Dude, you can argue all you want. You pay for unlimited data on your phone, not you phone and your laptop or your home PC. Period. It's fairly obvious that when someone tethers, they use more data than if they didn't tether! It's just nonsense to not acknowledge that.
Tethering puts more demand on the network. The more demand on the network, the more infrastructure is required to provide useable throughput to all users. This whole notion of throttling is to protect the bottom 95% of data users from those using it suspiciously.
If you hate verizon so much, why stay? With so many carriers, I'm sure you'd have no problem finding one that will please you. Well, not really sure but you know what I'm saying!
I'm stating my opinion and offering supporting thoughts for why I feel Verizon's policy is in error. If you don't like my opinion your choices are a) continue to try to change my opinion (so far you have not presented a single persuasive argument toward this end) b) ignore it.
1) I never brought up unlimited data so I'm not sure why you're harping on that.
2) It does not matter if the average tethering user uses more than the average non-tethering user. I never said "tethering users don't use more data" anywhere in any of my replies. So, I am acknowledging this claim to be true in SOME cases but this claim is not relevant. More on this below.
3) I never said I hated Verizon and I have no clue where you got this from, maybe you're projecting? I remarked that Verizon (and all US carriers, as far as I know) are approaching this debate from an incorrect, illogical point of view. I have explained and will continue to explain why I feel their viewpoint is illogical.
I pay for X GB of data. So long as I stay beneath that limit, there is no difference between data from my phone or data from my laptop or data from my desktop or data from a Nintendo 3DS or data from a wifi tablet. None. Zip. Zero. Zilch. It doesn't matter that a tethering user MIGHT use more data than a non-tethering user AS LONG AS THE BOTH USERS OBEY THE DATA LIMITS OF THEIR PLANS. If Verizon can't handle unlimited GB (or 4GB or 2GB or whatever the limit is) then they should not offer those plans as options or continue to service plans with those limits. If they are really overselling their bandwidth that badly then they need to offer realistic amounts of data that they can handle. Personally, I think they're doing just fine with their ability to handle the limits that they have already enacted but the actual limits of the plans are immaterial. The plan limits could be 500MB or 1MB or 1KB and my argument would be the same as it is now.
You seem to be under the delusion that I am somehow advocating that people ditch their home ISP, tether ridiculous amounts of data and Verizon should just deal with it. THAT IS NOT MY POSITION AT ALL.
My position is simply that, within the amount of data any given customer pays for (unlimited, 4GB or 2GB), Verizon should not care how much that customer uses or where that data ultimately ends up (phone, laptop, desktop, Wii, 3DS, PS3, whatever). Nothing more, nothing less. I'll thank you kindly to stop twisting my words.
This is where things are headed. Home ISPs used to try to say "you can only hook up one device to our internet connection, routers are not allowed" just like VZW is saying right now. It won't last b/c it's illogical. Most people don't care yet, but they will eventually and that's when it'll change. People will eventually say, why do I need to pay separately for my tablet, 4G modem and phone? I don't have to prove anything to anyone, I just have to sit back and watch history repeat itself.
[Text edited. Apparently I fell victim to the misconception that VZW had a 5GB limit on unlimited plans. From further reading, I see that is NOT true. I have held this incorrect belief for the entirety of my VZW data plan. Removed the inaccurate text to prevent confusion and to prevent anyone else from falling victim to the same confusion that happened to me. I will do the same to previous posts.]
