czerdrill -
I understand your point, and I agree. I was just getting a little "heated", and as a result I was typing faster than I was thinking
I will agree that substituting a phone's data for a household internet connection is beyond what was ever intended, no doubt about that. Where I have an issue is with the circumstances I mentioned, in particular:
1) using my phone's 3G data to stream Netflix (both of which I am paying for) and/or Pandora to the touchscreen headunit I have in my car; I do not see how that makes a difference to Verizon, as I am using the same exact data for the same exact purpose, I'm simply watching the movie on a slightly bigger screen
I'm not sure if that qualifies as "tethering", as I'm using a physical cable to connect the phone to the head-unit and the phone's OS/screen is actually controlled via the 7.x" touchscreen, which I also use to make hands-free calls and such, but the fact that this is "frowned upon" bothers me...
Hey man I agree with you, I find it unfair to those who tether in emergencies or so little that their regular usage is more then their tether usage. But unfortunately, we don't live in a world where Verizon can just "trust" us to be responsible. Like I said, I don't get why they have tiers and still have tether packages for tiered users, but for unlimited i think it makes total sense from a business perspective. There's no reason for them to allow you to have unlimited data for all your devices wherever you go. People saying "they should upgrade their infrastructure" don't know what they're talking about honestly. If every user was allowed unlimited tethering and every user took advantage of that, the network would slow to a halt immediately and then we'd have people complaining about how verizon has a horrible network. its a never ending cycle.
While I'm sure people like you won't and have no intention to abuse the network, the same can't be said about everyone. Essentially you'd have a $30/month mobile ISP (albeit slow speeds, but its $30/month for everywhere you go with a signal) and that's simply not a sustainable model no matter how good the infrastructure is. Its been in the contracts for years, its never changed and when/if they do make amendments to the TOS the user can opt out penalty free.
As for "streaming vs tethering" there's a difference but that might just be arguing semantics haha