myTouch 4G Wi-Fi tethering is free?

[MattMJB0188]

I think t mobile is having data issues as my net was acting up all day also on and off but wasnt,isolated to beeing tethered

Sent from my HTC Glacier using Tapatalk

They are. Data is incorrectly being displayed on their site. Says I've used 2.3gb when I've actually used about 800mb.

 

[graffixnyc]

So what's the status? is everyone being charged now or is there still a way to tether for free if you are rooted?



How long has everyone been with Tmo? I wonder if the people who are getting the text about the 14.99 plan are new customers or if they are existing customers.. Maybe they are new customers so there accounts are built in with the block from the get and people who have been with tmo for a while are either 1.grandfathered and doesnt apply to them or 2. Hasn't been rolled out to all existing customer's yet.
The grandfathered thing I bring up because I know TMO has a great loyalty program usually whatever you got when you opened your account(features/services) you get for the same price no matter how high it goes up.. for example I use to have bb. for years I only paid 19.99 when TMO raised the price to I think 25 mine stayed at 19.00. When I just upgraded to android they gave me the unlimited plan for what I was paying for my BB unlimited plan 19.99. Another example is I got hotspot at home with my BB that allowed me to make calls over wifi without it deducting from my minutes for an extra 10 bucks a month.. after a while they stopped offering this service but I was still getting it. As long as I never removed it from my account it stayed.

So maybe it's a thing where if you signed up after that policy for wifi(or right around) you will get banged with the "you need a tethering plan" message otherwise you're good.. That's just a possible explanation based purely on a hunch..maybe.. kinda.. sorta

 

[MattMJB0188]

So what's the status? is everyone being charged now or is there still a way to tether for free if you are rooted?



How long has everyone been with Tmo? I wonder if the people who are getting the text about the 14.99 plan are new customers or if they are existing customers.. Maybe they are new customers so there accounts are built in with the block from the get and people who have been with tmo for a while are either 1.grandfathered and doesnt apply to them or 2. Hasn't been rolled out to all existing customer's yet.
The grandfathered thing I bring up because I know TMO has a great loyalty program usually whatever you got when you opened your account(features/services) you get for the same price no matter how high it goes up.. for example I use to have bb. for years I only paid 19.99 when TMO raised the price to I think 25 mine stayed at 19.00. When I just upgraded to android they gave me the unlimited plan for what I was paying for my BB unlimited plan 19.99. Another example is I got hotspot at home with my BB that allowed me to make calls over wifi without it deducting from my minutes for an extra 10 bucks a month.. after a while they stopped offering this service but I was still getting it. As long as I never removed it from my account it stayed.

So maybe it's a thing where if you signed up after that policy for wifi(or right around) you will get banged with the "you need a tethering plan" message otherwise you're good.. That's just a possible explanation based purely on a hunch..maybe.. kinda.. sorta

I'm assuming anyone who goes over 5GB tethering could possible have T-Mobile add the $14.99 fee instead of throttle down your speeds? I have read exceeding 5Gb is considered 'abusing' the service.

Just my 2 cents

 

[HKM]

I'm assuming anyone who goes over 5GB tethering could possible have T-Mobile add the $14.99 fee instead of throttle down your speeds? I have read exceeding 5Gb is considered 'abusing' the service.

Just my 2 cents

Considering on official TMobile forum I saw 19gb/month screenshot and another 17gb/month without any TOS with standard $19.99 unlimited data plan. So IDK they make treat it case by case who knows or they don't care, did policy change? This was just 4-5months ago.

 

[MattMJB0188]

Considering on official TMobile forum I saw 19gb/month screenshot and another 17gb/month without any TOS with standard $19.99 unlimited data plan. So IDK they make treat it case by case who knows or they don't care, did policy change? This was just 4-5months ago.

Then they're screwing themselves. Why are people gonna jump on the $14.99 tethering plan a month when you don't need it? I wonder if these people are using this much data via the hotspot or the USB cable? I'll say one thing, those that are using their phone as their main internet connection need to stop. At least as of now those of us who need to tether can do so free of charge but if heavy users keep abusing it, eventually we'll all be required to pay extra.

 

[HKM]

First of all thats Carriers way of making money extra from same bandwidth. Hence the whole bandwidth crunch BS? They sold the service claiming its unlimited then they couldn't define unlimited and stated is subjected to TOS for excessive use without clearly defining it. It wasn't until ComCRAP's fiasco they had to legally come out or face same fines by FCC. Now from what I read in that thread and man that was long thread like 7-8pages or something. The user used torrents, downloaded XXXX lol, did light tether but mostly bandwidth quota was hit by P2P.

P2P FTW always the reason you should have seen my FServ spec and stats my ISP wasn't very happy me hosting my own server and pulling 3.5TB TX bandwidth.

