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Tethering to tablet?!? Help!

N

NeedzAndroid

Lurker
Hi guys, don't shoot me but I have an iPad 2 and was wondering if I could tether my incredible to it without paying verizon's monthly fee?

I'm looking to upgrade to the galaxy nexus and am wondering if either the incredible or nexus will be able to tether 1) w/out being rooted and 2) without paying the mobile hotspot fee?

Is free tethering a thing of the past now or are people still getting away with it??

Many thanks in advance!
 
If you root your phone there are apps that will allow you to tether. The jury is still out whether or not the carriers can or are detecting tethering without the plan.

Many people all over the world are tethering without an additional data plan. The extra fee is just a U.S. thing and while there is a lot of discussion about whether it is fair or even legal, it is part of the TOS agreement every cell phone user in the US signed, so right now we are stuck either paying or violating our contract.

I doubt Verizon or AT&T will ever release a phone model that can tether out of the box without a special plan unless they are forced to.
 
lunatic59 said:
If you root your phone there are apps that will allow you to tether. The jury is still out whether or not the carriers can or are detecting tethering without the plan.
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It's easier on GSM. You can just buy an unlocked phone (without carrier restrictions and bloatware), pop in a SIM card and tether. Unfortunately, you can't really do the same with CDMA carriers.

AT&T has been switching folks using lotsa data on unlimited plans to the DataPro 4GB with tethering plan saying they're tethering even though they're not. By the looks of things, they're just using tethering as an excuse since they can't outright say that the unlimited data isn't really unlimited.

Frankly, as long as you're on metered data and are paying for overage, I don't think carriers would care overmuch if you tether or not. If you're on unlimited, though, and consuming upwards of 5GB per month, then regardless of whether you tether or not, the carriers are likely to bump you off off unlimited.
 
okay so pretty much, your phone MUST be rooted regardless to tether?

i'm on a family plan for verizon that was grandfathered to unlimited data, so has anyone ever heard of verizon capping someone's unlimited plan without prior warning? I don't want to screw over my parents and siblings because of tethering.

I normally use about 1.5 gigs on my cell phone a month and I will only tether to my ipad when I don't have wifi available (which I have wifi most of the time) so I'm guessing at most another 1 gig of data usage by the ipad a month. So would 2.5 gigs cause verizon to cut off my unlimited data service?

lastly, do you guys think the galaxy nexus will be rooted relatively quickly? i wondering because I don't want to wait 2 months to root before I can tether to my ipad.
 
The top end phones are usually the first to be rooted. I'd expect the GNex to be pretty quick. Also Samsung is not been playing games with the bootloader like HTC and Motorola did.

I would have a frank discussion with your parents about what you intend to do since it is their account you are going to violate. If they have no problem with you attempting to root and tether, then if everyone gets "screwed over" as you put it, at least it's not a surprise.
 
lunatic59 said:
The top end phones are usually the first to be rooted. I'd expect the GNex to be pretty quick. Also Samsung is not been playing games with the bootloader like HTC and Motorola did.

I would have a frank discussion with your parents about what you intend to do since it is their account you are going to violate. If they have no problem with you attempting to root and tether, then if everyone gets "screwed over" as you put it, at least it's not a surprise.
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even though i'm 25 i'm still on their plan because its cheaper and i can keep the unlimited data. i doubt they would be cool with me tethering them if it would cost everyone their unlimited data even though they come no where near exceeding 2 gigs.

anyways, it sounds like there is a real chance of verizon capping my usage so its definitely something for me to consider.

out of curiosity, can jail broken iPhones download tether apps and tether for free?
 
Needz_Android said:
even though i'm 25 i'm still on their plan because its cheaper and i can keep the unlimited data. i doubt they would be cool with me tethering them if it would cost everyone their unlimited data even though they come no where near exceeding 2 gigs.

anyways, it sounds like there is a real chance of verizon capping my usage so its definitely something for me to consider.

out of curiosity, can jail broken iPhones download tether apps and tether for free?
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Yes, they can download an app from Cydia (non-apple app store) that lets you do it
 
I have the Nexus S and I tether my iPad 2 with no problem.

The Galaxy Nexus should be able to tether, but you may have to root and use a 3rd party app to do it for free. On the plus side, the Galaxy Nexus has already been rooted.
 
lunatic59 said:
The top end phones are usually the first to be rooted. I'd expect the GNex to be pretty quick. Also Samsung is not been playing games with the bootloader like HTC and Motorola did.
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Doesn't matter who makes a Nexus phone, the manufacturers will never have the option of locking down a bootloader on a Nexus device.
 
what if someone just hooked me up with the .apk of a tethering app that was downloaded on a rooted phone and then i install it on my non-rooted phone? would that work?
 
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