tethering without the extra fee?

[jedisrus]

I just saw an article that shows a possibility of three seperate fees when it comes down to this device. 1 for voice, one for 3G/4G data, and another for 3G/4G hotspot.

Sprint needs to realize that one of the main things that kept people from leaving and going to AT&T for the iPhone was the cost of the plans. If the plan cost for owning an Evo is the same as owning an iPhone I anticipate a pretty sizable exodus from Sprint. As it stands the Evo should be like Sprint's other data intensive phones and be covered under the "Everything" plans.

 

[Brett636]

I just saw an article that shows a possibility of three seperate fees when it comes down to this device. 1 for voice, one for 3G/4G data, and another for 3G/4G hotspot.

Sprint needs to realize that one of the main things that kept people from leaving and going to AT&T for the iPhone was the cost of the plans. If the plan cost for owning an Evo is the same as owning an iPhone I anticipate a pretty sizable exodus from Sprint. As it stands the Evo should be like Sprint's other data intensive phones and be covered under the "Everything" plans.

Its all speculation right now. Until Sprint announces the plans formally than we can all guess, but not really know what Sprint is considering regarding extra fees.

You are right that if they cause the Evo's plan price to be equal to that of an iphone I will be leaving Sprint for the iphone since that is what I had planned to do up until the original Evo announcement. I am optimistic that the everything plan will include the hotspot feature, but realize that initially this may not be the case.

 

[letsgoflyers81]

Of course it is that simple..

the entire issue here is that only some folks will be using this for casual (i am on vacation and need to check maps and email)..

Then there are the others.. those folks who have been ditching cable/dsl and stealing sprint's bandwidth and setting up their home networks via tethering and downloading many many GB.. so Sprint has no option but to try to close this loophole and charge a hotspot/tethering fee...

As i pay $60/mo for an aircard (for casual use only..< 2GB/yr) I am in favour of these fees........or a restructuring of the plans.

For example...I would very happily sign up for a hard 5GB limit in exchange for no fees for tethering/hotspot.. i could ditch my aircard.

let people pay for what they use... and theft will not be necessary.

If they want to draw a line with casual usage vs heavy use, then why not charge based on the amount of data used? You said you have an aircard that you use less than 2 gigs per year. What if I use my phone and stream audio and video, on the phone itself, at 5 gigs a month. I'm using 30 times the data you are for no extra charge, so what gives? I'm not really complaining if they charge 10 or 20 bucks for the hotspot feature, but I just don't agree with it. And I still don't consider it theft if I use a tethering app which the carrier can't track. Like I said before, if I'm paying for data, who cares what device is using it. Whether it's unlimited or capped, if I pay for data and use that data, then that's really all there should be to it.

 

[RedWings]

I think a $10-$15 fee for the 'hotspot' option is more than reasonable. Opening up your phone to serve as a router to multiple devices (including PCs), is opening up the situation where A LOT of data will be used compared to someone just browsing on their phone.

 

[Fitz1015]

I would not mind paying 10 to 15 a month for the hotspot but any more would be nuts. i live in a 3g only place for the time being and using the hotspot would mean that my phone would not work. soo paying any more the 15 IMO would just be dumb.

 

[Nate#AC]

I think a $10-$15 fee for the 'hotspot' option is more than reasonable. Opening up your phone to serve as a router to multiple devices (including PCs), is opening up the situation where A LOT of data will be used compared to someone just browsing on their phone.

Then why not charge for data usage rather than a bogus "hotspot" fee?

Sprint should not care if the network traffic originates from the phone or a computer via tethering. We're paying for use of their network. If they are concerned with high bandwidth usage, then they should charge us for high bandwidth usage in general.

It's ridiculous that casual users who have no interest in abusing bandwidth would be charged $15 / month. It's also ridiculous that their phone should be crippled for these artificial charges.

 

[RedWings]

Then why not charge for data usage rather than a bogus "hotspot" fee?

Sprint should not care if the network traffic originates from the phone or a computer via tethering. We're paying for use of their network. If they are concerned with high bandwidth usage, then they should charge us for high bandwidth usage in general.

It's ridiculous that casual users who have no interest in abusing bandwidth would be charged $15 / month. It's also ridiculous that their phone should be crippled for these artificial charges.

Because the 'norm' in data/phone plans is unlimited data for one price instead of per kb used. When they came out with the everything plans they probably didn't consider having a phone that could serve as a router.