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Tethering with out plan! Message from att

My friend and I added a new apn from the steps in forum to allow tethering without a plan, well I rarely use mine but he uses his a little more to pay bills and such online through his laptop. He received a message yesterday from ATT stating that this sim is not authorized for tethering and to stop. From what I read I thought they were only catching those with the cryphone. Are they starting to look for others too, what's the deal we r both grandfathered in on the unlimited plan, it shouldn't matter how I use my mobile internet its the same wether I use it in my phone or tether through our laptops.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

vwood2121 said:
but he uses his a little more to pay bills and such online through his laptop.
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you can pay most bills with the smartphone browsers. i only tether for streaming stock quotes (java applets) when i'm away from home. can your ipad or ipad2 does that? haha
this is why i rather carry my sony 4.5" UMPC when i'm away from home.

vwood2121 said:
My friend and I added a new apn from the steps in forum to allow tethering without a plan, well I rarely use mine but he uses his a little more to pay bills and such online through his laptop. He received a message yesterday from ATT stating that this sim is not authorized for tethering and to stop. From what I read I thought they were only catching those with the cryphone. Are they starting to look for others too, what's the deal we r both grandfathered in on the unlimited plan, it shouldn't matter how I use my mobile internet its the same wether I use it in my phone or tether through our laptops.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
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Nooo! This is very concerning....
I also agree that everyone should be able to use their monthly allotted amount of data however they please.
Via the XDA app for the HTC Inspire

It was going to happen eventually. It's the cell phone equivalent of stealing cable. Most companies don't take kindly to losing money on hacked features.

Divinedark said:
It was going to happen eventually. It's the cell phone equivalent of stealing cable. Most companies don't take kindly to losing money on hacked features.
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huh??
i have the 2GB plan, does it really matter how i use that 2GB? (laptop or phone?)
if i have cable, i can hook it up any ways i want! (to 50" HDTV, desktop, or laptop)

It's bad enough they (at&t) screwed themselves with the ipads, but now you they really want to be like apple n charge you twice because of it. Why should you have to have 2 data plans to use 1 data feature anyway?

I think it was really more for people like me that have unlimited data plans. I can use an ass-load more data with my laptop than I could with my phone.
Either way, a feature is a feature is a feature. They aren't the first, and they won't be the last big company to charge for stuff like that. As much as you or I don't agree with it (I really hate stuff like this), it's not enough to justify theft. I refuse to pay for tethering, so I just don't do it...
Also, if you read some of the Android guru's talking about the handset manufacturers all starting to lock their bootloaders. This is the reason. Before, when it was just us goofing about with our own devices and hurting noone, especially not the carrier, they couldn't care less. As we start moving into LTE with a tethering option, you'll see almost every single Android handset maker locking their phones down. Just look at the Thunderbolt... HTC has always been a big proponent of the Android dev scene, but they signed that bootloader. If you think it was for any other reason than to stop people from tethering and flooding Verizon's LTE network, you're crazy. Verizon may have forced their hand, but it's still done. Neither AT&T or Verizon want to have to deal with what AT&T had to with the iPhone saturation killing their network speeds(and the crap reputation it's brought them) when it comes to their new LTE networks. They'll do whatever they have to in order to guarantee the majority of their customers get a pleasant network experience. Even if that means making "Suggestions" to handset makers. Motorola did it, HTC did it, Samsung is next, then LG. And ultimately, we're going to be the ones to blame. That's just the way I've been seeing things. I may be completely off base...
*NOTE* The thunderbold has been hacked. Maybe there's hope after all.

At this point I don't really care anymore. If AT&T ever delivers 4G speeds I won't have to tether. Charge me, don't charge me, whatever. Being an AT&T customer is exhausting.
Sent from Desire HD or Inspire 4G or whatever this thing is called via premium XDA app.

