Tethering clarification

[Tjaden]

Alright I know there are loads of threads about this and tons of questions. I've read the history and still feel foggy about the limits. So to clarify I'd like to know: 5Gb limit yes? From someone that is experienced with extensive droid tethering, have you been billed extra? My plan is family plan, 700 min 2 droids w/inf phone data and texts. Am I allowed 5 gigs of tethering data transfers? The program I plan to use is PDAnet unless someone would recommend another. I may add questions later Im being pressured by my work replacement to hurry up. Be back! Thank you.

 

[ajGoes]

Alright I know there are loads of threads about this and tons of questions. I've read the history and still feel foggy about the limits. So to clarify I'd like to know: 5Gb limit yes? From someone that is experienced with extensive droid tethering, have you been billed extra? My plan is family plan, 700 min 2 droids w/inf phone data and texts. Am I allowed 5 gigs of tethering data transfers? The program I plan to use is PDAnet unless someone would recommend another. I may add questions later Im being pressured by my work replacement to hurry up. Be back! Thank you.

Hi TJ,

Your terms of service allow unlimited bandwidth to the phone, and prohibit tethering. In other words, there is no 5 GB limit, but transfering a single byte through a tethered connection violates your TOS.

However, I can't recall seeing a single case on this forum where a Droid owner reports being penalized for tethering. The advice everyone offers is to use it in moderation -- don't download videos or stream music through a tethered connection.

 

[jsh1120]

According to your contract with VZW you are not allowed to tether your droid. Period. End of story. Not five gigabytes. Not one gigabyte. Not one byte. Period.

On the other hand, there is currently no five gigabyte limit on download/updload traffic to your Droid. Period. Your data plan is UNLIMITED! Period. End of story.

The five gigabyte confusion arises from the fact that Verizon's "broadband access" plans for other devices (such as so-called "air cards") do have a five gigabyte per month limit on the 3G (but not wifi) network.

If you use PDANet (or any other tethering application) you are violating your service agreement with Verizon. Whether you will be caught, charged, or in anyway suffer the consequences of said violation is another question, altogether. There does not appear to have been a documented case of anyone being charged (or even contacted) by Verizon for tethering their Droid.

Hopefully, that resolves your questions.

P.S. Now that two people have responded identically, take it as gospel.

 

[Vulcan1600]

Jsh is right on.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[Tjaden]

Ah oki. See I read all the old posts and that information came before I heard they were implementing prices on the tethering. Would 5gbs be a safe limit? I just wana get a range, or ill just use it in emergencies. I suppose the repercutions of violating TOS would be paying the fee and them terminating my contract, correct? Othet than that I have no more questions, probably saved me from going to 5gbs and gettin into troubles ><

Jsh, great explaination. Well here's something. Any way to DL large files on the droid? IE tv shows from megavideo? Then link it to a laptop and transfer/view? That would be totaly awsome.

 

[iPirate]

Who told you 5gb?

 

[bigaudiofanatic]

What about the incredible. I heard that you can tether that for free and not void anything.

 

[Tjaden]

A verizon rep told me. But I learned not to believe everything I hear. So I'm not surprised that they charge and monitor now. But I still wana know if I can dl large files on my phone and how. Plz read previous post

 

[Speeding Wheels]

You can download anything you want onto your phone as long as you have space on your SD card. You just cannot tether without possibility of repercussions from VZW

 

[jsh1120]

Jsh, great explaination. Well here's something. Any way to DL large files on the droid? IE tv shows from megavideo? Then link it to a laptop and transfer/view? That would be totaly awsome.

From a contractual standpoint I doubt there is anything that would prevent you from doing what you're suggesting. The problem, I suspect, lies in how you can dl the file to your droid. Haven't tried it because I have no use for the feature, but if the browser you're using would support such a large download, I assume you could dl to your sd card and then transfer it to your pc via the usual mounting approach. I'm suspecting, though, that the browser might have trouble with such a large download.

All of this is likely to be moot before too much longer as various carriers adopt a tiered approach to downloading data and those who download tv shows pay for it.