Tethering - Here's why I wouldn't do it...

[aminaked]

I don't know what you're talking about with the 18000. O have been using my droid to play call of duty for a month now. Over 7gb used, no problem.

Oh, I should have been clearer. There's a link to an article about a family that was charged $18,000 for tethering. After 7 years, the bill was recently "forgiven". I was just saying that there's no guarantee that an ETF is the only penalty if Verizon catches you tethering.

There's no proof that they're cracking down on tethering now, but I think it's a good idea to keep your tethering bandwidth low. You can tether worry-free if you set up an encrypted proxy. This should be in my sig.

 

[smokiedabong]

:laugh: 7 years ago a family was charged 18.000$ , that's why you don't have to tether . Man we have unlimited 3G data plans now.
Did they even had 3G or unlimited data plans back then ? Everything was by the MB . I don't think this family even had a phone with a HTML browser , and mobile streaming wasn't even developed .

 

[mcatdtDroid]

:laugh: 7 years ago a family was charged 18.000$ , that's why you don't have to tether . Man we have unlimited 3G data plans now.
Did they even had 3G or unlimited data plans back then ? Everything was by the MB . I don't think this family even had a phone with a HTML browser , and mobile streaming wasn't even developed .

but but but, I can't find any proof of it on a droid, so I'll find any cell phone article and use it as undeniable proof :icon_ banana:

 

[Droids]

:laugh: 7 years ago a family was charged 18.000$ , that's why you don't have to tether . Man we have unlimited 3G data plans now.
Did they even had 3G or unlimited data plans back then ? Everything was by the MB . I don't think this family even had a phone with a HTML browser , and mobile streaming wasn't even developed .

Thought it happened in 2006 - 4 years ago. There's been some debate about how long it will trash their credit, assuming verizon doesn't retract it, and that's where the 7 year number came about.

 

[Mark_Venture]

RE: the $18K cell phone case/bill...

A few of the articles mention a "2yr free promo" had expired. I've never heard of of such a promo. But I'm wondering if it was due to the change from 1xRTT phones to EVDO phones? That was about the 2006 time frame.

Back then, the Verizon Mobile office kits included some form of tethering for 1xRTT phones (like V710, T720/T730), but then with the launch of EVDO phones tethering was against TOS unless you paid for the broadband feature... Maybe this customer switched from a 1xRTT where tethering was "free" to an EVDO phone where it wasn't (was billed per minute), it was against the TOS, and therefore racked up the big bill?

As for citing examples of Cell Phone, Past Technology, or other devices like BB users, all which have a same/similar clause in their TOS... It does illustrate a precedent. VZW did come after people for tethering against TOS before, on other devices, so is certainly possible VZW will come after Droid users.

I'll agree that the debate can/will rage on about if they are or are not actively pursuing and catching Droid users who tether against their TOS. And some wont be satisfied until a Droid user who was caught actually comes forward and posts a copy of his/her bill. (The debate about cell phone users tethering went on for over a year and 1000+ posts at -> HowardForums: Your Mobile Phone Community & Resource - EVDO Tethering (Discuss in this Thread Only!) )

But technically, tethering without an add-on plan is against VZW's written and posted ToS and if chosen, they could enforce.

In other words, violate the written TOS if you want, but if VZW does take notice and catches you then just be prepared to deal with it, whatever the consequences may be.

Knowing this information, if you want to feel safe because no Droid has posted proof of getting caught, that is your choice.

 

[mcatdtDroid]

I realize, there are much bigger tethering fish than me... Despite the flamebait I gave to the "I hope you get what you deserve" crowd, I really don't play Wii online, download a gatrillion songs, or stream movies from netflix.

There are those that do


So if/when verizon does choose to go after tethering people.... (which I believe they will eventually), I feel very safe that I am not even REMOTELY on their radar.

 

[huskur]

I realize, there are much bigger tethering fish than me... Despite the flamebait I gave to the "I hope you get what you deserve" crowd, I really don't play Wii online, download a gatrillion songs, or stream movies from netflix.

There are those that do


So if/when verizon does choose to go after tethering people.... (which I believe they will eventually), I feel very safe that I am not even REMOTELY on their radar.

Personally my view is--- $30 a month for unlimited data----speeds comperable to DSL ---- it should be unlimited no matter what you are doing. Tethering or not. My old DSL fee wasn't even 30 bucks a month

 

[mcatdtDroid]

I realize, there are much bigger tethering fish than me... Despite the flamebait I gave to the "I hope you get what you deserve" crowd, I really don't play Wii online, download a gatrillion songs, or stream movies from netflix.

There are those that do


So if/when verizon does choose to go after tethering people.... (which I believe they will eventually), I feel very safe that I am not even REMOTELY on their radar.