I had AT&T update my IMEI because I was going to be using a non-smartphone for "traveling" and had them put in an unlimited $10 data. Went ahead and popped my SIM into my Inspire, and I've only gotten two messages and an e-mail that they recognized I'm using a 4G SIM and that they've changed my plan accordingly. I called and checked my account online, and both show that I've still got the feature, so it's been working; plus, I've been using WiFi hotspot for my laptop this whole time.
Hope they don't catch on!

lrs421 said:
At this point I don't really care anymore. If AT&T ever delivers 4G speeds I won't have to tether. Charge me, don't charge me, whatever. Being an AT&T customer is exhausting.
Sent from Desire HD or Inspire 4G or whatever this thing is called via premium XDA app.
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You're not going to get 4G speeds with HSPA+. It's a 3.5G technology. The same thing that T-Mobile has been touting as 4G for the last year. They had great speed on their network because no one was using it... That's not being mean, it's just the way it is. If AT&T has this infrastructure and it was only 40% utilized, every current 4G phone (Atrix & Inspire) would be getting 10-14mb down.
I'm in Northern Atlanta (The home of AT&T wireless), and I get 5mb down and 2mb up late at night. During prime time, I pull 2.5mb down and 2mb up.
This will all change when AT&T starts rolling out their LTE network. It should be showing the exact same speeds as Verizon's. They're both similar in size, and running the exact same technology.

[Q] Credit for outage

Has anyone heard from Verizon (or from speaking to CSRs) if they are going to be crediting us back a day (or more if this continues) of data or anything to compensate for the fact the network was down.

I know any time I have had data issues and asked for a credit, they always tell me since I have unlimited there is no way for them to credit the amount.. anyone else had any luck?

Unless you're on a corporate account, I doubt they're going to do much and just say that this "slight inconvenience" will give you "more reliable, faster, and further extended coverage, so it was for your own good". lol

I doubt you're going to get credited. And if you do, it'll be what? Maybe $5? Yipee, you can go get a ****ing Happy Meal now.

[email protected]
You want your dollar back? Go ask, I'm sure they'll just pull a dollar out of their pocket just for the lulz.
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

Doubt it. Unless you missed calls or had absolutely no signal, I really don't think they'll give you credit. But thats just my guess.

I dont want credit for the data.. i want something for the huge inconvenience this outage is causing me... Imma go ***** n see what I can get...
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

Drukan said:
I dont want credit for the data.. i want something for the huge inconvenience this outage is causing me... Imma go ***** n see what I can get...
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
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ZOMG my phone doesn't work! It's the end of the world! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

dbisch said:
ZOMG my phone doesn't work! It's the end of the world! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
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You're on a site...for people who love their phones....Just sayin'.

I complained to them this morning, and explained to them that I work 3rd shift and have felt this from the beginning. After rebooting multiple times, I thought my use of the LTE off radio app had messed up my radio.
I then factory restored and of course that didn't fix the problem. When customer service finally opened I called and explained my frustration and how they could of at least sent Thunderbolt users a text message that it wasn't on the consumers end.
She said that not every TB user is experiencing the problem, so testing everyone wasn't an option and that Google backed up all my settings (yeah right) so she didn't see the problem. I hope you all have better luck.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App

No, you still have data... you just dont have your LTE. I would laugh at anyone requesting credit lol...

Skynet has now been activated...

killerkommotion said:
You're on a site...for people who love their phones....Just sayin'.
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I'm on the site because I like to tinker with my phone. That doesn't mean that I'm going to cry to Verizon the moment my phone isn't working and demand a few dollars for reimbursement.

This is partly why Verizon charges so much. They have one of the best customer service for a cell phone company... and they have to pay all these people to talk to dumb and annoying people who expect credits and discounts left and right or people that ***** about everything.
But seriously, just do the fix thing and you'll be on 3g, good [temporarily] enough. Its not like 4g costs more than 3g, so without a price difference there's no way to get a credit to your account. If this lasts for a long time then maybe Verizon should do something, lets just hope they fix it soon.

I'm not saying one camp is right or wrong more than the other. But I am saying that I bought the Thunderbolt to replace my original Droid for one major reason: 4G LTE.
For the past 3 weeks that I've owned my 'Bolt, 4G LTE connections have been spotty and very inconsistent. I assumed the reasoning was any of the following:
1. Custom ROMs I've installed.
2. Custom radio I installed.
3. Custom kernels I installed.
At no point did I think it was because of Verizon's 4G LTE not fully "being there".
Now that we are experiencing nationwide 4G LTE outage, this paints a starkly different picture for me than what I had previously thought.
What I think is a fair resolution is for folks to be able to return their Thunderbolts and have their new-every-two reset (if they used it to purchase a Thunderbolt) if they live in an area where 4G LTE coverage was listed.
Whether this outage is a short-term issue or part of a series of long-term growing pains/headaches, I think folks who bought this phone for the 4G should either get 4G or have the opportunity to return the phone. That's fair in my opinion.
M.

