I've been a Verizon user forever and just switched to AT&T in order to get an unlimited plan (among other things). The base unlimited plan apparently does not have a hot spot available unless the user upgrades to the premium unlimited plan. I had my Verizon GS5 for a few days before updating to an a10e. The converted verizon GS5 (rooted) could have hotspot turned on but the AT&T a10e cannot.
I'm not paying another $40/line to get that feature that we need once in a while. But, I'm curious why it worked with the GS5. Was it the rooting or that it started as a verizon phone and was allowed to hit spot? Can I VPN and get it to work that way? Just curious options.
After doing more research, it appears as I expected, the rooted GS5 from verizon didn't have the same checks as a stock AT&T phone will. So, I'll just have to root the new one I guess. Was in the plans anyway.
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I currently own a SGH-T989 (Samsung S2 T-mobile) phone and I have the $30/month prepaid plan that gives me unlimited data. However I can not use mobile hotspot, I am shown a message that I need to upgrade my plan.
I am planning to get a LG Nexus 5 phone directly from google play store and NOT from T-mobile. My understanding is that when you buy the phone from T-mobile they put restrictions on the phone which doesn't allow you to use mobile hotspot. If I get the phone from google play store since it isn't tied to any particular carrier it should not have a restriction on mobile hotspot. Will I be able to use mobile hotspot on my $30/month prepaid plan or does T-mobile still finds a way to restrict mobile hotspot on a factory unlocked phone?
nikosbocho said:
I currently own a SGH-T989 (Samsung S2 T-mobile) phone and I have the $30/month prepaid plan that gives me unlimited data. However I can not use mobile hotspot, I am shown a message that I need to upgrade my plan.
I am planning to get a LG Nexus 5 phone directly from google play store and NOT from T-mobile. My understanding is that when you buy the phone from T-mobile they put restrictions on the phone which doesn't allow you to use mobile hotspot. If I get the phone from google play store since it isn't tied to any particular carrier it should not have a restriction on mobile hotspot. Will I be able to use mobile hotspot on my $30/month prepaid plan or does T-mobile still finds a way to restrict mobile hotspot on a factory unlocked phone?
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Last time I was on it recently, there was a 100mb limit to hotspot usage on the 5GB data plan. Maybe you can get around it with rooting the phone. This was with a phone I bought from Google Play directly. It is internal in the new way Android handles hotspots with 4.4 KitKat, I believe.
nikosbocho said:
I currently own a SGH-T989 (Samsung S2 T-mobile) phone and I have the $30/month prepaid plan that gives me unlimited data. However I can not use mobile hotspot, I am shown a message that I need to upgrade my plan.
I am planning to get a LG Nexus 5 phone directly from google play store and NOT from T-mobile. My understanding is that when you buy the phone from T-mobile they put restrictions on the phone which doesn't allow you to use mobile hotspot. If I get the phone from google play store since it isn't tied to any particular carrier it should not have a restriction on mobile hotspot. Will I be able to use mobile hotspot on my $30/month prepaid plan or does T-mobile still finds a way to restrict mobile hotspot on a factory unlocked phone?
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Doesn't matter if you get it from T-Mobile, or through the Play Store. They are the exact same phone. The restrictions are not tied to the place of purchase, but to the carrier itself and what plan you are using. Apparently, this was introduced in Android 4.4 to allow carriers to know whenever you use your phone as a hotspot. I am currently on this $30 T-Mobile plan using my N5 I bought off the Play Store. Unfortunately, the free 100MB of hotspot usage does not apply to this plan, so everytime you try to use hotspot, it directs you to T-Mo's "upsell" page. HOWEVER, there are ways around it. The search button is your friend. :good: Search out some of the threads in these here forums. There's a fix where you can edit a database file on the root of the phone so it doesn't block you from tethering. I can tell you from experience that it works like a charm. I can tether as much as I want now (at least up until the 5GB "limit" of this plan). I've never really needed to surpass 5GB.
charesa39 said:
Doesn't matter if you get it from T-Mobile, or through the Play Store. They are the exact same phone. The restrictions are not tied to the place of purchase, but to the carrier itself and what plan you are using. Apparently, this was introduced in Android 4.4 to allow carriers to know whenever you use your phone as a hotspot. I am currently on this $30 T-Mobile plan using my N5 I bought off the Play Store. Unfortunately, the free 100MB of hotspot usage does not apply to this plan, so everytime you try to use hotspot, it directs you to T-Mo's "upsell" page. HOWEVER, there are ways around it. The search button is your friend. :good: Search out some of the threads in these here forums. There's a fix where you can edit a database file on the root of the phone so it doesn't block you from tethering. I can tell you from experience that it works like a charm. I can tether as much as I want now (at least up until the 5GB "limit" of this plan). I've never really needed to surpass 5GB.
