Question:
Can Sprint tell the difference between my data usage with vision (untetherd) and my data usage tetherd? read the following to get the full picture.
I had a PAM plan added to my phone but was dissatisfied with the service, well I didn't think it was worth the $$ for what I needed it for so I had it turned off. Then I found in this forum somewhere a way to circumvent the pam plan with a registry tweak which I did and it connects through ICS just fine now.
Sprint had placed a 5g limit on throughput with the pam plan when I had it. When I still had the plan I called them up to see what my current usage was at the time. they told me about 2 gigs. I then asked them what portion of that was pam and what portion of that was vision through the phone itself (not tethered)-she told me she didn't have that information but that somehow the system would know and sort it. So I asked her, "If I use 2 gig up non tethered and 4 gig up tetherd, will I have exceeded my 5g limit? She said no because the 5g limit only applies to when I'm tetherd through my pam plan and the vision is seperate. Which leads me to believe that they will be able to tell that I am still tethed and will send me a huge bill (It's $30 a meg I believe)
Thanks in advance for the replies
I don't know whether or not they can tell the difference, but I believe that there isn't a data overage charge for exceeding the 5g cap unless you start your contract after 11/2/08, in which case is will be $.05/Mb or $50/Gb. I was told that older contract will just get there data connection slowed for the remainder of there billing cycle after exceeding 5Gb.
Related
So this morning I was woken up to a phone call from my furious father saying I have to pay $438 dollars for my data usage on my phone. I just got the phone last month (VZW Apache) and was aware of the pay-as-you-go data usage, but I figured I will rarely be using it because wherever I go I'll just use wifi. Little did I know that when I went to open my internet browser, my wifi was never turned on and it used over the air to get my data. GREAT
Am I f**ked or what?
Well, I wouldn't say that your phone was "evil". The icons for WLAN and GPRS/EDGE in the top bar look entirely different!
ziki88 said:
So this morning I was woken up to a phone call from my furious father saying I have to pay $438 dollars for my data usage on my phone. I just got the phone last month (VZW Apache) and was aware of the pay-as-you-go data usage, but I figured I will rarely be using it because wherever I go I'll just use wifi. Little did I know that when I went to open my internet browser, my wifi was never turned on and it used over the air to get my data. GREAT
Am I f**ked or what?
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Your best bet here is to have your dad call Verizon, with you on the phone also, and explain your situation (you thought WiFi was on). If they are accommodating like AT&T, they will remove the data charges if you agree to sign up for a data plan on your phone.
Keep the $30-50 data plan on your account for a month or so, and then remove it. Much better then being on the hook for $438.
You are going to have a hard time addressing that.
Legally, you only have one recourse. It would need to be a malfunction of the phone. That is to say it indicated a connection via WiFi while actually utilizing your data connection. In that sense you are in a better position than the iPhone user who takes their phone overseas racking up huge charges as it checks email. They have no legal recourse, since the contract clearly states the phone will incur significant charges whilst overseas unless otherwise configured.
I do think our contract law is getting out of control by encouraging consumers to sign contracts whose terms they do not understand, where minor clauses can lead to thousand dollar charges. Any large financial liabilities should be clearly stated in large print such that the consumer can understand how to avoid incuring them.
Of course, this isn't legal advice, just my personal opinion. If it was not a malfunction of the phone or misleading information offered to you by customer service then you are beholden to the good will of your carrier. Often they will adjust fees like this, but that's entirely up to them and they have no legal requirement to do so. NotATreoFan offers good advice, that's probably your best bet.
I agree with NATF as well. Ask to sign up for one year of their data plan if they agree to waive your data usage for that month. Even if it comes out to the ame amount, at least you have 12 months to pay it off and internet access.
I just wonder if it isnt better to talk to a person in the store you bought the phone from instead of talking to a rep on the phone. The store may not have the ability to do as much, but I would imagine they would be more inclined to help.