I have a slightly used Droid x I will gladly exchange for your TB.

im blown away by how many people think its unreasonable to expect verizon to provide that service that we all pay for. i guess we should all just bend over and take it like all of the PSN/PS3 customers, huh?

This thread is a joke.
If you are posting on this board, then i'm fairly confident that you don't deserve a credit because:
- You most likely temporarily turned on 3G (EVDO) data and are getting just about the same speeds as before
- You probably had your LTE radio switched off
- According to Verizon's policy, messing with these radios, flashing roms, etc... voids your warranty... and i'm sure they don't like giving credits for that.
In all honesty I can feel for the guy/gal who is stuck on 1X right now, while trying to tether so they can download their work mail.... they are the ones who deserve an explanation... and maybe a very small compensation. (what, $5?)

jacobk said:
im blown away by how many people think its unreasonable to expect verizon to provide that service that we all pay for. i guess we should all just bend over and take it like all of the PSN/PS3 customers, huh?
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PSN has been out for more than a week. You can't access ANYTHING with their network.
4G LTE has been down for less than 24 hrs. You can still make phones calls and access data, although slowly.
Big difference.
I just think it's silly that people are crying to Verizon when it's been less than 24 hrs. Give them some time to fix it for Christ's sake.

jacobk said:
im blown away by how many people think its unreasonable to expect verizon to provide that service that we all pay for. i guess we should all just bend over and take it like all of the PSN/PS3 customers, huh?
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Ok, I'll bite. We pay ~$1/day for data service. So if we simplify and say that for one day things didn't work, then we should get a $1 credit. But data is not completely out. Only 4g data. Since you're not completely out of service, you're not entitled to the entire $1. We could argue all day about how much 4g data service is worth but in reality we can't complain. Data is still $30/month just like it was and still is for 3g customers. Now what exactly do you want a credit for again? Is it really worth it for you to waste an hour or so of your time to get < $1 credited to your account? VZW doesn't have a habit of long outages or treating customers badly so why does everyone want to jump on their back about an outage like this?

Has verizon removed your wifi tether? (rooted phones)

Saw this just now. Was wondering if verizon can still remove apps when your rooted and if we can remove something to stop them.
http://www.gizmocrunch.com/mobile/7579-verizon-android-phone

If Verizon starts removing apps without proof that they are malicious, that will be the last straw....
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App

It just said free wireless tethering app which is part their software on root phones
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

dms76 said:
It just said free wireless tethering app which is part their software on root phones
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk
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Verizon is now issuing a series of updates
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they arent going to "hack" your phone. and if you are rooted, you arent getting the update.
i dont have it on my phone anymore, but not sure if its from the rom (bamf rc5) can someone confirm?

i still have free wifi. rooted on bamf. using it everyday. absolutely no problems.

bthomp21 said:
they arent going to "hack" your phone. and if you are rooted, you arent getting the update.
i don't have it on my phone anymore, but not sure if its from the rom (bamf rc5) can someone confirm?
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I would assume everyone here with custom roms will not get remote access. This is for user adding wireless tether via other source.

i have wireless tether, i was talking about verizons mobile hotspot

bthomp21 said:
they arent going to "hack" your phone. and if you are rooted, you arent getting the update.
i dont have it on my phone anymore, but not sure if its from the rom (bamf rc5) can someone confirm?
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" In addition, the company is removing unauthorized tethering apps from users phones."
That last part is what had me concerned not their hotspot app.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

bowtieduece said:
" In addition, the company is removing unauthorized tethering apps from users phones."
That last part is what had me concerned not their hotspot app.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
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It's through the update though. So if you're not stock, it shouldn't apply to you.

