P3Droid: Some Food for Thought - Bootloaders, Rooting, Manufacturers, and Carriers

[Chizzele]

AT&T Doe's not blacklist iPhone owners who jailbreak and install cydia to get free app... Don't get me wrong i am not a big fan of the iOS but it seems as if the Android OS is following.. its as if they made a real OPEN Source to get market share and now just "open" with more and more limitations.

 

[Vulcan1600]

I totally agree. I pay 108.50 a month for the most basic plans w/ unl txting and data (and insurance, for physical defects haw haw), I do not use tether at all. For that kind of money how is it reasonable to tack on another 20 bucks for basic tethering? Why isnt it included, at least to a small extent, in the unlimited data plan? What makes the data any different coming from my phone, or from another device through my phone? If this functionality is built in to android, what right does a company have to charge for something that in effect, when used moderately - to an extent, costs them nothing more?

Greed!

I paid $65 to fill up my Jeep on Saturday - I guess for that price I should have got a couple of free quarts of oil.

 

[dfuser312553]

Tether as much as you want. How can they tell if you're rooted? Your meid or your prl? Lawlz

 

[knivesout]

^^Word. They can't tell if you're rooted. Don't fret.

 

[lfylove]

I wish all these companies would read this u all make great points.... but then I remember life's about profit and our tiny community isn't going to help there money fueled life

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[really fascinating]

I do think that it is stupid to charge for tethering when you already pay for an unlimited data plan. That said, if some persont is using his 4G/LTE phone to provide his home with broadband internet because he doesn't want to pay for a cable modem or DSL, then they are creating a problem for the rest of us.

I would think that unless VZW wants a bunch of court cases, which will cost them far more then 1% of people rooting and tethering will ever cost, they should come up with a better solution.
.

Are you kidding me what court cases? Even if a person was to file suit it would never reach the room. Verizon charges to wireless theatre so in your contract it would say if you want this service you must pay. The judge would fall out of his seat laughing. DISMISSED. If you go to you neighbors. House open the cable box disconnect it then put a splinter attach your own wires and run it to your house it may take awhile before anyone notices. But when the cable company comes and cuts you out your not going to be taking them to court over it. Yes I think its stupid to charge separately for the feature but you have to realize just how long it can take a company to make profit from you. Especially when their giving you 5&6hundred dollar phones for free or very reduced.
I do agree that customization should be a given. And they should give us that option stock or by apps on the market. Any time people take advantage of a company they will take aaction to protect their assets even if most people are using the service responsibly. As with almost everything in life it only takes a few to screw it all up for the rest of us.






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[freezyfreaky]

Just my thoughts...don't see how they r gonna get away with this...

I paid for the phone, I'm not renting it from them! Its my property, I should be able to do whatever I want with it! I pay them every month to use their network, I should be able to do whatever I want with it....if I bought a tv from best buy they couldn't "take away" the option to turn it off and on simply because I use it to much....the cable company can't "throttle" channels because some ppl watch them to much!

I have no doubt this will come into action soon, and it will be a sad day for the android community

Sent from my Droid

Read the contract. They reserved the right to throttle bandwidth. They are not doing anything that they don't have the right for.

 

[Tillmorn]

I understand that tethering is a big concern/issue on these forums. But, I think the whole article isn't just about that.

I think it also deals with the fact that when we root and flash roms/kernels, we end up with phones that we can be relatively happy with well beyond the planned upgrade cycle that big name carriers are used to. Before the emergence of Android, most people signed a contract, and updated to the newest, sexiest looking phone as soon as they could (even the "crackberry" crowd). Now, people are still rocking their OG droids, well after the release date. Granted, yes our community is small in terms of the vast majority of Android users. But still using the same phone, when 4 years ago we would have upgraded as quickly as possible...that's hurting the carriers' pockets.

On the flip-side of people doing that, you have more and more "tech enthusiasts" signing up for 1-year contracts so that they can upgrade to the latest and greatest every 10-12 months, which does have potential to hit carriers hard, since they make almost all their money off of 2-year contracts, not the price of the phone.

What I think may happen, possibly far into the future, is Google becoming a carrier as well as a platform provider. This is all skeptical, of course, but if they truly wanted to stick to the "open-ended" side of things (while big carriers like Verizon and AT&T were crying about losing...lets face it...paltry sums of money from people not continuously upgrading) it might be one of the best moves they could do for the Android community.

I could, however, also know nothing and be completely wrong in this speculation.

 

[mikron]

this story and thread itself is making people nervous big red will probably lead the way and that is why i think soon nov 2011 leave big red and the bonic is no answer stay the heck away

 

[kodiak799]

Actually I mostly only upgraded my dumb phones when the battery died (usually about 2 years, interestingly enough!).

Now I'm 6 months away from an upgrade on my D1 and been itching for months. Although I do agree the OEM's don't really want people refreshing their devices with custom roms and extending EOL.

As for Google, there's no doubt they will be getting into the telecom game. They already are with the GV and VoIP. Thought I even saw a blurb where they are buying some data pipes (which they will need to protect their VoIP service since if carriers start losing voice plan dollars they'll jack the data rates for people substituting VoIP).

 

[jkhonea]

this story and thread itself is making people nervous big red will probably lead the way and that is why i think soon nov 2011 leave big red and the bonic is no answer stay the heck away

Again, this is NOT just a Verizon thing. When it starts, its probably going to go fullbore with all carriers. I don't expect to see one or two start out with others slowly trickling behind. I think it will be wholesale.

 

[silvervagon]

Especially when their giving you 5&6hundred dollar phones for free or very reduced.

Do you really think the price of the phone is significant when compared to the price of a 2 year contract? They subsidize the price of the phone to get you to sign the contract, and it's not like the retail price of the phone is their cost, either.

 

[UNC]

Tethering is stealing. There's no way you can justify it. If you think its wrong that you can't tether then you shouldn't have signed the contract that clearly says tethering is a violation of TOS. That contract ends all debate about it. Don't like it, dont sign.

 

[really fascinating]

More than just saying they can limit bandwidth I'm sure it says that they reserve the right to stop service with you if you break the rules. They sell the phones that the manufactures give them and they as discussed in other post get a say on what the phone can do and what will be on it. Go ahead and change companies, ill tell you the grass isn't Always greener. As stated this is most likely to be a carrier wide regulation. Where I work we get people all the time saying that they will cancel and go to other providers. Ok fine yeah it is my paycheck in the long run. But for everyone that cancels there will be another to start. And people will cancel and come right back because they didn't Like the grass over there. I just laugh at them. Verizon is a good service provider I've really nenever used anyone else but have always heard bad stories of the others. And when people cancel because they don't want to pay and just want service for free and can't understand why Verizon would not allow it, I wonder do you walk into a store and take a soda on a hot day and drink it then put it down some where because why pay when its not something you would normally buy and wouldn't end up using it again? I'm sorry but that's still stealing. It's not yours, you didn't pay for it, you are not entitled to it. As far as rooting for the innocent reason of customization ok v or anyone else shouldn't have an issue, so long as you don't mess it up in anyway by doing so and then exspect them to replace it. And when it comes to rooting how would any one be able to prove either.

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[Droid DOES!!]

Especially when their giving you 5&6hundred dollar phones for free or very reduced.

it's not like the retail price of the phone is their cost, either.

Actually, it is.

This thread has been Thunder struck!!