So I just got off the phone with them. The best they could do was take off 25% of the data fees. The rep's explanation was that even though WiFi is always on, verizon automatically uses their network for internet, unless there's no verizon signal...then it'll use wifi. LOL
What I did was I mentioned a magical phrase...data plan. After crunching some numbers the representative gave me a deal...I do data plan until my contract is up (feb 19)...SAWEET
Thanks for the suggestions guys
ziki88 said:
So I just got off the phone with them. The best they could do was take off 25% of the data fees. The rep's explanation was that even though WiFi is always on, verizon automatically uses their network for internet, unless there's no verizon signal...then it'll use wifi. LOL
What I did was I mentioned a magical phrase...data plan. After crunching some numbers the representative gave me a deal...I do data plan until my contract is up (feb 19)...SAWEET
Thanks for the suggestions guys
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What kind of deal did you get?
The deal was he refunded the $438 charge and instead we did the data plan (~$44) till feb 19
ziki88 said:
The deal was he refunded the $438 charge and instead we did the data plan (~$44) till feb 19
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Exactly what I was hoping they would do. Grats...
NotATreoFan said:
Exactly what I was hoping they would do. Grats...
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yeah man, seriously lucky. Glad it worked out for you
I've just pulled my laptop out of storage, and was playing around with tethering it to my iPAQ 910c. Using WinMo's built in internet sharing was a breeze. However, I'm a bit concerned over whether or not I'll be charged anything additional fees for tethering this way (as I've read the data traffic looks different via tether to a wireless provider, and some may charge extra for it).
I'm with Rogers Wireless on their 500 MB smartphone data plan, and couldn't find any solid info (though I did come across this CBC article - http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/08/28/tech-iphone.html - from last fall mentioning that Rogers was changing their data plans to allow tethering as part of your data plan). I called Rogers and they didn't really know (I spoke with both CS and a "Data Department" person, neither of which instilled me with confidence in their knowledge). All they said was that it could cost alot and they don't support (ie: technical support) tethering, but they wouldn't elaborate on whether the "cost alot" would be from extra charges specifically for tethering, or simply from exceeding my data bucket.
So I'm looking for any input from people here who are on Rogers and use tethering, as to whether the traffic is indeed part of my data bucket, or if there's an extra charge (and what that might be). Any comments are greatly appreciated.
Tethering policy
I found this the other night.
http://www.androidincanada.ca/news/new-tethering-policy-for-rogers-and-fido/
It looks like you may have to upgrade to at least a 1GB package or higher in order to "legally" tether.
I am going to see about my plan as I signed up for the $30/6GB plan on June 5th. If I just lost out on "legally" tethering due to adopting a phone a few days early I am going to be right pissed.
Here is the page where they allow tethering on the iPhone.
http://www.rogers.com/web/content/wi...09-_-tethering
So I called up and had the "tethering" feature added to my plan at no charge as it is available "free" for all smart phone accounts with data plans one GB or higher. She could not help me with the fact that my phone can not tether, but that will be fixed when I root it. From what she said, this is free until December 31st.
No word yet as to how much this feture will cost after the interm perioud is up. At least this will allow us to test and see how much we really use it, though it sounds like a cash grab to me. I won't mind if it is like an extra $5, but any more would be pushing it if you ask me. Glad to hear they are at least willing to charge us for it rather than prohibiting and penalizing us.
Tethering test
r4nd0mn4me said:
Ok so I just had to see what this tethering is all about.
I just ran a speed test from speakeasy and here are the results.
Last Result:
Download Speed: 197 kbps (24.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 45 kbps (5.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
This was with signal strength of three out of seven bars from my house. I must say page loading seems much faster than on my phone...though not nearly fast enough to watch Youtube with.
And before I get mass mails about how I did it....well, I cheated
I popped my Rogers sim into my Nokia N95-8GB and used the built in USB tethering app.
I can't wait for ze roots!Oh and apparently this wont help
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Thought I would copy this bit here as it pertains to this thread as well.
I'm new to Android and picked up a G Tablet have a question on if you can use the USB for a Verizon Wirelss card.