That article is FUD. They just want to see people doing exactly what is happening in this thread. "OMFG VZW is evil, they're haxoring people's phones!"
Unless you have first hand experience, don't worry about it. What's more, people have no reason to complain. Teathering without paying is, and always has been, against Verizon's TOS. Do I agree with this? Nope, but I'm certainly not going to try and create a mass hysteria by saying OMG my app got removed! If it were to be removed and I wanted to use it, I'd find a way to re-install it. So will the others who actually care about such things. Anyone using the TB as their primary internet device in an LTE area should be happily paying $30/month for unlimited teathering. Most land based ISPs don't offer prices that good anymore.

l7777 said:
Anyone using the TB as their primary internet device in an LTE area should be happily paying $30/month for unlimited teathering. Most land based ISPs don't offer prices that good anymore.
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I couldn't agree more. I don't know what the fuss is all about regarding $30/mo for a connection worthy of replacing your home ISP. I switched from Comcast and I'm saving $30/mo now.

bogatyr said:
I couldn't agree more. I don't know what the fuss is all about regarding $30/mo for a connection worthy of replacing your home ISP. I switched from Comcast and I'm saving $30/mo now.
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i don't mind paying the $30 (i did sign up for it), but it can't replace my home connection yet as i only have 3g (very bad signal too). i do get 4g when i visit my dad though, but he's got 10Gb/s cable there. i just got to, hopefully, lock in unlimited data if/when they get 4g in my city. then i'd be able to drop my home connection.

Yeah, id rather just pay $30 and not have to worry about anything
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

the only time i would have a need for tethering is when i travel and the hotel internet is crap. That's not very often, so I really can't justify the $30.

Why should I be happy about paying twice for the same thing? Should comcast be able to charge you $60/month for each computer in your house? Afterall, having more than one pc online uses more bandwidth.

RunNgun42 said:
Should comcast be able to charge you $60/month for each computer in your house?
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If the contract you sign for service says so, yes. The one you signed with Verizon says "no tethering," but they do offer that as an option. QuitYerBitchin.

RunNgun42 said:
Why should I be happy about paying twice for the same thing? Should comcast be able to charge you $60/month for each computer in your house? Afterall, having more than one pc online uses more bandwidth.
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You're paying $30/mo for unlimited data on your phone, not any device you want. Read the terms you signed.
You're paying an extra $30/mo to support any device you want. If you're paying $60/mo with Comcast, that's saving you money!
If you don't agree with a license/contact, don't sign it. You don't have to use Verizon if you don't like their terms. You can also call and complain to them if you want.
Personally, I'm happy to save money and this deal lets me do that without breaking the contract I signed.

So if I buy a new car and the contract says "no connecting ipods" even though I own the car, I guess I should just accept it because I signed a contract? You're free to grab your ankles any time some company tells you to, however I will take matters into my own hands and do what is reasonably appropriate. You can sit there and take the holy route all you like, but I'm sure the day your home ISP, your home television provider, your home utilities provider, or any other service you subscribe to begins double dipping on charges because more than 1 person is taking advantage of them, you would raise HOLY HELL.
2 gigs is 2 gigs, it should not matter how you consume them. I can just as easily watch a few netflix movies on my phone until I hit the cap, just as much as I can tether to hit my cap. What difference could it possibly make how I use those 2 GB's? It doesnt. People like you are the reason these insane policies are developed in the first place, because businesses prey off your ignorance and fear to challenge them.
I dont care about a contract I signed. The contract is garbage and deserves to be broken.

RunNgun42 said:
So if I buy a new car and the contract says "no connecting ipods" even though I own the car, I guess I should just accept it because I signed a contract?
I dont care about a contract I signed. The contract is garbage and deserves to be broken.
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No one forced you to sign that contract. If you don't like the terms, you're welcome to not give them your business and go elsewhere. That's how business works
This reminds me of that scene from The Empire Strikes Back:
Darth Vader: Calrissian. Take the princess and the Wookie to my ship.
Lando: You said they'd be left at the city under my supervision!
Darth Vader/RunNgun42: I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.

RunNgun42 said:
So if I buy a new car and the contract says "no connecting ipods" even though I own the car, I guess I should just accept it because I signed a contract?
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You'll have to do better than that. For a car, a contract would be a sales contract, and such a term would make no sense. OTOH, the warranty terms could say the the radio (or even the whole car, for that matter) is no longer covered if an iPod were ever connected.
I dont care about a contract I signed.
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That tells us all that you're an antisocial reprobate, not worth any more of our time.

