Wireless carriers want you to pay them extra if you use your phone’s built-in Wi-Fi hotspot feature to share wireless data with your other devices. Now Verizon and T-Mobile are joining AT&T in shutting down some loopholes that allowed third party applications to deliver tethering service at no additional monthly charge.
The first step in locking down tethering is removing easy access to applications that allow it to happen. As of this week, access to the most popular tethering apps, including Easy Tether, Internet Sharer, Klink, PDAnet and Tether for Android have been blocked from the Android Market, which means customers can only install these applications using a complicated process to manually install the software.
The next step, already underway at AT&T, is to identify and warn customers using these “unauthorized” apps that they are violating the terms of their wireless contract.
AT&T customers began receiving text messages warning them that the company’s own tethering plan would be automatically added to their accounts if tethering continued. Verizon has not gone that far yet, but T-Mobile has, sending warnings and blocking access for customers who are not paying an additional $14.99 a month for the service, currently unlimited.
Verizon Wireless customers will have to pay $20 a month for up to 2GB of access, each additional gigabyte priced at $20.
AT&T customers can add tethering for an additional $15 (for 200MB), with additional plans delivering more access for more money.
Google, responsible for administering the Android Market, notes it is not “blocking” the app, merely making it “unavailable for download at the request of wireless carriers” — a distinction without a difference for most consumers.
5-10-2011 Correction: AT&T’s website claims you need the 4GB DataPro plan for Smartphone tethering, which provides an allowance of 4GB of data for $45 a month, with a $10/GB overlimit fee per GB over.
So Verizon’s plan is to block competing applications and charge extra for their own applications. Sounds anti-competitive to me, maybe something for the DOJ to look into.
It’s more about gouging you for services that are already built into your phone. Verizon and other carriers are locking them down to monetize them. In our view, if you’ve already paid for a data plan, you should be able to use it anyway you like, on any device within reach of your phone. Carriers know if you tether to a laptop or tablet, you’ll almost surely use far more data than on your smartphone, so they want to make that an expensive proposition. At $20 for 2GB, with a $20 overlimit fee for each additional GB, Verizon sure accomplished… Read more »
I don’t have an Android phone, but this is outrageous. If Google can block tethering applications at the “request of the wireless carrier”, what’s going to stop them from blocking other applications? (streaming media etc) at a similar request? This is a terrible precedent for Google to be setting.
I absolutely agree. It’s the same mentality that allowed Google and Verizon to reach their special accommodation on Net Neutrality that threw consumers under the bus.
Google should stay out of this. If carriers want to crack down on users of these apps, that’s their business, but Google should stay content neutral, as long as an app does not violate federal law.
One of the benefits Google’s Android was supposed to bring was a far less “walled garden” that Apple makes us endure on their devices. So much for that.
Go Sprint! You can still get the tethering software for Sprint cel phones. OK, Sprint doesn’t have the rep either Verizon or ATT does, but I’ve been using them for years and can’t say they are any worse than Verizon or ATT was for me. Plus, I’ve been tethering my cel on thier network for at least 6 years and not heard boo from them about it. Heck, I was streaming 200 meg a night on Sprint for months and never heard any complaints from them. Last year I contacted them about bad receiption inside my aluminum sided house and… Read more »
Wow, misinformation out the ass. AT&T’s tether rate is $20 for 2 extra gigs. There’s no option to tether on the 200 meg plan.
Actually AT&T misinformed me. The rep I spoke with apparently thought I was talking about a data plan. AT&T’s website apparently claims you need the 4GB DataPro plan for Smartphone tethering, which evidently lets you use 4GB of data for $45 a month, with a $10/GB overlimit fee per GB over.
If you catch an error, just let me know and I’ll go hunt it down.
Sprint seems like the best choice if you want to tether. That is if you’re in 4g coverage area!