I was wondering this also. Does anyone know if this is possible? I have to admint that I have not searched too much as I just took my G tablet out of the box and my Verizon card is sitting here and I was thinking 'wonder if I can make that work"???
I remember seeing in a few other threads that people weren't able to get a 3G card to work. Not sure about this particular Verizon card though.
The usb wireless dongle wont work. You would need something like mifi.
There is a thread in development on this I think. He was working on it but put it on hold.
Found the thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=935810
ketjr81 is correct. Unless you have a Huawei card you have almost no chance of it working at the moment. I have discontinued development as I mentioned in the thread referenced. If you want, you can spend 70 dollars or so and get a wireless hotspot that uses the USB dongle and a battery for 5+ devices.
I picked up a Verizon MiFi Hotspot today... figured that it was a good investment, that way I can use it for my laptop, GTab, and anything else I find myself in need of connecting. It will connect up to 5 devices at a time. I looked at the Sprint and Virgin Mobile models too.
The Sprint model actually has 4G and GPS capability, and the plan looked good on paper; the same price as the Verizon for 5GB ($60/month), plus unlimited 4G downloading. However, when I looked at the coverage map, Sprint doesn't have anywhere near the coverage area that Verizon does, and there are only a handfull of 4G towers out there.
Then I looked at Virgin Mobile. Seemed like a great deal; they use the same hotspot device that Verizon does (and Sprint used to), and you don't have to commit to a contract. You buy the device for something like $160, and for $40/month you get unlimited 3G downloading through the Sprint network. I headed out today to get one, only to find out that as of next week, Virgin will be capping monthly downloads to 5GB like the rest of them. After 5GB, data will slow to a crawl.
Then I found out that Verizon is offering new data plan options for a limited time, starting this weekend I think. There are monthly plans for 1GB ($20) , 3GB ($35), 5GB ($50), and 10GB ($80). For every GB you go over your plan, you pay an extra $10. The hotspot is free with a 2-year plan, or $70 with a 1-year plan. I went with a 3GB plan, even it I get up to 5GB one month that's still gonna run me less than the Sprint plan.
So I brought one home, had it set up pretty quick (it took longer to run the updates than to set it up), and it works great. The hotspot is smaller than I thought it would be, even after looking at the pictures. About as wide as a business card, a little taller, and a bit over 1/4" thick. Best thing is, I'll be able to use it with any tablet I get my hands on as long as it has WiFi, plus my laptop and even my iPhone if find myself in the boondocks again where AT&T doesn't reach.
MiFi is the way to go with a GTab; just turn it on, put it back in your pocket or bag, and surf away.
I'm surprised more people don't just tether their G-Tabs from their cell phone data plans. I've got a Verizon Eris (about a year old) and it's modded, with wireless tether. I pay $30 a month for unlimited data (on the phone, of course, but they don't know I'm tethering, nor do they probably care since I don't actually download much data).
It's fast and cheap.
lostpilot28 said:
I'm surprised more people don't just tether their G-Tabs from their cell phone data plans. I've got a Verizon Eris (about a year old) and it's modded, with wireless tether. I pay $30 a month for unlimited data (on the phone, of course, but they don't know I'm tethering, nor do they probably care since I don't actually download much data).
It's fast and cheap.
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I use Wireless hotspot on my Rooted Sprint Evo
Just a comment....
Most of us don't take the wireless mifis, etc. serious because of the limits.
My tablets, laptops and computers -- yes, I have a bunch -- usually result in my downloading a month's worth of wireless limits in a night. I have several programs that the updates run in the GBs just for one program.
I'm happy for people that can use them, but I always warn them to watch the usage and avoid the overages.
Good luck!!!
Rev
Cradlepoint
I am using my Virgin Mobile USB (Walmart special) plugged into the Cradlepoint. Lasts about 2 hours and warms the pocket...
****
lostpilot28 said:
I'm surprised more people don't just tether their G-Tabs from their cell phone data plans. I've got a Verizon Eris (about a year old) and it's modded, with wireless tether. I pay $30 a month for unlimited data (on the phone, of course, but they don't know I'm tethering, nor do they probably care since I don't actually download much data).