TMoUS has 5GB soft limit far as I know but what I am saying is as I had asked those folks if they were contacted by the Abuse team they told me no as they were never notified or given warning. Normally when you get passed there quota which I myself believe 19GB is high on mobile device. I don't think TMo simply enforced it, now if everyone keep doing this they will. I myself have never personally went over 2.5GB/month usually is at 250-500mb/month.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

First of all thats Carriers way of making money extra from same bandwidth. Hence the whole bandwidth crunch BS? They sold the service claiming its unlimited then they couldn't define unlimited and stated is subjected to TOS for excessive use without clearly defining it. It wasn't until ComCRAP's fiasco they had to legally come out or face same fines by FCC. Now from what I read in that thread and man that was long thread like 7-8pages or something. The user used torrents, downloaded XXXX lol, did light tether but mostly bandwidth quota was hit by P2P.

P2P FTW always the reason you should have seen my FServ spec and stats my ISP wasn't very happy me hosting my own server and pulling 3.5TB TX bandwidth.

TMoUS has 5GB soft limit far as I know but what I am saying is as I had asked those folks if they were contacted by the Abuse team they told me no as they were never notified or given warning. Normally when you get passed there quota which I myself believe 19GB is high on mobile device. I don't think TMo simply enforced it, now if everyone keep doing this they will. I myself have never personally went over 2.5GB/month usually is at 250-500mb/month.

LOL 7-8 pages isn't that long of a thread.

I agree with you about the monthly usage, though. Anything >10gb a month is high IMHO. I'm like you, never really used more than 2.5gb. I'm on wifi most of the time.

 

[Fusion502]

Hay guys just wanted to let ya know I just got aMyTouch 4G Feb 4. And I love this phone when I got this phone the guy asked me from tmobile, you want to get the tethering plan? I told him no because it was like 15 a month. I said I will wait. At this time I knew it already came with a wifi tethering also with usb tethering. And yes it work I used when I'm out and about and when I'm at home. But I knowist that the internet was slow.didn't think nothing of it til I did a speed text on the computer using my phone as internet. And the fastest down load I got repeating it over and over again was 1 Mb down and .55 Mb upload and average was .7 Mb and the same up load yes this is really slow for 4G internet come on my HTC HD2 with tmobile only supports 3G internet and I downloaded a app for it so I can do the wifi tethering as well. Hook up to my home computer with the HD2 I get 5Mb down and .5 upload. These both phone I own have the same plan unlimited text and web with 500 any time min"s. Ok now ill tel u what I found out! I down loaded app on the my touch 4g called something like speed test well after down loaded I tested it out and I got almost 2Mb down and .75 M upload on average doing for like 30 min"s strate. Nonstop. Now both me thinking why it was faster? Did some research and couldn't gear a good answer different people say little different things. At today time I was fed up with it messing with it for one week.but on the third day I got my phone I went to tmobile and told them what was happening the keep telling me it should be faster but they don't know why its running slow. The whole time they keep trying to style me the tethering plan for $15 more a month so I got it and wanted to try it out anyways I can always cancle they feature.they told me it should kick in on the 11 of feb which is today. And wow big improvement from 1Mb down jumped to 7-8 Mb down and 2Mb upload. All this speed testing was done at the some place in my house so has was not different places every time. Same place in my house. Also I asked tmobile were ya having problem with some towers by my house or fixing any or something. They told me no in 4 different Tmobile stores. So for me that tethering plan help me alot . I'm located at San Antonio TX.

 

[JRSIV]

My Mom and I both have MyTouch4G's. On her phone she's been using the Wi-Fi hotspot feature with her laptop for months, with no charge. Until today...

When I first fired it up for her months ago I first called T-Mo because I believed the service cost an extra $14.95 a month but was told by a quite lacadasical representative that "it's free." It's been working fine for months, no charges on her bill, etc. until today when I visited her and she showed me the pushed T-Mobile page that pops up when she tried to connect. It showed the Wi-Fi Hotspot/USB Tethering rates and links to add them to an account.:'(

Curious to see why it was free for months but now suddenly $14.95 a month i called T-Mo. I was told that the feature is included for "free" for a time but then must be subscribed to after passing a certain limit. The rep would not give me details on the threshold of this free trial; how long it lasts or how much data is allowed before being charged.

I found it kinda weird that she wouldn't provide details, just that "it's free for a period of time." I tried my phones Wi-Fi hotspot feature on my Mom's laptop and sure enouigh it works, for free. It's the first time I've ever used the feature, so there isn't some blanket change that happened. I have a feeling it's either 30 days free (total use time) or an accumulated data level that once reached causes the charges to be incurred.

I went Googling for answers but found only speculation...no iron clad details on this free trial for the Wi-Fi HotSpot feature. A data limit seems the most popular explanation...or a throttled data crunch once a limit is reached, followed by the trial disappearing. Weird how T-Mo doesn't offer a more bottom line explanation...

Either way, Mom's pissed and I've got free WiFi tethering for awhile longer...wooo!!!

BTW, she used the WiFi hotspot a lot. Tons of YouTube vid's, movie streaming, etc. Lot's of bandwidth being eaten up. So I don't think there's a data limit. I'm banking on the 30 total day trial.

 

[whataman00]

Ok, so here's what I got on the subject from a T-Mobile rep. Wifi tethering is FREE for the original T-Mobile MyTouch4g phones. He told me the issue is the hardware, not the plan. They re-made the MyTouch4g last year (2012) and designed the phone to allow them to control the tethering. That's why they didn't put any effort into making it look any different (not even the screen size). Like everything, it's all about money! :-$