Will tethering on droid get you in trouble with VZW?

[Vulcan1600]

eh nothing yet and dont see anything coming soon. SOO TIME TO GET ME SOME NOOBS

So, your original post said the VZW store manager looked at the TOS with you and found nothing, can you tell me what store this was? It seems like all your posts after that were just you bragging about all the GB of data you have used. I worked for VZW until recently, and I'm telling you to be careful.

 

[pc747]

Yeah i know what you mean. I am just happy that I know i wont be tacked with an extra charge now. Im currently at 56 gigs and counting due to Xbox live MW2. I have been for a couple of months and no problems.

correction 62 gigs XD

hmmm...well have had my droid for a couple of months now and i have been tethering on it ever since i can remember. I only recently started using soo much data because i have been using it to connect to Xbox live and play on my 360. I have been averaging, i would say, 6-12 gigs a day depending on how long i play and my family plays (i let them play too) and my bill has always stayed at a steady 130 a month.

I've cancelled home inet now that I tether. but by all means, anyone who wants to continue to pay double for the same internet.... feel free. Suckers are born everyday

This is why VZW may be looking into charging folks. Come one people a lil common sense. You are going to tether off your droid like it is a cable modem at the house, really.
Its the 10%. I bet you using a lot of torrents aren't you; downloading netflix, music, whatever. How about get call the phone company or cable company for a modem for your xbox and movies; and just use the droid to tether sparingly.
Vzw may or may not be tracking it now; but if you fools keep burning through a bunch of bandwidth they gonna make it an issue. So, in other words, you folks being stupid burning through all this bandwidth is going to draw more attention and cause problems for everyone.

 

[warning9]

Yeah i know what you mean. I am just happy that I know i wont be tacked with an extra charge now. Im currently at 56 gigs and counting due to Xbox live MW2. I have been for a couple of months and no problems.

correction 62 gigs XD

hmmm...well have had my droid for a couple of months now and i have been tethering on it ever since i can remember. I only recently started using soo much data because i have been using it to connect to Xbox live and play on my 360. I have been averaging, i would say, 6-12 gigs a day depending on how long i play and my family plays (i let them play too) and my bill has always stayed at a steady 130 a month.

I've cancelled home inet now that I tether. but by all means, anyone who wants to continue to pay double for the same internet.... feel free. Suckers are born everyday

This is why VZW may be looking into charging folks. Come one people a lil common sense. You are going to tether off your droid like it is a cable modem at the house, really.
Its the 10%. I bet you using a lot of torrents aren't you; downloading netflix, music, whatever. How about get call the phone company or cable company for a modem for your xbox and movies; and just use the droid to tether sparingly.
Vzw may or may not be tracking it now; but if you fools keep burning through a bunch of bandwidth they gonna make it an issue. So, in other words, you folks being stupid burning through all this bandwidth is going to draw more attention and cause problems for everyone.

Agreed. For Verizon Wireless, finding people for violating their TOS is as simple as pulling up a spreadsheet of users in a specific area and sorting by bandwidth used.

 

[td854]

I bought my Droid from Verizon, from the sales manager there. he's the one that told me about PDAnet and tethering because I specifically asked if it costs extra to tether, he said no and that there is no tethering package/fee associated with this phone, only with blackberry devices (guessing they can only get away with that since it's not as open a platform as android market is.) I asked him if there were any bandwidth limitations, he said no. So take the paranoia with a grain of salt, I'm not worried in the least bit.

 

[Death3044]

Is it me or does a lot of sales reps say you can tether the droid without any additional costs?

 

[awillow1]

Family disputes Verizon's $18,000 bill

Family disputes Verizon's $18,000 bill | Technically Incorrect - CNET News

Not to be a nudge - but the article said:

" ...on receiving the first bill, Bob St. Germain called Verizon and discovered that the two-year promotional period, which neatly allowed free downloads, had expired."

So, all the tethering he did during the promo period is not at issue from Verizon's standpoint. He is only being charged for data usage after the promo expired. Thus - tethering with an "Unlimited" data plan, is not a problem.

The software including instructions on how to tether, came WITH my previous phone ( & unlimited data plan). Verizon even walked me through setting it up. AND, when I upgraded two days ago, to the new HTC Incredible, I specifically asked if software was onboard to do this. I was told to simply download the App and I'd be good to go.

Tether on, my Unlimited Data Plan, friends....
Willow :greendroid:

 

[smokiedabong]

They have no legal means to charge you an astronomical bill per kB for tethering if you have unlimited data plan. There is no paragraph in the contract that addresses that . The only thing that they can do is to cancel your contract and make you pay a ETF , or charge you extra 30$ which is their price for tethering . Either way I use a proxy and SSH tunnel so there's no way to tell if I'm tethering and the speeds are pretty good , >1.5MB/s thanks to the fearful people that are not using the bandwidth leaving it wide open for us .

 

[jsh1120]

Not sure how many times this has to come up.

From another thread by Romple.

"So I was bored and this thread is precious so I went to the VZW customer agreement.

I don't care about who says it's legal or not. Just quoting it cause a lot of people apparently have never read it. This is technically what we all agree to when we sign up.

If you cancel a line of Service, or if we cancel it for good cause, during its contract term, you'll have to pay an early termination fee. If your contract term results from your purchase of an advanced device after November 14, 2009, your early termination fee will be $350 minus $10 for each full month of your contract term that you complete. (For a complete list of advanced devices, check verizonwireless.com/advanceddevices.) Otherwise, your early termination fee will be $175 minus $5 for each full month of your contract term that you complete. Cancellations will become effective on the last day of that month's billing cycle, and you are responsible for all charges incurred until then. Also, if you bought your wireless device from an authorized agent or third–party vendor, you should check if they charge a separate termination fee.