It's fast and cheap.
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You and many other people say that. I personally don't want to kill my phone's battery and its just more work to turn the hotspot on and off every time I want access on the tab. Its surely cheaper, but not faster.
I was on EDGE earlier today and was not able to get anything going with the internet. Then I pull out my wife's G2 with the same T-Mobile service and she was getting everything fine.
I have the default settings. Not sure what's going on...?
I found out last night that T-Mobile USA had a bug in their system for people upgrading their phone and changing to the new Value plans.
I was on Even More Plus 500, unlimited text and web. In order for me to make payments on the phone (I can't justify spending $500 at once on a phone in my head), I would have to upgrade to the Value plan (similar 500 minutes, unlimited text, and "unlimited" 2GB web). So everything seemed fine until I could not get a data connection at all. Only under wifi could I actually use the phone's data connectivity.
Turns out the system was buggy and upgrades to the Value from Even More Plus weren't working. I was entered into a 2 year contract with the Even More Plus plan for some reason, which basically messed up my data connection.
An online chat with customer service for 20 minutes did the trick and I'm back in business.
rorytmeadows said:
I found out last night that T-Mobile USA had a bug in their system for people upgrading their phone and changing to the new Value plans.
I was on Even More Plus 500, unlimited text and web. In order for me to make payments on the phone (I can't justify spending $500 at once on a phone in my head), I would have to upgrade to the Value plan (similar 500 minutes, unlimited text, and "unlimited" 2GB web). So everything seemed fine until I could not get a data connection at all. Only under wifi could I actually use the phone's data connectivity.
Turns out the system was buggy and upgrades to the Value from Even More Plus weren't working. I was entered into a 2 year contract with the Even More Plus plan for some reason, which basically messed up my data connection.
An online chat with customer service for 20 minutes did the trick and I'm back in business.
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ya T-mobile fixed it in their system last night
I currently have AT&T 5GB plan with USB modem on Cradlepoint to LAN at house, and the plan is up.
Other day bro-in-law came over, he gets 13Mbps on his SIII on t-mobile .
I am planning on going with the T-Mobile unlimited $70 monthly if I can get some help on the best way to go.
I have been reading the forums and see that it is possible to get custom ROM and enable tethering.
I don't, however, care about features of the phone itself since it will be sitting in a closet all the time.
Since I am only doing data, what would be the best device to get me at least 6Mbps for Netflix (full 13Mbps or so preferred).
I don't care about things like screen size etc, just ease of installation, stability, and availability of a ROM that will fit my needs.
I need something not super expensive but spending a few hundred is ok.
Thanks!
Tethering on a phone plan costs an extra 20 bucks per month. If you need OTA data only for tethering a couple of pc's, tablets and/or wifi phones, you should go with a hotspot modem - supports up to 5 devices. Speed is dependent on the coverage in your area and your specific location (environmental factors). The modem also gives you flexibility to choose between a monthly subscription for full-time use or a pre-pay option (7- or 30-day expiration) for occasional use.
http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/phones/?shape=mblhsp
http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/mobile-broadband-plans.aspx
For a single laptop or PC a USB stick might be better (but won't work with tablets, only iOS or Windows)
http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/Packages/ValuePackages.aspx?pkgcatid=InternetDevices&line=1
Coverage:
http://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/pcc.aspx/
My opinion would be to buy a grandfathered unlimited data plan for Verizon, choose the $35 voice plan, it'll cost $30 for the data, and if you work at any major corporation can get around 20% off your monthly bill. I did exactly this. I use FoxFi to tether for free. Just have to stay on Gingerbread or root. I get around 20mbs down and average 10mbs everywhere I go. I love it.
Sent from my DROID RAZR MAXX HD using xda app-developers app
I agree with SaurusM3 about getting a USB stick type device instead. My router that is on 24/7 has heat issues sometimes and it has much better cooling than a typical smartphone. If I tried this with my S3 to have it tethering my computer all the time I was using it, I would probably overheat it or just kill the battery (S3 is especially a poor choice since you can't plug it in and run it without the battery - so if it *has* to be a phone, pick carefully) - and even if it could keep it charged, then you run the risk of having the overcharging protection fail and your closet lighting on fire because your device became toast.