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Thank you for explaining it to me. I thought the phones that T-mobile sell you are tweaked for T-mobile in particular, so they are locked to the T-mobile carrier while the ones from google are factory unlocked and might not have some of the restrictions. But basically both T-mobile and Google play sell you exactly the same phone and the $30 T-Mobile plan won't allow you for tethering and mobile hotspot. I'll look into rooting the phone and changing the settings when I get one.
nikosbocho said:
Thank you for explaining it to me. I thought the phones that T-mobile sell you are tweaked for T-mobile in particular, so they are locked to the T-mobile carrier while the ones from google are factory unlocked and might not have some of the restrictions. But basically both T-mobile and Google play sell you exactly the same phone and the $30 T-Mobile plan won't allow you for tethering and mobile hotspot. I'll look into rooting the phone and changing the settings when I get one.
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first of all the other user is right. there are no differences between two phones. no carrier is allowed to put any restriction on nexus 5
with kitkat google introduced a feature for tagging tethered data so the telecoms (if they wish) can check it against their user list to determined if it is allowed. search here for the link called nexus 5 tethering block?
to sum it up, this could be done with root or without root. that like will explain both ways. spend couple of hours reading that than having couple of days headache when the phone bootloops . does not sound plausible? do a search here for bootloop and you will see half of them are related to this.
the phone has to be properly connected to the computer. proper usb drivers installed and adb & fastboot working properly.
apply the settings.db hack. with or without root.
change the apn protocol to ipv4
if necessary use a user agent switcher for your browser.
nikosbocho said:
Thank you for explaining it to me. I thought the phones that T-mobile sell you are tweaked for T-mobile in particular, so they are locked to the T-mobile carrier while the ones from google are factory unlocked and might not have some of the restrictions. But basically both T-mobile and Google play sell you exactly the same phone and the $30 T-Mobile plan won't allow you for tethering and mobile hotspot. I'll look into rooting the phone and changing the settings when I get one.
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Correct. The restrictions are more from whatever SIM you put in it. In fact, when supply was short, or when people wanted to have the phone in hand same day, they would just buy it from a T-Mobile store and pop in their own AT&T or Sprint SIM card. Also, not sure if you know this, but T-Mobile only sells the 16GB version, and it's $50 more than what it sells for on the Play Store.
charesa39 said:
Correct. The restrictions are more from whatever SIM you put in it. In fact, when supply was short, or when people wanted to have the phone in hand same day, they would just buy it from a T-Mobile store and pop in their own AT&T or Sprint SIM card. Also, not sure if you know this, but T-Mobile only sells the 16GB version, and it's $50 more than what it sells for on the Play Store.
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Since my original idea of getting a Nexus 5 because it would be factory unlocked and would not have this restriction is not valid anymore, I might as well look into other Android phones too, not just the Nexus 5. Thank you.
nikosbocho said:
Since my original idea of getting a Nexus 5 because it would be factory unlocked and would not have this restriction is not valid anymore, I might as well look into other Android phones too, not just the Nexus 5. Thank you.
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there seems to be some confusion here. nexus 5 is unlocked period.
as of now any phone with jelly bean or kitkat has the tagging enabled by default. so unless you want something with ICS or older the other options are iphones?
I went to the cricket store today and I am thinking of switching to cricket from Tmobile since cricket now uses AT&Ts network. and Tmobile sux! in my area at least. the ONLY thing keeping from making the immediate switch is the salesperson telling me Hotspots are not supported by their plans. I looked in their phone settings and they removed the hotspot option in the settings as well.
So my question is, anyone have a cricket phone with one of their NEW plans (GSM phone) and rooted it, to get the hotspot back, and does it work? is cricket able to tell and shut it down? I'm just wondering if its only a software thing that they removed the hotspot in the OS or if it has some sort of network detection to shut off Hotspots.
Thanks all!
is bumping allowed? lol
I depend on FoxFi to share my unlimited data. Will FoxFi work on the S7 if so I wonder if it will work in the Verizon version?
Any thoughts?
Thanks Adam:good:
Yes it does work. I'm using my s7 now from Verizon. So happy to get it already. I still have the unlimited data as well so this function is very nice to have.
adam2289 said:
Yes it does work. I'm using my s7 now from Verizon. So happy to get it already. I still have the unlimited data as well so this function is very nice to have.
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How do you still have unlimited data? Are you making payments on s7 or did you do 2 year deal?
I'm making payments on the s7. I been paying month to month for years now. When Verizon upped the price for unlimited from 30 to 50 they allowed the unlimited users to be able to do payment plans to allow us to upgrade without getting rid of unlimited. There is no renewal of contract when doing a payment plan on a new device
Verizon never increased my unlimited data to $50. I'm afraid to upgrade my phone and tip them off.
adam2289 said:
I'm making payments on the s7. I been paying month to month for years now. When Verizon upped the price for unlimited from 30 to 50 they allowed the unlimited users to be able to do payment plans to allow us to upgrade without getting rid of unlimited. There is no renewal of contract when doing a payment plan on a new device
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Apparently it can be done, as long as you have more than one line on your plan and the additional line(s) do not have unlimited. The guys at Costco did it for me this weekend I have a new 2 year contract and was able to keep my $50 unlimited data plan on my line.