AT&T wised up

EDIT:
AT&T's method of tethering detection has been settled.
AdamOutler said:
AT&T is monitoring the data traffic for the browser identification string.
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You can easily change your browser identification string by following this:
infernus1986 said:
Firefox has a plugin to change browser string, user agent switcher
You can add custom strings to mimic the phones browser
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sfernandez said:
download USER AGENT SWITCHER add edit, add new then use this
"Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Andriod 2.3.4; en-US; SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 Build/GINGERBREAD) AppleWebKit/533.1(KHTML, like Gecko)Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1"
If you want to use Chrome Just right click then properties and and on TARGET right after chrome.exe paste this --user-agent="Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Andriod 2.3.4; en-US; SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 Build/GINGERBREAD) AppleWebKit/533.1(KHTML, like Gecko)Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1"
AND if you tether this will make your browser look like a captivate
infernus1986 said:
http://whatsmyuseragent.com/
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Use this and you will see it works
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Original Post:
So, I called AT&T about an hour ago to get my rate plan adjusted, they had some information on "usage patterns"
The AT&T rep told me that the system within the last 2 months had detected tethering. Basically read to me which part of the contract I was violating and that if I continued using it, they would remove my unlimited data plan (which I am grandfathered in) and place me in the 4gb tethering package (or something of that nature). He said AT&T is going to be sending out text messages to those who have been tethering starting tomorrow and will receive documentation in their bill about it.
I had been tethering through a MIUI rom, not that it seems to matter what method tethering occurred through.
The AT&T rep was even able to tell me that I had been tethering a 'laptop', not that that information is valid or backed up by AT&T data. I'm not sure how they would know that I was tethering a laptop (which is not the only thing that I had tethered in the last 2 months) or any other device, but by the way he told me the information, it sounded as if AT&T can tell what type of device I tethered too. I used to think it was impossible to tell, but I don't know.
Plus, I haven't gone over 2gbs in at least 4 months, tethering or not, so its not even like I am an abusive customer (even though in the past I have racked up 7gb)

I hope you didn't admit to anything. You should have called their bluff.

I said I hadn't. Ever.
And then the guy on the phone said, "well it says here that you have tethered your laptop."
I then said how I have an older phone, Samsung Eternity, that came packaged with tethering software, which it did and AT&T at the time encouraged me to use freely, might be causing tethering, but that I had never done it before.
He called my bluff. I don't want my unlimited data taken away.. so yeah.

I got a text message today concerning high usage data patterns. I wonder if anything has changed.

The problem is that their greed will pave the way for the little guy they are trying to monopolize with tmobile buyout so i think alot of people are sick of att and how they charge for anything im not suprisrd
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

I've been tethering my touchpad with my captivate since I got it. Haven't heard anything from AT&T yet, once I connect my laptop I bet that will change. I think a way around this will connecting to a VPN on the phone then tethering through the VPN. Is the possible? should stop att from inspecting the packets.

I would have said "What is tethering? I don't own a laptop. How dare you make these accusations? What is your name and let me speak to your supervisor immediately." Etc. And then tell the supervisor the guy is making ridiculous accusations. Tell them they are bordering on defamation making these claims and you make have to take legal action if they don't cease and desist.

you people who got the txt how much data do you normaly use ? i tether almost daily but i have not gotten a txt ...
---------- Post added 20th September 2011 at 12:01 AM ---------- Previous post was 19th September 2011 at 11:58 PM ----------
nh5 said:
I've been tethering my touchpad with my captivate since I got it. Haven't heard anything from AT&T yet, once I connect my laptop I bet that will change. I think a way around this will connecting to a VPN on the phone then tethering through the VPN. Is the possible? should stop att from inspecting the packets.
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If they are packet inpecting we got a lawsuit coming ... not for me but for "other" reasons .. I think ATT is blowing smoke frankly .

There was actually an article about this on Phone Arena a few months back that I read but at the time they were only doing it to iPhone users.

It would be helpful for OP and those who got notice from AT&T post your average monthly data usage. Otherwise, I'd say it is pure BS.

Mine wasn't anything too serious, they just let me know that I was in the top 5% of data users and that next month they will be throttling me if I go that high again.

