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PC World's take on teethering

Horrible article.

The Thunderbolt had come with free tethering as part of a special promotion. When the freebie period ran out, Verizon promptly reached into users' phones and shut off the spigot.

What is wrong with cutting off free tethering when it is no longer free?

it is a reminder that Verizon, and to an extent AT&T, which has said it will charge users it finds to be using a hotspot without paying the carrier's fee for it, are serious about controlling users' ability to tether.

Yes it is a feature that is outlined in your contract with the phone company, if you wish to use it then you can pay for the ability to use it

What's really going on here, promotion or not, is an attempt by AT&T and Verizon to skim some new revenues by restricting a feature that's native to many Android devices. It's analogous to buying a new F-150 and then discovering that your local Ford dealer has sneaked into your garage to disable the air conditioning and now demands a monthly fee to turn it back on. Sorry, that free climate control promotion has come to an end.

Um...no. It is not like buying a new F-150 then having a dealer disable the air conditioning. When you purchase a vehicle you pay for the air conditioning not the ability to use it. If you wish you can save some money on some vehicles and not pay for the air conditioning that is your choice. With tethering you are paying for your ability to use it as outlined in your contract, yes there are ways to circumvent this and if the carrier find out they would be within every right to terminate your contract with them and not giving you a refund for anything.

Now that the all-you-can-eat buffet is over, we're now paying for specific amounts of bandwidth per month and should be allowed to use each of those megabytes as we please, which includes tethering.

Well most of us are not paying per GB as most of us are grandfathered in, but I can agree that if you are a pay per GB user then you should be allowed to use those GB however you wish.

The rest of the article is just fear mongering to make the reader think the big bad phone company is going to try to take advantage of the user any way they can.

My opinion of PCWorld just fell quite a bit.
 
I agree with everything Yeahha said. I read the article earlier just before I checked here and couldn't believe how stupid the entire article is. I was also amazed at all of the comments that agreed with it.

I've kept putting off posting because I usually don't post about something some idiot journalist writes. I'm convinced that if possible, todays journalists have even less integrity than ever before. I believe that they must now get paid by the number of comments they receive and write simply to be provocative and to elicit comments from the readers as opposed to writing half way intelligent and informed articles. Surely they can't all possibly be as stupid and uninformed as this author appears.

Every Verizon rep I've talked to, from the first time I walked in the store and purchased my TBolt and every time I've walked in the store since has told me that the free hotspot was a promotion and at the end of it I would be charged for it. Every time I used the hotspot, I got a message telling me the same thing. No rep has ever knowingly lied to me. Verizon even extended the free hotspot twice. Now that the time has come, people are outraged and screaming foul.

I'm gladly paying $30.00 for the unlimited hotspot data. I was paying the same amount for my unlimited data plan at AT&T, but the difference between Verizon and AT&T is Verizon actually has 4G and with Verizon, I have coverage everywhere I go in my state. With AT&T I couldn't even make a call from my house.

I'm not slamming anyone who uses software tethering apps. Everyone has to make their own choices, but Verizon has every right to block software tethering and charge you for it, or cancel your contract if they catch you because it's part of the terms of service in the contract. Most people who do it know that and accept the risk, but I'm pretty sure when it happens there will be more outrage and stupid articles screaming about how unfair it is.

Just my opinion and I know there are a lot of people who disagree.
 
I don't think everyone who tethers knows the risks, yeah they know it is against the terms of service but I doubt they know Verizon could terminate the contract
 
The rest of the article is just fear mongering to make the reader think the big bad phone company is going to try to take advantage of the user any way they can.

As a former Bell Atlantic employee (current day Verizon), I can say for absolute certain that the 'big bad phone company' can and WILL take advantage of the customer AND the employee!

CWA went on strike for this very reason back in 1998....
Things have not changed within the communications industry, they have become worse now that CWA and IBEW have no teeth. :eek:
 
No argument with that, but I don't think that makes them any different, or any worse than any other big corporation. I've worked for several and one was as bad as the other. It's all about the bottom line. Always has been and always will be. Everyone has to make someone else happy. The top executives have to keep the shareholders and board of directors happy, or be out on their golden parachutes and that means making and increasing profits any way they can. That usually means charging the customer for everything they'll pay for. They usually don't care if the customers complain, as long as they pay while they're doing it.

The only one I've heard of recently that seems to be different and care about it's customers and employees is Zappo's and I don't expect that trend to be contagious and spread to other companies.
 
Guys - I just posted what was there - I've heard some here try to make similar argurments. My opinion Free was good - free was a promotion - no one ever said that it would be free forever.

When/If I need it - I'll hit the Verizon store and say add-it. When I'm done needing it - delete it. It comes to about $1/day.

Havinf said that - from my standpoint - "Unlimited Data" is UNLIMITED DATA. I'm guessing that their stand is that tethering tends to imply MORE data. Oh
 
It really makes sense to me. Unlimited data is a license for unlimited data for your phone. If you use a hotspot, you are offering up unlimited data to your phone and other devices.

That being said, wireless tether is a helluva app.
 
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