I am now an S7 user. It's a change from HTC, but so far it's good... Waiting for a while before rooting, though, for hardware failure concerns. I'm on day 2 and already had to swap out a defective s7. Power button would not work at all.
ETA: Back on Topic: Installed FoxFi (paid version) plus the FoxFi add-on, and I am tethering with no issues on Verizon. Tested with http, ftp and VNC. All working quite well. You do need to do a two-step process to turn it on, however. Enable FoxFi, then it will tell you to turn on Mobile Hotspot. FoxFi walks you through this just fine and loads the Mobile Hotspot app for you when enabling. When turning off the FoxFi Hotspot, if you had WiFi enabled prior to activating the FoxFi Hotspot, your phone will complain and ask to do it for you if you. If you did not have WiFi enabled prior to launching FoxFi hotspot, your phone will not complain, so you will need to remember to turn off the mobile hotspot yourself after turning off FoxFi Hotspot.
ETA2: Turning off the hotspot by turning off the phone's Mobile Hotspot will be detected by FoxFi and FoxFi will turn itself off. The quick setting toggle button works great for this.
Last time I used fox fi tmobile must've seen it and took out from tethering pool
Doesn't work for me
For the S7 on Verizon will I need to set a password on my phone? On the S3 I was able to bypass the password but on the S5 I was not. It didn't work. I don't want this to only to work if I need a.password or a patteen on my phone.
Hello I'm considering getting this phone. I researched and found that this phone model 1917 is the right one for Verizon it has all its LTE bands and I could give a **** about Wi-Fi calling or visual voicemail or video calling I have apps for that. My big question is about the hot spot for people using this phone on Verizon.
Do you have to do anything to get your hotspot to work properly the reason I don't buy phones from Verizon is I'm on the grandfathered unlimited data plan meaning I don't get throttled after using a certain amount of data it's only $10 more a month than their so-called unlimited plan offered now.
If I switch to a Verizon brand phone they will make me sign up with dere new data plan which only offers 30 gigabytes a month and I would burn through that inside of a couple days.
This is the reason I've been sticking with my HTC u12 plus. The native hotspot on this international phone works right out of the box since it's not Verizon limited software. I just wondered does the hotspot work flawlessly?
jluva420 said:
Hello I'm considering getting this phone. I researched and found that this phone model 1917 is the right one for Verizon it has all its LTE bands and I could give a **** about Wi-Fi calling or visual voicemail or video calling I have apps for that. My big question is about the hot spot for people using this phone on Verizon.
Do you have to do anything to get your hotspot to work properly the reason I don't buy phones from Verizon is I'm on the grandfathered unlimited data plan meaning I don't get throttled after using a certain amount of data it's only $10 more a month than their so-called unlimited plan offered now.
If I switch to a Verizon brand phone they will make me sign up with dere new data plan which only offers 30 gigabytes a month and I would burn through that inside of a couple days.
This is the reason I've been sticking with my HTC u12 plus. The native hotspot on this international phone works right out of the box since it's not Verizon limited software. I just wondered does the hotspot work flawlessly?
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HI,
I have a 7 Pro but I am on the newest plans; Get More Unlimited.
I got rid of my grandfathered plan because there was no benefit for me and the new ones are cheaper.
There is a provisioning check on some phones. If you root you can bypass the check.
I have the original unlimited plan, like you, and hotspot worked just fine. It worked fine with T-Mobile firmware and global, so no worries at all.
No issues with Verizon hotspot here. Just got CDMA-less enabled on my line and haven't had any service issues whatsoever
Hi,
I have a really old Android phone on my AT&T Unlimited Plus plan that has never counted hotspot data separately. I was looking at a possible upgrade to the 4a and was wondering...does it count/report hotspot data usage separately on AT&T?
I ask because the unlimited plus plan only has 10gb of hotspot before it's throttled.
Thanks!
I also have that plan. For quite a while AT&T just didn't throttle the hotspot. Several months ago, it started getting throttled. I hadn't changed phones at the time. I assumed it was something that AT&T were just letting people get away with. I don't think the phone has anything to do with it.
AT&T Unlimited Plus hotspot throttle?
SerArris said:
I also have that plan. For quite a while AT&T just didn't throttle the hotspot. Several months ago, it started getting throttled. I hadn't changed phones at the time. I assumed it was something that AT&T were just letting people get away with. I don't think the phone has anything to do with it.
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Thanks for the reply. I’m quite sure it has everything to do with the phone as my trusty old android is still not counting usage but all the iPhones on my other lines are. And if I swap the sim from the old android to an iPhone the hotspot usage is also counted.
T-Mobile uses TTL to track hotspot, and I believe that newer AT&T phones use a separate APN for tethering.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I guess I learn something every day. What old phone are you using?