I agree. Because I use a lot. Sometimes 7 gigs
foxbat121 said:
It would be helpful for OP and those who got notice from AT&T post your average monthly data usage. Otherwise, I'd say it is pure BS.
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Sent from my unbrickable cappy *bam*

7 gigs isnt alot some people do 50 gigs once i called custumer support couz my phone broke and he was like i see high data usesage 2.3 gigs and i told him i use cloudmedia for movies and pandora so he shut up. Couz they think if u use a lot of data u tether. Also if u want to be a **** just tell then i got cable and its a lot faster then ur connection. He should get the point
PS. I assume all the people who got the text are unlimited users if so at&t trying to make a switch for u because they want more money.
Sent from my CM7 Motorola Atrix 4G

Double post srry

BenKranged said:
I would have said "What is tethering? I don't own a laptop. How dare you make these accusations? What is your name and let me speak to your supervisor immediately." Etc. And then tell the supervisor the guy is making ridiculous accusations. Tell them they are bordering on defamation making these claims and you make have to take legal action if they don't cease and desist.
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Good post!
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA Premium App

BenKranged said:
I would have said "What is tethering? I don't own a laptop. How dare you make these accusations? What is your name and let me speak to your supervisor immediately." Etc. And then tell the supervisor the guy is making ridiculous accusations. Tell them they are bordering on defamation making these claims and you make have to take legal action if they don't cease and desist.
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The problem with this line of approach is that AT&T customer service reps are required by company policy that any time you mention taking legal action against them to transfer you to their legal department and have you immediately begin dealing with them. Had a friend who was a customer service rep for AT&T (and Cingular before it), and he sent many a people to legal for doing things like what you mention here. AT&T have some nasty lawyers so dealing with them is not something that should be high on your list.

Here's the run down of my data usage.
Averages for months
15 months: < 2.5gb/month (as far back as AT&T lets me see other than 1 month that I had 0kb for some reason)
10 months: 3.02gb/month
5 months: 1.68gb/month
3 months: 1.8gb/month
2 months: 2.3gb/month (this is for Aug-Sept)
1.95gb/month (this is for July-Aug)
The rep had said "based on the the last couple of months"; assuming couple is 2, those are the months AT&T is looking at for tethering. Those are mighty low averages imo.
Peak at 7.2gb per month, low of .1gb, normal low is .8gb.
And although its not on the chart, for my billing cycle in September, I used 1.5gb
http://i51.tinypic.com/3178aon.png
Honestly to tell AT&T I have never tethered is a bold faced lie. Back on Cingular, I was encouraged to tether, and I did often. I had a Sony Ericsson T616 and I would tether over its blutooth connection to my laptop. I had the 20$ unlimited data plan and tethered to watch streaming footage of Hurricane Katrina back in 2005. I eventually dropped unlimited data (which seemed too pricey, wish I had kept it). I got back on Unlimited data but for feature phones and tethered on those devices as well on AT&T from 2007-2009. AT&T provided software for it. I bet I can find it too. Also, my Samsung Eternity came prepackaged with tethering software, that was in 2009. And honestly, I never even surpassed 2gb until I got my Captivate.
I guess my stance is, if they didn't want me tethering, why include it in phone bundles, and why target me now? I wouldn't say that an average of less than 2.5gb a month is 'abusive' or causing significant strain. I guess its all pointless to argue anyway, it is what it is.
They must be packet sniffing... and I like the VPN idea, but you won't catch me trying it until some brave bastard does first. 30$ for data, restricted 'unlimited'-nontethering data, is fine with me.

Yeah I wouldn't actually follow up on the legal action. If they still wouldn't back down I would probably just change carriers. Though they are all the same for most intents and purposes. Maybe telling them you want to cancel your account because you don't like being accused of things when you are the paying customer would be a better approach. Have them transfer you to retention.
I just meant take the same approach to tethering as flashing roms. If they ask you about it just say "what does that mean?" and act like you don't understand technology at all.
mymansionisabox said:
Honestly to tell AT&T I have never tethered is a bold faced lie
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So is selling unlimited data that isn't unlimited.

