VZW disabling tethering apps from market

[ldopa]

I would just use moderation. I'm also tired of reading stuff like this. No offense of course.

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[soulshot96]

So if I use a lot of data on my phone e every month and I tether for like a half hour on that month to say, edit a Facebook profile picture, I could get in trouble even though I used 19/20 of the data on my phone? And if I use 10 gb a month on my phone and I don't tether I'm fine? Sorry, I'm just confused.

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[ldopa]

Me too. I've been tethering for some time now with no issues. I suppose we shall see if that changes...

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[drust]

ok guys we are repeating ourselves. i read the first ten pages.

when i first got my droid i used it for everything and would have to xharge it over and over and i barely used more then 2 gig.. now that i have it rooted and occasionally teather i use at most 3 gig i think they should just set a cap and hit the people going over the new limit to the unlimited plan(5gig) and call it a day.

they will never remove it totally as it was stated so many times they can remove from the market but third part downloading goes around that and if they go after google to put it in their developer contract that they cant program a cade that teathers it will just be against the whole concept of open source.

 

[pc747]

Had another discussion with a trusted rep and I will not discuss all of it because I think that sharing the full discussion would be irresponsible of me at this point. But if they can not get control of this issue it will effect all of us. The rep admitted that Vzw has been pushing hard on locked down devices just to try to get control of unauthorized tethering. Now there are a few options on the table, 1) go to a tiered plan 2) continue with locking the device tighter. I almost want them to go to a tiered data plan for tethering and leave the unlimited phone data alone. I suggested an idea of the "reasonable" tiered data plan. But I was told there has to be a demand for it. My idea was maybe come up with some reasonable plan ideas and just pitch it to them on what people will pay. Do I think it will work? I dont know. Will this stop people from unauthorized tethering? probably not, some people will continue on not caring, other will probably buy the cheapest tethering plan and continue using wifi tethering convincing themselves that "they paid for a tethering plan".
Then why do it and waste the time of the community and the people reading? Good question, part of me is hoping that if we come up with something fair that the people that want to do it the right way will have the option and hopefully we can get more people doing it right.

 

[Snow02]

The only real answer is tiered data, use it how you wish. Want more data? Pay for it. It would make the administration side much easier because they don't have two types of data to keep track of, and people can't hide tethered data as phone data, as is currently the case. But I think they don't want to give up the unlimited data marketing angle.

I'm not saying I like that idea, and the cap would have to be reasonable. 2 GB is not reasonable. 5 GB is I think. But as far as I see it that would make things easiest on everyone. And there would be no more reason to try and lock down the phones.

 

[pc747]

If everyone feel the answer is tiered data then what type of pricing are we looking at.

 

[npro1464]

Had another discussion with a trusted rep and I will not discuss all of it because I think that sharing the full discussion would be irresponsible of me at this point. But if they can not get control of this issue it will effect all of us. The rep admitted that Vzw has been pushing hard on locked down devices just to try to get control of unauthorized tethering. Now there are a few options on the table, 1) go to a tiered plan 2) continue with locking the device tighter. I almost want them to go to a tiered data plan for tethering and leave the unlimited phone data alone. I suggested an idea of the "reasonable" tiered data plan. But I was told there has to be a demand for it. My idea was maybe come up with some reasonable plan ideas and just pitch it to them on what people will pay. Do I think it will work? I dont know. Will this stop people from unauthorized tethering? probably not, some people will continue on not caring, other will probably buy the cheapest tethering plan and continue using wifi tethering convincing themselves that "they paid for a tethering plan".
Then why do it and waste the time of the community and the people reading? Good question, part of me is hoping that if we come up with something fair that the people that want to do it the right way will have the option and hopefully we can get more people doing it right.

I would be willing to pay $5 for a gig or so, and would be willing to play by the rules.

You make it seem like Verizon only has two options, implement tiered data or lock down their phones, when in fact they will probably do both. Let's be honest too, Verizon wants to lock down phones so that people won't delete their Blockbuster and Bing search apps infesting their phones. Microsoft and Blockbuster paid good money to have that bloatware preinstalled in Verizons phones.

