Tethering Complaint Filed Against Verizon with FCC by Free Press

[wicked]

The blocking of tethering apps by Verizon just got very real after a complaint was filed today through the FCC by Free Press which could potentially impact the future of LTE. This has been one of those hot subjects around Droid Life over the last few weeks, so we couldn’t help but smile a little when we saw a group of this magnitude taking it straight to the top.

As you may recall, Droid-Life first reported news that tethering apps had either been removed or purposefully blocked from being viewed and downloaded to Verizon devices. The move wasn’t necessarily a surprise since we know that Verizon likes to force you into purchasing an additional mobile hotspot service on top of your data plan, but the move was bold. And then just last week we noticed that even if you had managed to load up a third party app from outside the market to tether, that Verizon was blocking you from doing so.

People grew angry at this for a number of reasons – and the complaint filed today by Free Press pretty much touches on them all.


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[GohanBurner]

Seriously, Verizon is so full of sugar for doing this. I bought a Droid X with the hopes of using it to tether and all those other goodies my D1 is capable of...low and behold, I find out that even rooted that my tethering apps start the 3G mobile hotspot app can I cant find a work around for it. So I am RE-selling the phone on eBay right now and have gone back to the D1. Screw Verizon. Why the sam hill would I want to pay an additional $20/mo for only 2GB!!!!!!!! I can surpass that in an hour if that just playing online games. Its ridiculous.

 

[RETG]

Hope Verizon wins. If Verizon has no control over how their services are used by people to cheap to pay for the services, then ALL our costs will go up. And again, those who follow the rules, pay for what they get, will end up paying for those who tax the system. In other words, redistribution of the wealth.


I don't care how much more it costs, or how limited the service is, if you don't like it, move onto another provider and tax their system.

 

[czerdrill]

Hope Verizon wins. If Verizon has no control over how their services are used by people to cheap to pay for the services, then ALL our costs will go up. And again, those who follow the rules, pay for what they get, will end up paying for those who tax the system. In other words, redistribution of the wealth.


I don't care how much more it costs, or how limited the service is, if you don't like it, move onto another provider and tax their system.

+1, not sure why anyone would think a victory by free press would be a victory for the user. We'll just start paying 60/month for data. That being said, verizon is gonna win.

 

[tgyberg]

2GB's every half hour? Yea, Get Pink Ponies.

 

[grinchy]

unlimited should mean just that...not with strings/fine print attached...its like going to a buffet and being told to leave after 1 plate...just saying

 

[xan]

End DATA discrimination now! Power to the DATA!

No entity should be allowed to discriminate against the color of my DATA viewing device's logo or the size of its screen.

 

[turdbogls]

unlimited should mean just that...not with strings/fine print attached...its like going to a buffet and being told to leave after 1 plate...just saying

Yeah but there is pretty much no way to ready up 2gb an hour just on mobile data.
Verizon can manage their data any way they want to...we have unlimited mobile data...not unlimited "download all the torrents you like, while playing COD online, and streaming pandora all at the same time"

If vzw looses, they are going to either jack up the prices oi cut our data...its a loose loose either way for us

This message was probably sent from the can

 

[grinchy]

unlimited should mean just that...not with strings/fine print attached...its like going to a buffet and being told to leave after 1 plate...just saying

Yeah but there is pretty much no way to ready up 2gb an hour just on mobile data.
Verizon can manage their data any way they want to...we have unlimited mobile data...not unlimited "download all the torrents you like, while playing COD online, and streaming pandora all at the same time"

If vzw looses, they are going to either jack up the prices oi cut our data...its a loose loose either way for us

This message was probably sent from the can

whoa...if my data is capable of all that sort of bandwidth goodbye brighthouse! lol

 

[onsht1kll]

I have to agree .. if Verizon loses this will be bad news for the end user .. I sure don't need my bill going up any higher

 

[czerdrill]

I have to agree .. if Verizon loses this will be bad news for the end user .. I sure don't need my bill going up any higher

I see no logical way they'll lose though

 

[Vakharn]

This whole situation sucks. Verizon charging extra based on how you use something you're paying for is stupid. Sure, they're worried that you're going to use more data tethering, and probably rightly so, but once they ditch unlimited data plans that won't be an issue anymore. I don't tether but I downloaded a tethering application to try it out because I could, and found that while I had the application installed (not running, just installed) webpages loaded exponentially slower. I uninstalled it and they went back to normal. I wonder if Verizon is throttling certain activities if you have a tethering app they don't approve of installed as well?

In any case this really does stink no matter how it goes. Either we find out that Verizon is justified in limiting what apps you can use (which opens up a whole huge can of worms) or they get smacked down by the FCC and raise all our data rates to compensate. I don't like either outcome. The only ray of sunshine is that if the FCC does agree with free press on this, with the upcoming elimination of unlimited data Verizon no longer has any reason to charge more for tethered data use since all data will be metered.

 

[sb1831]

Hope Verizon wins. If Verizon has no control over how their services are used by people to cheap to pay for the services, then ALL our costs will go up. And again, those who follow the rules, pay for what they get, will end up paying for those who tax the system. In other words, redistribution of the wealth.


I don't care how much more it costs, or how limited the service is, if you don't like it, move onto another provider and tax their system.

+1, not sure why anyone would think a victory by free press would be a victory for the user. We'll just start paying 60/month for data. That being said, verizon is gonna win.

Agree with you both. The "10percent" if you will of this community is the free rider that is going to end up screwing the rest of us. People want unlocked bootloaders, and the "10 percent" if you will is the part fighting for this type of stuff. In the end the cost gets passed onto the 90% that just want to use their phones like thy are at close to the current cost they are.

 

[tommyz]

Hope Verizon wins. If Verizon has no control over how their services are used by people to cheap to pay for the services, then ALL our costs will go up. And again, those who follow the rules, pay for what they get, will end up paying for those who tax the system. In other words, redistribution of the wealth.


I don't care how much more it costs, or how limited the service is, if you don't like it, move onto another provider and tax their system.

+1

I also agree. This would be bad for the consumer.

 

[brad92]

Hope Verizon wins. If Verizon has no control over how their services are used by people to cheap to pay for the services, then ALL our costs will go up. And again, those who follow the rules, pay for what they get, will end up paying for those who tax the system. In other words, redistribution of the wealth.


I don't care how much more it costs, or how limited the service is, if you don't like it, move onto another provider and tax their system.

+1, not sure why anyone would think a victory by free press would be a victory for the user. We'll just start paying 60/month for data. That being said, verizon is gonna win.

Agree with you both. The "10percent" if you will of this community is the free rider that is going to end up screwing the rest of us. People want unlocked bootloaders, and the "10 percent" if you will is the part fighting for this type of stuff. In the end the cost gets passed onto the 90% that just want to use their phones like thy are at close to the current cost they are.

What does it matter? Verizon screws us anyway. Like my $800 bill one month because they decided to not accept my phone for warranty, even though it was stock and never rooted.

sent from my ZombieStomped X