I'm pretty sure anytime your data usage near or over 2GB mark, you're on the top 5% as majority of the smartphone users are probably on 2GB limited plan and spent no where near 2GB/mo. I'm a pretty heavy data user but I don't stream anything. My average is 350 to 500 MB/m and highest I've ever used is 1.5GB/mo that is because I streamed couple Netflix movies on a long trip.
If you're on top 5%, you'd bet AT&T will try anything possible to determine what you are doing using so much data.

Guys it is really not that hard for them to find out what is using the connection. Not only can you see a mac address from the device using the connection but the data traffic is different. We all knew this was gonna happen, and now that it has we will all have to live with it.

[Q] Will this phone will not run 4G on SimpleMobile?

Does anyone here knows exactly if there is some sort of limitation that would prevent this phone from getting 4G speeds on mysimplemobile.com (T-Mobile MVNO)?
I have been able to get 4G speeds on their network for almost 2 months, and then it switched to 3G speeds (~240kbps for downloads). I asked the tech support wtf is happening, and the guy came up with some bull###t explanation, why my phone cannot possibly run 4G. I do not have a feeling he knows what he's talking about because when I kept asking him what standard must the phone support for 4G speeds, he kept saying "it must run 4G on 1700 band". After I kept pressuring him, he said "HSDPA+ 1700".
He also mentioned that people are getting 4G speeds on their network with iPhones from AT&T, until the "system recognizes" and then they somehow down to EDGE. It makes no sense to me whatsoever, how could a phone that doesn't support frequency on which network is running could run 4G at all, like, EVER.
Does anybody here know about the intricacies of the 4G networking to tell:
* if Samsung Galaxy S 4G does indeed support 4G on whatever belongs to mysimplemobile?
* is there even such thing as HSDPA+ 1700MHz, and does SGS4G support this?
* is it possible that a phone legitimately runs at 4G speeds for months, and then out of sudden stops doing it without any foul play from operator?
* is it possible that the phone runs 4G on a network that does not even support their band (like this iPhone thing)
Here's a quote from the tech support email:
Thank you for your interest Simple Mobile. We are responding to your
recent inquiry.
We were able to speak with you on October 28, 2012 (9:25 PM EST) at
*********. You were informed that the reason that your data speed
runs only with 3G is because your phone is not a supported handset for
4G speeds.
We understand that you were able to use the 4G speed these past few
months. You were informed that this case is similar with our iPhone
users. During activation, the network does not know the phone model the
SIM card is inserted into. The network sends data throughput through
multiple frequencies in order to determine the frequency the handset is
running into. Once the network realizes that the handset does not work
with 1700 MHz bands, it sends the appropriate data speed which is 2G.
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Does that explanation make sense?

Your phone wouldn't just stop getting 4g it would have never got it in the first place. If the phone supports what band the company uses for 4g then you get 4g if it does not the you will not.
The guy is an idiot about the iphone thing. It would be like setting your walky-talky to channel 5 and trying to talk to someone on channel 3. The bands either match or they don't.
My unicorn died, back on the pony.

vopezy said:
Your phone wouldn't just stop getting 4g it would have never got it in the first place. If the phone supports what band the company uses for 4g then you get 4g if it does not the you will not.
The guy is an idiot about the iphone thing. It would be like setting your walky-talky to channel 5 and trying to talk to someone on channel 3. The bands either match or they don't.
My unicorn died, back on the pony.
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I will wait a couple days for the next billing cycle, and if this theory is right, I will see 4G speeds back again. If I do, those SimpleMobile folks are sneaky a**holes. Not only they lie about their plan being "unlimited", they also have technical support lie about the phone/network capabilities in a manner that assumes their customers are dumb. This is wrong on so many levels....

Put this code in your dialpad *#2263#
Then you can browse and select the bands your phone supports
Sent from my SGH-T959V using Tapatalk 2

Simple mobile throttles you before you hit the 2gig mark. Yeap. It blows. It will reset on billing cycle. Text info to 848484 to see your usage and reset date.

champ1919 said:
Simple mobile throttles you before you hit the 2gig mark. Yeap. It blows. It will reset on billing cycle. Text info to 848484 to see your usage and reset date.
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That's what I thought. Thanks for confirming this for me.
How do they get away with it? They advertise unlimited everything, and then throttle? And not only throttle, but disable data completely after 3GB or 2.5GB, according to this: http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1773841-How-Much-Data-on-the-50-Plan
How come nobody sued their ass for doing it, isn't such blatant false advertisement a ground for class action?