What Are Verizon Wireless' Rights to Limit or End Service or End this Agreement?

We can, without notice, limit, suspend or end your Service or any agreement with you for any good cause, including, but not limited to: ............ or (ii) if you, any user of your device or any account manager on your account: ......... (d) modify your device from its manufacturer's specifications; or (e) use your Service in a way that negatively affects our network or other customers. We can also temporarily limit your Service for any operational or governmental reason.

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’s native applications and capabilities permit, unless you subscribe to Mobile Broadband Connect; or (2) for any applications that tether your device to laptops or personal computers other than for use of the Wireless Sync or the BlackBerry solution, unless you subscribe to Mobile Broadband Connect.
We may monitor you compliance, or the compliance of other subscribers, with these terms and conditions, but we will not monitor the content of your communications except as otherwise expressly permitted or required by law. [See verizonwireless.com/privacy.] "

The Droid's "unlimited data plan" is NOT "Mobile Broadband Connect." The latter is a separate service plan that provides up to 5 gigabytes of download/upload per month for an additional $30 per month.

Information about whether such a plan is available for the Droid is inconsistent, to say the least, but even if it IS available the plan limits tethering to five gigabytes per month.

On the other hand, tethering apparently IS allowed for the Droid Incredible. VZW even details how to do it on their website IF you subscribe to the Mobile Broadband Connect plan. Thus, I'd expect such a plan to be extended to the Droid, as well. However, once again, such a plan has a five gigabyte per month limit. Period.

 

[pc747]

Verizon Wireless - Mobile Broadband - Plans

For Mobile Broadband Connect-capable
smartphones, BlackBerry, Android devices and handsets

Must be added to a voice plan with one of the following features:

• Email and Web for Smartphone $29.99 feature
• Email and Web for BlackBerry $29.99 feature
• Nationwide Plan with a $29.99 data option

​

#products div { float:left; margin-right:8px; } New Search


Back to Search Results Mobile Broadband Connect - HTC DROID Incredible ADR6300

1. Connect the device to the computer with the USB cable.
2. Touch Mobile Broadband Connect then touch Done.
   
   

 

[pc747]

SO obviously vzw knows about our tethering capability.

AGain I can not stress this enough; If you use it sparingly and do not tether enough to justify paying 20-40 per month then pdanet/wifi tether is good.

If you are using it as you sole source of internet ...they will crack down on it. I would no be surprised to see 2.2 with the incredible tethering option. Vzw is a multi billion dollar corporation; do you really think they are that clueless. Just because the sale rep do not know, does not mean the bigs don't know. They are rich for a reason.
If they see they are losing money because the people tethering illegally is using a bunch of bandwidth then they will crack down on it.
Its simple: if you do not make waves then we will not have problems. People tethering like it is no tomorrow are making waves.
It is like people thought that vzw did not know about rooting....the sales rep didn't but the bigs closed that access hole with the 2.1 update.
Vzw probably have people paid to roam forums like this. They initially do it to see what the customer base wants. But if they find something out they not gonna say "gotcha"........nope they are going to keep quiet and act when they are ready to do what needs to be done.
So you guys thinking you are getting one over on big red might want to think again. There are already a couple of people who said and proved they were either vzw employees or former employees.


Think about that for a minute.....

I work for an airline and I need my money. If I come across a forum where people are talking about they found away to steal airline tickets, I am snitching. Because you are taking money out of my pocket and food out of my mouth. My company is already dealing with the rough economic situation. And if they are not making money then they are going to have to cut employees.
To me, having a job is more important then allowing people to fly for free.
You do not know who is on the other side of the computer typing and watching what is going on.

 

[sanitroc]

Ditto @pilotcharles747! I don't understand people sometimes.
GO PLAY OUTSIDE! DON'T TETHER SO MUCH!
Pax pacis

 

[td854]

I was writing some long dissertation but decided to just keep it to this.

We paid for an unlimited data plan. I can download 10GB on my phone just as easily as I can to my PC through my phone, bandwidth arguments are pointless.

This isn't a "here's a bowl of candy, take as much as you want and you only take what you need because it's polite" situation, we're paying for this service, there's no reason why we can't use it to the fullest of our abilities while others choose to use it for almost nothing.

So if you wanna argue VZWs fine print about tethering go for it, but arguing bandwidth is stupid. The internet is not going to become some communist bandwidth regime.

 

[Vulcan1600]

I bought my Droid from Verizon, from the sales manager there. he's the one that told me about PDAnet and tethering because I specifically asked if it costs extra to tether, he said no and that there is no tethering package/fee associated with this phone, only with blackberry devices (guessing they can only get away with that since it's not as open a platform as android market is.) I asked him if there were any bandwidth limitations, he said no. So take the paranoia with a grain of salt, I'm not worried in the least bit.

Have you considered the fact he's a Salesman, and he is trying to make a buck. He's right, there is no tethering package yet for the android devices, but he conveniently forgot to tell you that it is coming in 2010.

 

[td854]

The phone was already sold by the time I was asking these questions, lol. Droid is my first smart phone, that was enough for me. Any extra features were just a bonus, I could live fine without it before so I thought I'd might as well ask while I'm there.

Did I mention I don't even use tethering? I have no notebook pc and cable internet at home.

 

[JCo352]

I've read this thread and WOW. ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS. I can't wait to read the thread that says "OMG $50,000.00 VZW bill".