Last time. You don't own it or the electricity and believe me if you start using your electricity in a way the power company doesn't like you will be told. If you don't want.to take my word for it go read your ATT and electric contractual agreements
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AT&T to begin charging iPhone users who tether..
- Thread starter kevbo
- Start date
Last time. You don't own it or the electricity and believe me if you start using your electricity in a way the power company doesn't like you will be told. If you don't want.to take my word for it go read your ATT and electric contractual agreements
Since we are back to where we started, I agree it is pointless to continue.
They have and must have rights in regard to things that affect the network. (mobile data or electricity or water as in the previous examples)
For things that don't affect their network it is none of their business.
In the end I want to tell you I agree 100% but that is not how the service business works. That is why we are having a hard time understanding one another. For instance I don't believe they should charge for it or for sms/mms it should be included. The messaging in the minutes and the tethering in the data but that's not how the market works and that's why its unreasonable to expect otherwise
No, once you pay for it, the bandwidth is yours... In fact, the spectrum is actually owned by you and I. AT&T leases it from you and I.
You are not modifying any AT&T (OR any other carrier) equipment, and the courts have already ruled that basically, the only allowed thing at this point in time is traffic shaping to ensure a network keeps running smoothly.
The only thing is, nobody has taken a mobile carrier to court for it. Like I've said before, it's only a matter of time before this goes the same route as 2 charges/2 computers for home broadband service went.
Once again you are incorrect. The spectrum is purchased not leased. The government divests the bandwidth and carriers purchase it
It's leased buddy. In fact, it even has to be annually renewed. It just so happens the lease price is determined by auction.
I believe the latest rounds were not leased ie the 700 mhz was actually purchased. I will look into it further
Feel free to look into it. You will see that spectrum management is done by the FCC, which doles out licenses for spectrum. And, every license expires eventually.
HustlinDaily
Android Expert
FCC Auctions: Factsheet: Auction 60
License expires on Jan 1st 2015
AT&T is expected to acquire it during the second half of 2011- Qualcomm News and Events - Press Releases - AT&T Agrees to Acquire Wireless Spectrum from Qualcomm
License expires on Jan 1st 2015
AT&T is expected to acquire it during the second half of 2011- Qualcomm News and Events - Press Releases - AT&T Agrees to Acquire Wireless Spectrum from Qualcomm
So this says purchase the license so in turn they are not leasing they own the spectrum license
Why do the citizens own the spectrum? Because it is a scarce limited resource. Therefore the government manages the spectrum. The spectrum must be used in the public interest.
I also notice that in this entire thread so far, the closest thing offered as a justification for Tethering is that you might be able to download/upload data at a faster rate than with the mobile phone alone. That was the best argument offered so far. I also pointed out that AT&T can (and rightfully should) be able to control the upload/download rate.
We're still dancing around the lack of any justification for tethering. It's just AT&T wants more of your money, some think they should be able to do anything they want ("entitled" is the word I'd use) for providing you nothing more than you already have.
In a nutshell: AT&T should have all the rights, you should have none, and they should be able to do whatever they want. (Extra credit: Lookup the phrase "unconscionable contract".)
I agree with you: it's only a matter of time before this practice ends.
Once upon a time, cable companies thought they should be able to charge you for wiring up extra outlets in your own home! They were forced to stop that practice.
Similarly for landline telephone.
It is simply astonishing to me that a corporation would seem to care so deeply about something:
1. that I do in private
2. that doesn't affect their network
3. that costs them nothing extra
4. that is largely undetectable unless they actively snoop into my traffic or the contents of my device
Who would not like the tether idea? I think we should all have it from a customer perspective. I did at Sprint with windows phone. Loved it!!! At&t and Apple partnered up to make it inconvenient with apple updates to go the Jailbreak way. And made a "legal" way but charge a good fortune for it.
I saw you arguing with "AndreaCristiano" - no use...
In my opinion the reason for that is first to make an extra buck, but more importantly to protect their network from overload.
If everybody and their grandmother hops on their devices and start tethering, no question about it, At&t will get hit badly which is nether in At&t's nor Apple's interest.
As general rule of thumb webpages or applications built for mobile devices utilize a lot less bandwidth than Laptops. That can be argued based on application using the internet, but - generally public will eat more bandwidth using a full blown computer. You can push the bandwidth with a computer alot easier than with a mobile device. At&t had hard enough time trying to keep their networks up with the iPhone, as it was the one of a kind handheld which more than doubled the usage of data. I believe they want to limit the amount of users using tethering by charging $$$.
At&t's new network speed is impressive, and could easily replace home DSL for some. I know some people that use their 3g wireless cards instead of DSL... why wouldn't they use tethering? especially if it's free...
All in all, I love the idea, not sure if it will adapt in such times as now.
I saw you arguing with "AndreaCristiano" - no use...
In my opinion the reason for that is first to make an extra buck, but more importantly to protect their network from overload.