Personally my view is--- $30 a month for unlimited data----speeds comperable to DSL ---- it should be unlimited no matter what you are doing. Tethering or not. My old DSL fee wasn't even 30 bucks a month

I hear ya, and I agree. I love the "unlimited plan" (so long as you don't go over 5mg) Sounds more like a 5mg limit plan to me....

although I don't stream netflix, etc, I will also say, I haven't changed my internet patterns or usage compared to when I used Knology inet and don't plan to. But I'm also not going to increase it just for the sake of increasing it.

However, this entire thread has been nothing but speculation and "I thinks" with no hard proof that verizon even gives a rat's ass.

 

[Mark_Venture]

... I love the "unlimited plan" (so long as you don't go over 5mg) Sounds more like a 5mg limit plan to me...

Yes, it is BS that the UNLIMITED Mobile Broadband Connect plans have this "limit" which is really stated in the fine print of the TOS/T&C's as something like... a typical person who uses the plan for what is permitted per the T&C's wont use over 5gig in a one month period... so one could read that to mean its not really a hard cap or limit.

However, the Unlimited Email/web for smart phone plans do NOT have this cap stated or implied in their TOS so one could say they are truly unlimited. Then again, this plan is meant only for data being used from the hand held via its native "out of the box" features. So again, following that, the amount of data used will often be lower that 5 or so gig.

 

[JCo352]

I realize, there are much bigger tethering fish than me... Despite the flamebait I gave to the "I hope you get what you deserve" crowd, I really don't play Wii online, download a gatrillion songs, or stream movies from netflix.

There are those that do


So if/when verizon does choose to go after tethering people.... (which I believe they will eventually), I feel very safe that I am not even REMOTELY on their radar.

Personally my view is--- $30 a month for unlimited data----speeds comperable to DSL ---- it should be unlimited no matter what you are doing. Tethering or not. My old DSL fee wasn't even 30 bucks a month

Since when should does something mobile cost less, or the same, as something stationary? In terms of technology, things mobile usually cost more.

 

[JCo352]

I realize, there are much bigger tethering fish than me... Despite the flamebait I gave to the "I hope you get what you deserve" crowd, I really don't play Wii online, download a gatrillion songs, or stream movies from netflix.

There are those that do


So if/when verizon does choose to go after tethering people.... (which I believe they will eventually), I feel very safe that I am not even REMOTELY on their radar.

Personally my view is--- $30 a month for unlimited data----speeds comperable to DSL ---- it should be unlimited no matter what you are doing. Tethering or not. My old DSL fee wasn't even 30 bucks a month

I hear ya, and I agree. I love the "unlimited plan" (so long as you don't go over 5mg) Sounds more like a 5mg limit plan to me....

although I don't stream netflix, etc, I will also say, I haven't changed my internet patterns or usage compared to when I used Knology inet and don't plan to. But I'm also not going to increase it just for the sake of increasing it.

However, this entire thread has been nothing but speculation and "I thinks" with no hard proof that verizon even gives a rat's ass.

I've never heard of this 5 milligram plan you speak of.

 

[mcatdtDroid]

Personally my view is--- $30 a month for unlimited data----speeds comperable to DSL ---- it should be unlimited no matter what you are doing. Tethering or not. My old DSL fee wasn't even 30 bucks a month

I hear ya, and I agree. I love the "unlimited plan" (so long as you don't go over 5mg) Sounds more like a 5mg limit plan to me....

although I don't stream netflix, etc, I will also say, I haven't changed my internet patterns or usage compared to when I used Knology inet and don't plan to. But I'm also not going to increase it just for the sake of increasing it.

However, this entire thread has been nothing but speculation and "I thinks" with no hard proof that verizon even gives a rat's ass.

I've never heard of this 5 milligram plan you speak of.

damn metric system lol

 

[smokiedabong]

Since when should does something mobile cost less, or the same, as something stationary? In terms of technology, things mobile usually cost more.

Since the running cost for a wireless network is lower than for a land line network . To cover the same area that can be covered by a cell tower with land infrastructure , lines , optic and copper wires , amplifiers , switches etc. is more expensive . The cost of a cell site varies from 50.000$ to 200.000$ but it covers an area that can produce around 100.000$ per year so in 1-2 years it's payed for . And nowadays with so many wireless subscribers , all the cell towers have enough users to be very profitable . Luckily for the wireless providers users still think they have to pay more for wireless . Few years ago it was cheaper to run a land network because they were using the 20-50 year old already existing wires and didn't have so many subscribers per /sq mi , but now with so many people switching to wireless things have changed .

 

[GohanBurner]

I'm going to go nuts when 4G comes out finally. I'm still grateful I can play call of duty and most other pc games using my droid as the connection!

 

[Guchi]

when i bought my droid at the verizon store the sales girl asked if i wanted some of the best apps downloaded onto my phone, I told that would be cool and among ATK and barcode scanner she put PDAnet and that mp3 download app that doesn't exist anymore. so....