 

[pc747]

Had another discussion with a trusted rep and I will not discuss all of it because I think that sharing the full discussion would be irresponsible of me at this point. But if they can not get control of this issue it will effect all of us. The rep admitted that Vzw has been pushing hard on locked down devices just to try to get control of unauthorized tethering. Now there are a few options on the table, 1) go to a tiered plan 2) continue with locking the device tighter. I almost want them to go to a tiered data plan for tethering and leave the unlimited phone data alone. I suggested an idea of the "reasonable" tiered data plan. But I was told there has to be a demand for it. My idea was maybe come up with some reasonable plan ideas and just pitch it to them on what people will pay. Do I think it will work? I dont know. Will this stop people from unauthorized tethering? probably not, some people will continue on not caring, other will probably buy the cheapest tethering plan and continue using wifi tethering convincing themselves that "they paid for a tethering plan".
Then why do it and waste the time of the community and the people reading? Good question, part of me is hoping that if we come up with something fair that the people that want to do it the right way will have the option and hopefully we can get more people doing it right.

I would be willing to pay $5 for a gig or so, and would be willing to play by the rules.

You make it seem like Verizon only has two options, implement tiered data or lock down their phones, when in fact they will probably do both. Let's be honest too, Verizon wants to lock down phones so that people won't delete their Blockbuster and Bing search apps infesting their phones. Microsoft and Blockbuster paid good money to have that bloatware preinstalled in Verizons phones.

To be honest I dont think they care if you delete preloaded apps or not. It served its purpose for you to see it as soon as you turn the phone on.Like they said they cant do any thing to people who root their phone because its not illegal, all they can do is void their warranty. Its your warranty so if you want to void it then that is your decision. Loading down the network because people are being data hogs tethering is what they do care about.

 

[Tempesto]

Tethering on Verizon

So PDAnet won't work on my X?

I sent the following to support at PDANet. It's a Droid X but the issue is really Verizon and access to the app is the least of your worries.

>It works. That is I have it installed on the Droid and I can link to my laptop via Bluetooth. The problem is I can only see one web page. The Verizon page that explains how I must purchase the tether option. Oh yes, I did try and type different addresses and URLs into the address bar. My guess, right now, (05/14/2011) Verizon sees this link as a tether and redirects your browser to this one page. I have as yet to try a wired USB tether but I see no reason to try and there has been nothing but half truths and confusion about the subject online. Why not just test and release a real report on the current ability to tether on Verizon for free? I don't believe PDANet (or any other app?) can. Thanks.<

 

[NeoandGeo]

If everyone feel the answer is tiered data then what type of pricing are we looking at.

I wouldn't mind paying $5 per gig of data used if they would allow me to not pay for minutes I never touch.

 

[kodiak799]

I wouldn't mind paying $5 per gig of data used if they would allow me to not pay for minutes I never touch.

A $5 add-on for like 500megs would be nice, kind of like $5 for 250 texts.

My guess is they'll maintain the $30 price point, probably cap at 3gigs. That won't include tether. Then maybe $10/gig after, and that will include tether. So for $40 you'd get 4gigs of data, including 1 gig of tether.

Not saying that is fair or optimal (even from VZW perspective), just that it aligns fairly well with the current plan where you'd pay $50 for 2 gigs of tether on top of your smartphone plan. It also doesn't create incentive for people to drop their $50 mobile broadband plan that would have 5gigs of data for your laptop.

But VZW will probably create some sort of perceived value. They'll try to bring more people into the smartphone fold, offering a $15 plan for 250 megs or so. $30 could be 2gigs including tether (only limited by your cap of 2gigs)....Which might make some people happy (I think this is garbage if you don't tether) while still protecting the mobile broadband - although $60 for 5gigs of data is still potentially a $20 loss if people just use the one data plan.

Anyway, I don't expect VZW to include free tether, too big a potential problem if they limit it and people get overages. But the bigger issue is people who don't tether don't want to pay for it - they'd rather have an extra gig of data or something. Best case scenario is they'll have a $5 option for probably 250megs for that tethering in a pinch.

 

[NeoandGeo]

I wouldn't mind signing up for something like that if I could JUST use data.

 

[Tempesto]

I do pay extra for data and I see the problem with taxing the VZW bandwidth with tethering, so I didn't pound hard on a free solution. I'm a professional and use this stuff to make a living so I really don't mind paying for it. I only have occasional use, like when we are on a remote television shoot. I wish we could turn the "subscription" on or off as needed to save some money. One advantage to the Droid X is the ability to remove the micro SD card after a download for transfer to the work platform. Now if they could just make the memory accessible without removing the battery...

 

[pc747]

Like I told vzw lets go to.a tiered plan and let me do what I want with my data. If I want to tether all 5gigs of my data then that's my data to do what I want with it. On the flip side if I burn through 5 gigs of my data 5 days with in my billing cycle then I am going to either have to shut my data off on my phone or buy more data.

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