If everybody and their grandmother hops on their devices and start tethering, no question about it, At&t will get hit badly which is nether in At&t's nor Apple's interest.
As general rule of thumb webpages or applications built for mobile devices utilize a lot less bandwidth than Laptops. That can be argued based on application using the internet, but - generally public will eat more bandwidth using a full blown computer. You can push the bandwidth with a computer alot easier than with a mobile device. At&t had hard enough time trying to keep their networks up with the iPhone, as it was the one of a kind handheld which more than doubled the usage of data. I believe they want to limit the amount of users using tethering by charging $$$.
At&t's new network speed is impressive, and could easily replace home DSL for some. I know some people that use their 3g wireless cards instead of DSL... why wouldn't they use tethering? especially if it's free...
All in all, I love the idea, not sure if it will adapt in such times as now.
Hey Andrea, ease up... lol
Who cares who's bandwidth it is?! The point is that we are paying, and getting our share of service. Why pick at words? And why are you so aggressive backing up this phone company?
I own a business as well, provide product and service to my customers. Yes businesses have the right to charge what they think is right. A customer has a right to buy into it or stay out of it.
I do believe At&t's tethering plan is silly, it's a marketing gimic, it is nothing new.
It's the same service, same equipment but an additional price for so called "feature" lol....
There are few reasons why they would partner up with apple and restrict it:
1) protect their network from overload by charging customers for this. As it being a charged feature, there will be limited customer buying it and more controlled load on their infrastructure.
2) they just plain came up with this silly business plan thinking people are stupid and will buy it as they have no other choice.
I tend to believe it's step 1.
However, for some that find it worth their while jailbraking and using tethering the unsupported route hopefully is a good use of their time.
Hey Andrea, ease up... lol
Who cares who's bandwidth it is?! The point is that we are paying, and getting our share of service. Why pick at words? And why are you so aggressive backing up this phone company?
I own a business as well, provide product and service to my customers. Yes businesses have the right to charge what they think is right. A customer has a right to buy into it or stay out of it.
I do believe At&t's tethering plan is silly, it's a marketing gimic, it is nothing new.
It's the same service, same equipment but an additional price for so called "feature" lol....
There are few reasons why they would partner up with apple and restrict it:
1) protect their network from overload by charging customers for this. As it being a charged feature, there will be limited customer buying it and more controlled load on their infrastructure.
2) they just plain came up with this silly business plan thinking people are stupid and will buy it as they have no other choice.
I tend to believe it's step 1.
However, for some that find it worth their while jailbraking and using tethering the unsupported route hopefully is a good use of their time.
Lol I wasn't trying to defend business per se or ATT just trying to make people understand the practice which they don't comprehend
Lol I wasn't trying to defend business per se or ATT just trying to make people understand the practice which they don't comprehend
I think most consumers understand it, but are revolting against it the same way as when ISP's tried to do the same thing for home broadband.
Funny thing is little more than 5 years ago, I used tethering over bluetooth with my phones and had no issues, no extra charges, and no concerns.
A year later I installed a program on my crappy sprint windows mobile phone called WiFi Router or something similar.
I was able to get anywhere from ~700Kbts to 1.2Mbts download using my phone as a proxy for the internet.
Sure it wasn't advertised, wasn't streamlined and considered to be common around nerds
"Everybody are safe and happy, although there were same rumors that phone company may backcharge for tethering.. 
"Now that any joe can jailbrake their iphone and install MiFi for and use their phone as a wireless router, it's a concern to At&t and Apple as both reputation will suffer even more so than it already did.
Still possible to do it, but is it possible to get away with it??
Just a bit more evidence of the inevitable.
O2 scraps mobile tethering surcharges, cheers up a whole United Kingdom
O2 scraps mobile tethering surcharges, cheers up a whole United Kingdom -- Engadget
Just one example of the overall trend to do away with the fiction that tethering is something that should cost you money.
For some reason O2 felt less entitled to charge as much for the fictional "service" of tethering. They only charged the US equivalent of $12.24 for the "privilege" of using the bandwidth customers already paid for.
If they were charging this, and nobody made them stop, yet they stopped, I suppose it must be due to market forces. I continue to believe that in the long run charges for "tethering" will disappear everywhere. The market won't accept paying something for nothing.
O2 scraps mobile tethering surcharges, cheers up a whole United Kingdom
O2 scraps mobile tethering surcharges, cheers up a whole United Kingdom -- Engadget
Just one example of the overall trend to do away with the fiction that tethering is something that should cost you money.
For some reason O2 felt less entitled to charge as much for the fictional "service" of tethering. They only charged the US equivalent of $12.24 for the "privilege" of using the bandwidth customers already paid for.
If they were charging this, and nobody made them stop, yet they stopped, I suppose it must be due to market forces. I continue to believe that in the long run charges for "tethering" will disappear everywhere. The market won't accept paying something for nothing.
Would be a nice but European networks are run completely different