tethering with verizon

[diver110]

I asked four different people at Verizon what the tethering rules were and got 3 different answers. 2 said $20 per month for 5 gigs, 1 said $20 per month for 2 gigs, and 1 said $15 for unlimited gigs. Does anyone know the actual rules?

Also, 2 people said there is an app that comes with the DroidX that permits free tethering. Call me crazy, but free sounds better to me. Anyone know if this is true? Contract breach?

By the way, 1 store had 1 DroidX in stock. Would have sold it to me for $350 less the $100 rebate and thrown in a free car charger, netting about the $200 typically charged. Due to some personal, nonfinancial timing issues, I decided to hold off, but if you ask around, you may stumble into 1 you can get right away.

 

[copestag]

VZW tethering is $15 w/ 5Gb softcap (meaning @ 5gb they will throttle you so slow you could refresh webpages via snailmail faster)...... yes you have the ability to tether for free from your phone....... yes it technically is a contract breach (this is what I meant in the other thread when you asked about illegal tethering)...... you can tether via wifi (not to be confused with wireless tethering) for free all day long and thats none of their business........ but if you tether using their service as the connection and get caught then its gonna be sour grapes for you

 

[diver110]

VZW tethering is $15 w/ 5Gb softcap (meaning @ 5gb they will throttle you so slow you could refresh webpages via snailmail faster)...... yes you have the ability to tether for free from your phone....... yes it technically is a contract breach (this is what I meant in the other thread when you asked about illegal tethering)...... you can tether via wifi (not to be confused with wireless tethering) for free all day long and thats none of their business........ but if you tether using their service as the connection and get caught then its gonna be sour grapes for you

Thanks Copestag. That makes 4 different answers I have gotten. I suspect yours is the most accurate, except perhaps they increased the rate to $20 given how commonly I heard that figure. I had heard of the rate slowing down after getting to 5 gigs, but did not realize is was that much.

 

[copestag]

if theyve changed the price it must have been in the past few days...... and they did it without saying a word............ its been $15 since they started the service (not really a service since all it does is give you permission to do what you can already do for free without permission)....... but anythings possible

as far as the speeds I cant say with first hand knowledge what they are after being throttled..... but I have read they are in the neighborhood of 300K...... which compared to normal speeds is a turtle pace

 

[UncleMike]

I suspect the reason you've gotten different answers is that the people you're asking have understood the question differently.

Tethering via a wired connection or bluetooth has been $15 for years. I believe that includes *some* cap, probably 5GB as mentioned above.

I haven't really been following it, but I know there's been discussion of tethering via Wifi - you connect to your device via Wifi and use its 3G connection to get to the Internet. I believe this does/will cost $20 per month (I don't know if it's available yet). I'm sure there is (or will be) a cap on this as well.

 

[vincentp]

The fact that they can get away with charging 15-20 bucks for this in the first place just pisses me off. I'm already paying 30 a month for data, which is almost as much as I pay for my home wired Internet connection. They want me to pay more than that for a slow 3G connection that I will only use on my computer periodically? Screw these companies and their ridiculous money sucking tactics. I'll keep tethering for free until they find a way to stop me.

 

[mrspeedmaster]

Go to vzw.com

Mobile hotspot is $20 for 2GB for all new plans. It is all on the website in fine print.

If you are grandfathered in, you may have the USB/bluetooth price.
Also, they had it for $30 /5GB at one time but are phasing that out.
Your lowest data plan is $30. Hence the confusion.

Minimum legal cost is: $30 data, $20 tether plus your voice plan.

 

[DROIDing]

I asked four different people at Verizon what the tethering rules were and got 3 different answers. 2 said $20 per month for 5 gigs, 1 said $20 per month for 2 gigs, and 1 said $15 for unlimited gigs. Does anyone know the actual rules?

Also, 2 people said there is an app that comes with the DroidX that permits free tethering. Call me crazy, but free sounds better to me. Anyone know if this is true? Contract breach?

By the way, 1 store had 1 DroidX in stock. Would have sold it to me for $350 less the $100 rebate and thrown in a free car charger, netting about the $200 typically charged. Due to some personal, nonfinancial timing issues, I decided to hold off, but if you ask around, you may stumble into 1 you can get right away.

Why not just root and perform 3G tethering for free around your house? I didn't read the entire thread, and this was probably already mentioned, but wanted to drop in and make sure Good luck.

 

[UncleMike]

...Tethering via a wired connection or bluetooth has been $15 for years. I believe that includes *some* cap, probably 5GB as mentioned above...

A correction: $15/mo tethering applies only if you're on a $45/mo Blackberry BES data plan. If you're on a $30 data plan, tethering is $30/mo.

 

[copestag]

the reason they charge more is quite simple really......... the majority of people still dont have speeds equivalent or better than 3G in their homes........ so if youre sittin in your house paying whatever the rate is for satelite internet....... and verizon would allow you to tether your computer off your phone for free and get twice the speed of your satelite connection.......... why exactly would you keep your satelite connection?

you wouldnt........ you would drop your home internet and just tether off your phone........ so what does verizon care if you dropped your satelite that they didnt have a stake in? ....... your useage habits arent going to change....... so now all that extra data that normally you would use off a seperate service is going through their connections...... ...... so what you say?

example: Im on pace to use about 4Gb of data on my phone this month (none of which is tethering)........ givin the amount and way I use my PC vs my phone I would estimate Im probably on pace to use 200-300Gb on my pc this month........ so you think VZW might have some concern with me using 300Gb vs 4Gb over their 3G network? if everyone used 300Gb a month over their 3G....the network would colapse the first day....... it couldnt handle that volume

so its quite simple really........ if they charge for tethering then sure some people will still sneak some tethering in for free....... but youre not going to devote your entire internet life to being tethered

why buy the milk when you can get it for free is only a true sentiment as long as some people still buy milk........ if everyone gets it for free then why raise milk cows?