I would also not go for a phone because even if you bypassed tethering controls, they might still yank you for excessive use. And there's the possibility that some services just won't work since they'll realise you're tethering.
Can you not get some other kind of Internet service where you live ? Not even some kind of DSL ? If you're getting such great speeds with T-Mobile there it would surprise me that no DSL/et cetera service is covering the area.
Our ISP offers unlimited 15-20Mbps for $30/mo. Why would anyone pay $70/mo for that ? They have a 5-10Mbps for like $25/mo, too. Either way, you could then have a phone plan AND home internet for less than $70/mo.
Phones don't really have the heat management to be on and routing 24/7. It would be best to get one that can have the battery removed and be run off AC power directly and have a cooler - but you're still risking that you'll pay for that and then get cut off by the carrier for excessive / improper use (the contract pretty much states that they can cut you off for whatever they feel like if they think you're abusing the service in any way as dictated by them).
If you really don't have access to a "real" internet service, then consider how 5Gb was working for you - did you always get close / get cut off ?
The key here is 'month to month unlimited for $70' from T-moblie IE 'no contract'. What device will work easily and reliably with a new ROM, works with month to month, will allow tethering, does not cost a fortune.
To answer all very much appreciated, but a little off-topic responses:
I am trying to get a device that will work with the Month to Month plan, ie no commitment, so if it does not work out I am not stuck with any additional fees.
There is no DSL, fiber or cable. I have 1 WISP in my area the is terrible and I won't deal with again.
The 5GB plan is a PITA, I want more data so I can watch the occasional movie or Youtube without worrying about bumping up against the cap.
I am not concerned about it spontaneously combusting in my closet, and will probably just turn it off at night since I do that currently anyway.
As far as over-useage, my understanding is that with a non-commercial ROM, there would be no way for them to track, if I have to I will run it thru a proxy and modify the headers to a mobile browser, if the ROM does not do this already.
I don't see where I can use a non-smart phone device except on the T-mobile 'Mobile Broadband', which is capped and would not do me any good.
Are you saying I can get a Month to Month SIM and use it in a USB modem?
ds
The plan you're looking at is for a phone (only). To add tethering, they offer 500min. talk/no text, & 10GB data w/tethering for $90. The sim is free when you sign up for the plan, but you'll need a T-Mo phone that's capable of the HSPA+/42 UMTS like your bro's SIII.
I'm guessing your live in an area recently upgraded to dual carrier -
From their Internet Services page:
Based on our internal testing and testing commissioned from third-party vendors, T-Mobile expects customers with broadband-capable devices will experience the following speeds on our network:
4G (HSPA+ Dual Carrier/42 UMTS) network: typical download speeds of 4-11 Mbps and upload speeds of 500-1800 Kbps.
4G (HSPA+ 21 UMTS) network: typical download speeds of 2 - 6 Mbps and upload speeds of 500– 1800 Kbps.
3G (HSPA UMTS) network: typical download speeds of 400 – 700 Kbps and upload speeds of 100 - 250 Kbps.
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And something to look forward to is traffic congestion as more subscribers upgrade, slowing service.
Data sims are used in the internet devices and don't work in phones - probably vice versa as well. But you can buy as many refills as you need each month - so the same 10 GB would cost $100 in refills. Just log in to T-mo to add to your account. For a laptop stick, you'd have to get the T-mobile Jet 3.0 for $175, Also a refurb T-Mobile Sonic Hotspot (not the earlier 4G Hotspot) can be had for $125, and is more versatile. Either is cheaper than any of the newer phones. (Stay away from eBay - they can be reported lost or stolen after you buy them, and subsequently disabled by the carrier - and hacking won't revive them.)
Whatever you do, call them and verify the data speed capability of whatever you decide to buy. (Disclaimer )