FYI: Verizon, by law is not allowed to block tethering on 4G devices

Liberati0n

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Last time I checked, regulatory bodies did this crazy thing called regulate.
Regulation: a governmental or ministerial order having the force of law

Last I checked, congress cannot appoint people to positions to create laws therefore creating a defacto dictatorship.
 

bthomp21

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You guys are really taking this too far, if you honestly think verizon will come at you with the "ban" hammer, you are crazy.

It's like with downloading music/movies, some people will be caught and hit hard to make an example. But believe me, you CANNOT stop the majority. It's all a scare tactic and if verizon keeps this crap up, they will lose millions and millions in revenue from dropped/kicked customers. Lose 30 dollar Hot Spot charge or lose 100's of dollars in cell phone bills. Do the math, its simple.
 
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ben7337

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The FCC was appointed the duty to sell/auction off the 700mhz spectrum which was recently freed up, who's to say that the sale didn't come with a legally binding contract to which all buyers including verizon are legally expected to uphold? Sure it might not be a LAW that they have to do it, but it could very well be in a contract that they have to do that or will in some way be reprimanded/punished or have their rights to the spectrum revoked without and form of compensation, or something like that.

Also the wikipedia link at the top of this thread says

"After the open access rules were implemented, Verizon Wireless filed suit against the FCC on September 13, 2007, seeking to have the rules dismissed on the grounds that the open access requirement "violates the U.S. Constitution, violates the Administrative Procedures Act ? and is arbitrary, capricious, unsupported by the substantial evidence and otherwise contrary to law."[7] On October 23, Verizon chose to drop the lawsuit after losing its appeal for a speedy resolution on October 3. However, the CTIA stepped in to challenge the same regulations in a lawsuit filed the same day.[8] On November 13, 2008, the CTIA dropped its lawsuit against the FCC.[9]"


Clearly it was decided that the regulations that they agreed to when buying the spectrum are not able to be taken down, if they were then verizon wouldn't have dropped the lawsuit over them.
 

Droid800

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You guys are really taking this too far, if you honestly think verizon will come at you with the "ban" hammer, you are crazy.

It's like with downloading music/movies, some people will be caught and hit hard to make an example. But believe me, you CANNOT stop the majority. It's all a scare tactic and if verizon keeps this crap up, they will lose millions and millions in revenue from dropped/kicked customers. Lose 30 dollar Hot Spot charge or lose 100's of dollars in cell phone bills. Do the math, its simple.

They're already doing it. Once the tiered pricing takes effect, you're going to start hearing stories of people whose service was terminated by Verizon for illegal tethering.
 

Droid800

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I think this confuses two different issues. Verizon is in the right enforce any legal aspect of a contract you have signed with them. But that is a totally different topic than whether they have the right to block access to certain apps or block access to parts of the radio spectrum that they themselves are contractually obligated to allow.

They are not contractually obligated to allow illegal tethering. The provision cited has no bearing whatsoever on that.
 

Droid800

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The FCC was appointed the duty to sell/auction off the 700mhz spectrum which was recently freed up, who's to say that the sale didn't come with a legally binding contract to which all buyers including verizon are legally expected to uphold? Sure it might not be a LAW that they have to do it, but it could very well be in a contract that they have to do that or will in some way be reprimanded/punished or have their rights to the spectrum revoked without and form of compensation, or something like that.

Also the wikipedia link at the top of this thread says

"After the open access rules were implemented, Verizon Wireless filed suit against the FCC on September 13, 2007, seeking to have the rules dismissed on the grounds that the open access requirement "violates the U.S. Constitution, violates the Administrative Procedures Act ? and is arbitrary, capricious, unsupported by the substantial evidence and otherwise contrary to law."[7] On October 23, Verizon chose to drop the lawsuit after losing its appeal for a speedy resolution on October 3. However, the CTIA stepped in to challenge the same regulations in a lawsuit filed the same day.[8] On November 13, 2008, the CTIA dropped its lawsuit against the FCC.[9]"


Clearly it was decided that the regulations that they agreed to when buying the spectrum are not able to be taken down, if they were then verizon wouldn't have dropped the lawsuit over them.
Or the FCC isn't going to enforce it.
 

Air Force One

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most obvious loophole in that text that I can see:

subject to reasonable network management.

Verizon will argue all day long that for reasonable network management that they need to stop unlimited tethering and they can go to court and tie this up for YEARS. Then even if they lose, we might get 2 bucks credited to our bill in 15 years.....oh and the lawyers will get all the real money.

Second, if some lawyers really want to push this, then all Verizon has to do is drop unlimited data plans. Then you can tether all you want... UNTIL you hit your data limit for the month, which won't take long. Wouldn't surprise me if this is one of the reasons they will be doing away with unlimited plans.

Fact of the matter is if some douchbags would stop downloading 100 GB every month playing call of duty and using it as their primary home internet the rest of us would be left alone, but there are always those that abuse it and ruin it for the rest of us.
 

Forgetful

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most obvious loophole in that text that I can see:

subject to reasonable network management.

Verizon will argue all day long that for reasonable network management that they need to stop unlimited tethering and they can go to court and tie this up for YEARS. Then even if they lose, we might get 2 bucks credited to our bill in 15 years.....oh and the lawyers will get all the real money.

Second, if some lawyers really want to push this, then all Verizon has to do is drop unlimited data plans. Then you can tether all you want... UNTIL you hit your data limit for the month, which won't take long. Wouldn't surprise me if this is one of the reasons they will be doing away with unlimited plans.

Fact of the matter is if some douchbags would stop downloading 100 GB every month playing call of duty and using it as their primary home internet the rest of us would be left alone, but there are always those that abuse it and ruin it for the rest of us.

Darn right on all accounts. People are dreaming if they think this will stick it to Verizon.
 

ben7337

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most obvious loophole in that text that I can see:

subject to reasonable network management.

Verizon will argue all day long that for reasonable network management that they need to stop unlimited tethering and they can go to court and tie this up for YEARS. Then even if they lose, we might get 2 bucks credited to our bill in 15 years.....oh and the lawyers will get all the real money.

Second, if some lawyers really want to push this, then all Verizon has to do is drop unlimited data plans. Then you can tether all you want... UNTIL you hit your data limit for the month, which won't take long. Wouldn't surprise me if this is one of the reasons they will be doing away with unlimited plans.

Fact of the matter is if some douchbags would stop downloading 100 GB every month playing call of duty and using it as their primary home internet the rest of us would be left alone, but there are always those that abuse it and ruin it for the rest of us.

That loophole isn't really a loophole, as was explained on howardforums

"Here, the FCC defines in-line what they mean with respect to network management; namely, by reasonable network management, the FCC means ensuring no harm is caused to the network. Also, (1) the FCC has specifically said that large increases in bandwidth demand are not a harm to a network, (2) VZW permits tethering if you do it with their app that you must pay extra to use (per GB of usage), and (3) the harm referenced is traditionally thought of as things that cause interference with a network, not things that use a lot of it."

Thus network management does not include hiding or blocking apps to limit bandwidth useage, and we know they can't charge for the service either because the 700mhz spectrum has the terms that they cannot do so.

As for limited data plans, I would be fine with 5 or 10gb caps on 4g, and 2 or 5gb caps on 3g. However despite verizon seeming to be going in that direction, I wouldn't be too surprised if they waited, sprint is still unlimited, and tmobile just throttles potentially after a certain limit. Verizon has already said that they will throttle the top 5% of users, if anything that sounds like a good enough method to limit things to me, while still keeping technically unlimited data.
 
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