galets said:
That's what I thought. Thanks for confirming this for me.
How do they get away with it? They advertise unlimited everything, and then throttle?
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Throttle slows down but if you can still download, you are still unlimited, so they are not in breach and are still offering you unlimited.
Also read things like Section 25-2, and others http://www.mysimplemobile.com/Simple-Mobile-Terms-Conditions.aspx it's clearly there, so you agreed to that, so there is nothing you can do. You can't tether, you can't P2P, you can surf webpages basically or you might get throttled.

When I first got suspended, the telephone rep I got to speak to, told me that Pandora was a breach of contract even. Maybe next month, instead of dropping the prices, they will up the data. Wishful thinking, but, doubtful.

champ1919 said:
When I first got suspended, the telephone rep I got to speak to, told me that Pandora was a breach of contract even. Maybe next month, instead of dropping the prices, they will up the data. Wishful thinking, but, doubtful.
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It is outrageous... I wrote a blog post why nobody should sign up with them. Please share around. Hopefully, at least a couple of poor souls would avoid this mess. http://blog.galets.net/2012/11/why-you-should-stay-away-from.html

getochkn said:
Throttle slows down but if you can still download, you are still unlimited, so they are not in breach and are still offering you unlimited.
Also read things like Section 25-2, and others http://www.mysimplemobile.com/Simple-Mobile-Terms-Conditions.aspx it's clearly there, so you agreed to that, so there is nothing you can do. You can't tether, you can't P2P, you can surf webpages basically or you might get throttled.
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champ1919 said:
When I first got suspended, the telephone rep I got to speak to, told me that Pandora was a breach of contract even. Maybe next month, instead of dropping the prices, they will up the data. Wishful thinking, but, doubtful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They just sent me a warning, "your data service at risk of being suspended due to violation of TOC, blablabla. call 1-800-xxxxxxx".
So, I called 1-800 number. Nobody there to talk to me, but the voice annotation says, like getochkn says, "if you're here, we've warned you, you agreed to our toc, we can disconnect you anytime we'd like, if you don't like that - f### off"
This made me quite confused, because I only used like 340Mb of "unlimited" data plan. Last month, when I used 2.5Gb, they didn't mind.
So I called tech support, trying to get an idea, what is it exactly that they don't want me to do. The guy started telling me all sorts of bologne, like we don't allow tethering, do you tether? I said "no". He said "do you have facebook?". I said "yes, what does it have to do with anything?". "WHEN YOU LEAVE FACEBOOK RUNNING, IT USES A LOT OF DATA, THIS IS WHY YOU GOT WARNING".
I said "I have facebook, but not on the phone. It seems to me that you are guessing. Can you look at my account, and tell me what exactly caused warning, so that I don't do it in future?" He said "it is because last month you used very little data, but this month you are using A LOT"
At this time I started suspecting that the dumbass not only does not know what he is talking about, but just makes up stuff as he goes. So I said, "you got access to my account, how much data does it show I used?".
he couldn't answer.
this was so eye opening... They are hiring monkeys for their tech support, and they are SO STUPID, THEY ARE NOT EVEN GIVEN ACCESS TO ACCOUNTS!!! So they make up stuff, as they go. I don't even know why would anybody call

This entire thread is just disgraceful in terms of the tech support. He lets techs straight up lie to you. I'd ask for a higher up and complain.
Sent from my SGH-T959V using xda premium

Hey Jacob said:
This entire thread is just disgraceful in terms of the tech support. He lets techs straight up lie to you. I'd ask for a higher up and complain.
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Interesting that you mentioned it. When I realized that the tech guy lies straight in my face, I asked him to talk to supervisor. He put me on hold for a few minutes, then picked up the phone back (himself), said that supervisor is crazy busy this time, and cannot talk, but THE WARNING ACTUALLY WENT BY MISTAKE, and he apologizes, there is no warning on my account, poof - gone.
I am pretty certain that he never actually could tell, if there is a warning to begin with
I'm wondering if I call them with a made up number, if they will pretend that the account actually exist, or they actually will be able to figure THAT.