Unauthorized tethering now watched

[satburn]

AT&T tells customers using unauthorized tethering methods to pay up or stop -- Engadget

Looks like AT&T is starting to crack down...

Been using an app like MyWi to enable tethering on your jailbroken iPhone? Then there's a good chance you've already received a message like the one above from AT&T, or perhaps an email like the one after the break. By all accounts, the carrier is now cracking down on all unauthorized tethering, and it's asking folks engaged in such behavior to either pay up for a proper tethering plan or simply stop tethering altogether -- if it doesn't hear anything back for you after sending the message, AT&T says it will automatically enroll you in a DataPro 4GB tethering plan (at a rate of $45 a month). We should note that all the reports we've seen so far are from iPhone users, although that certainly doesn't mean Android users will simply be allowed to slip by unnoticed. Exactly how AT&T is identifying users isn't clear, however, and we could well just be seeing the beginning of a cat and mouse game as folks try to discover workarounds to go undetected. More on this one as we get it.

 

[p08757]

AT&T tells customers using unauthorized tethering methods to pay up or stop -- Engadget

Looks like AT&T is starting to crack down...

Now they are starting with Android powered phones too. Im afraid we are in the dawn of a new age where there will be no free tethering. Im sure Big Red will be next.

Im glad I pay for the services I use to the letter of my contract.

 

[ItnStln]

Can AT&T legally force you to change your data plan for using alot of data...not teathering, but just using alot of data.

 

[stylez619]

Forced carrier tehering is a load of crap. It should be a handset software feature and not a carrier feature. If I enroll in a specific smartphone data plan... how ever I use that data shouldnt matter to the carrier, only if I go over my allocated amount.

If I use 2GB thorugh the phone, or use 2GB through my laptop using my phone as a modem... I'm still using 2GB of network data. One method isnt costing the carrier more than the other. Biggest rip-off out there.

 

[Jim Ahrman]

I had noticed that the original article had an update that said only for iphones...but doesn't mention droids..

"Update: AT&T reached out to us and, yes, this is pretty much all there is to the tale: the "small number of smartphone customers who use their devices for tethering but aren't on our required tethering plan," are being contacted to either cease and desist or prepare to start paying for the service. No word yet on how many customers have been contacted, but it does seem that they're all using iPhones."

Has anyone heard of anyone who has gotten a notice who is using a droid, but not having the teathering plan? I'm grandfathered in to unlimited..and while i don't have to have it all the time it would be handy once in a while in a pinch to be able to use.

Thanks