 

[diver110]

Go to vzw.com

Mobile hotspot is $20 for 2GB for all new plans. It is all on the website in fine print.

If you are grandfathered in, you may have the USB/bluetooth price.
Also, they had it for $30 /5GB at one time but are phasing that out.
Your lowest data plan is $30. Hence the confusion.

Minimum legal cost is: $30 data, $20 tether plus your voice plan.

Any gig limitation?

 

[DROIDing]

I'm wondering how much (and IF) the increased power, RAM, and processor of the new X and forthcoming Droid 2 will increase the 3G wifi tethering speed to laptops and devices around the house compared to my sluggish now-dated Touch Pro 2?

THANKS!

 

[diver110]

Talked to Verizon this morning and I think I got the real answer. There are two different plans you can buy, $20 for 2 gigs, or $30 for 5 gigs. If you go over there is no slow down, but you pay 5 to 10 cents for the overage per mb. See Verizon Wireless - Mobile Broadband - Plans

 

[sdguy67]

Why pay VZ extra when PDaNet is a free app that doesn't require the phone to be rooted. I use it all the time, and have had no issues

 

[DROIDing]

Why pay VZ extra when PDaNet is a free app that doesn't require the phone to be rooted. I use it all the time, and have had no issues

There is a free app that masks your wifi tethering so Verizon doesn't know... and you don't have to toor your phone!? wow, that's pretty cool.

I am getting the Cradle Point CTR500 soon... which will allow me to hook my TP2 or Droid 2 to the router and it broadcasts a whole-home signal for devices to get online with; best of all it masks the 'Ad Hoc' setting, so PS3 and Wii etc can get online as well! Does anyone think I will be able to do this with or without rooting with the Droid 2?

 

[sdguy67]

There is a free app that masks your wifi tethering so Verizon doesn't know... and you don't have to toor your phone!? wow, that's pretty cool.

I am getting the Cradle Point CTR500 soon... which will allow me to hook my TP2 or Droid 2 to the router and it broadcasts a whole-home signal for devices to get online with; best of all it masks the 'Ad Hoc' setting, so PS3 and Wii etc can get online as well! Does anyone think I will be able to do this with or without rooting with the Droid 2?

Sorry, PDaNet doesn't do wifi tethering, but it does USB and Bluetooth

 

[copestag]

and it also doesnt "mask" your tethering....... it just allows you to tether without using any VZW software........ if you tether across 3G....... while I grant you it would be very difficult......... they can still potentially tell by scouring your data activity....... for instance if you tether and visit Hulu alot on your PC.... they can instantly tell you were tethering....since you cant use Hulu from your phone....... subtle things like that

having said that........ anybody who gets caught tethering is most likely because they admit to it when confronted about their data useage...... I doubt VZW invests alot of resources into scouring data activity

if you go from using 200Mb a month to using 30Gb a month theyre probably gonna flag you and when you call theyre gonna ask you ......... its at this point when you have to just not be stupid and say "ya I was tethering" doh

 

[DROIDing]

I'm wondering how much (and IF) the increased power, RAM, and processor of the new X and forthcoming Droid 2 will increase the 3G wifi tethering speed to laptops and devices around the house compared to my sluggish now-dated Touch Pro 2?

THANKS!

Bump ^

 

[Demache]

Bump ^

Probably not a ton to be honest. You may see it being a little more responsive, but the biggest bottleneck is the mobile network itself. Tethering is not particularly processor intensive. Even dumbphones can do it.

 

[3devious]

Probably not a ton to be honest. You may see it being a little more responsive, but the biggest bottleneck is the mobile network itself. Tethering is not particularly processor intensive. Even dumbphones can do it.

Yup, my EnV Touch did an adequate job of tethering.

 

[substring]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but the 3G connection through mobile internet provider like VzW or AT&T Mobility is not at par with the high speed internet connection at home through TimeWarner or AT&T U-verse. The mid-level account (price-wise) with those "wired" providers can easily give you about 12-15 Mbps download speed. In this day and age, almost everyone I know has such high speed internet access at home.

Tethering is a good idea. But the practical usability might be limited. I certainly do not want to get on XBOX Live with tethering or I will die faster than I can respawn.

 

[DROIDing]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but the 3G connection through mobile internet provider like VzW or AT&T Mobility is not at par with the high speed internet connection at home through TimeWarner or AT&T U-verse. The mid-level account (price-wise) with those "wired" providers can easily give you about 12-15 Mbps download speed. In this day and age, almost everyone I know has such high speed internet access at home.

Tethering is a good idea. But the practical usability might be limited. I certainly do not want to get on XBOX Live with tethering or I will die faster than I can respawn.

I played Modern Warfare 2 for a few months straight tethering with 3G, works fine.

 

[OutlawFirebird]

I bought the $20 for the 2 gigs plan. I rather do it legit and not have to worry about getting a huge bill. And I think verizon is starting to pay mor attention to the amount of data being use by tethering. and overall, they might even cap our data plans completely. Some sorces are saying.

 

[DROIDing]

I bought the $20 for the 2 gigs plan. I rather do it legit and not have to worry about getting a huge bill. And I think verizon is starting to pay mor attention to the amount of data being use by tethering. and overall, they might even cap our data plans completely. Some sorces are saying.

For years since my first smart phone I've used up to 15gb per month, and nothing was ever said to me. Literally.... 15GB!

 

[codeyh]

Wait, someone's wanting to tether their mobile connection through their entire house?

Wow.. especially with the online gaming, good luck with that.