of an unlimited plan will cause a lot of headache for verizon. As of right now data is a luxury for me and the fact that my bill rivals a car payment any increase would be persuasion enough to go back to a pay as you go phone.

Hear me now Verizon?

I want to clarify my post above.

There is no "cap" to how much data you can use. It is technically unlimited.

However, the general consensus is that there is a secret 5 GB limit. WAIT.
1. You can use over 5 GB without tethering. Streaming Pandora, etc. can quickly get you above this limit with ease.
2. If you consistently use this amount of data (meaning like 10 GB a month), Verizon might give you a quick check and see if your tethering. You pass, or you fail.

So there is no limit in reality. However, you want to stay BELOW 5 GB to make sure Verizon doesn't get suspicious of you (only if your tethering, people don't seem to understand). That is where the limit of 5GB comes from. It basically is an arbitrary number that people have estimated to keep people under the radar. You could be tethering 20 GB a month, and still not get caught. However, if you keep going, you just increase your chances of getting hit with the bill, and make things slower for other people.

So my stance? Use tethering sparingly meaning only when you really need it. Don't use it just because you can. Thats just bad logic and childish in general. If you can access a computer with wired internet or WIFI, then use it. There's no point for you to tether a 1 gb movie at home just because you want to.

People, keep getting this confused. They keep trying to COMBINE two DIFFERENT plans into one.

There are two plans people...

1. first plan is the broad band connect plan. THIS plan has a 5gb limit on data.

2. second plan is the "unlimited" plan most people have. It has NOTHING what so ever to do with 5gb in any way. ok. got it?

NOW in the second plan, if your using insane amounts of data (no relation to 5 gb limit). They may investigate WHY your using so much data. If they find it to be tethering you will get nailed for violating the TOS. Keep in mind there as been much discussion but no one knows for sure if Verizon can tell if your tethering or not. they may look for data items not support bit torrent etc... who knows.

Some things to keep in mind if they can tell. YOU are breaking the TOS. you could get nailed at 10 gb or 10 Mb doesn't matter.

Someone used speeding as a analogy, that is incorrect. A more correct one would be trespassing. Even if you step across the line you are breaking the TOS it doesn't matter how much. Although, the more grievous the violation the more likely it is to be acted upon. But that doesn't mean any is ok if they decide to pursue it...

IF Verizon does decide to just down unapproved tethering, amount doesn't matter.

Another REALLY good analogy, would be illegal file sharing, The guy downloading 3 songs a month is still breaking the law, just like the teenager hosting a 100,000 song catalog for the world. Although the second is more likely to be found and persecuted.

That all said, I do have PDAnet on my phone, and use it occasionally But I am aware that even though I use it maybe once a month, that "could" be enough to get my service terminated.

This forum is nearly as technically advanced compared to some other, much older ones. Not only does every thread topic wind up becoming a giant pissing contest, but most of the posters need to flex their cyber pecks in an effort to discredit what someone else posts, even when most people are simply speculating anyway. And when someone finally throws some genuine real proof about what they're talking about (in this case, the Verizon contract agreememnt), everyone suddenly starts speculating on what they really mean or what they'll really do about it.

You're ALL just guessing! NONE of you really knows anything for certain. Some are more convincing about the one thing they think they do know, but just because you're convincing, or loud & obnoxious about it, doesn't make it fact.

As for the comments on hacking the 815, I think he was simply illustrating that since mobiles have been tethered via DUN, there has always been an ongoing discussion about what the SP might do if you're caught. It's always been filled with a slurry of BS, Verizon Contract facts, urban legend myths and mega-geekster cyber testosterone, and it NEVER, EVER ends well. Nobody ever comes out of such a thread with any facts they couldn't get just from reading their contract, and ultimately it ends up with a bunch of fragile little egos getting bruised.

Psychokitty said:

This forum is nearly as technically advanced compared to some other, much older ones. Not only does every thread topic wind up becoming a giant pissing contest, but most of the posters need to flex their cyber pecks in an effort to discredit what someone else posts, even when most people are simply speculating anyway. And when someone finally throws some genuine real proof about what they're talking about (in this case, the Verizon contract agreememnt), everyone suddenly starts speculating on what they really mean or what they'll really do about it.

You're ALL just guessing! NONE of you really knows anything for certain. Some are more convincing about the one thing they think they do know, but just because you're convincing, or loud & obnoxious about it, doesn't make it fact.

As for the comments on hacking the 815, I think he was simply illustrating that since mobiles have been tethered via DUN, there has always been an ongoing discussion about what the SP might do if you're caught. It's always been filled with a slurry of BS, Verizon Contract facts, urban legend myths and mega-geekster cyber testosterone, and it NEVER, EVER ends well. Nobody ever comes out of such a thread with any facts they couldn't get just from reading their contract, and ultimately it ends up with a bunch of fragile little egos getting bruised.

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I agree completely!

If you intend remain a member at Android Forums, it is expected that you treat your fellow members with the same respect you would show your real world peers. Do not come here just to have some deranged alter ego.. we will not foster that. Being a member here, you're also expected to follow the rules at all times!

Any members whom were in violation of the Zero Tolerance Policy will be taking a three day vacation away from the forums. I am no longer going to tolerate this behavior.

As for those of you who speculate that a new member is a multiple account holder, please continue to file those reports. That is far a better better outlet than being rude/inflammatory to them because there is a possibility that you are wrong. If we conclude that you speculation can be backed up, we will take appropriate action.

/Closed.