40 GB is not really that much in the scheme of things. I have seen users that blow past me and often reach over 300GB a month on unlimited data! I mainly get my usage from iHeartRadio / Pandora. I use those apps everyday and just about all day! Whether it be in the car, at school, at work, at home I always love to have music playing in the background! Not to mention my WiFi network at home sucks! Bright House networks is a downright rip off so I tend to only use it when necessary and thats mostly just for syncing DoubleTwist.
On the topic of tethering without a tethering plan, I will admit I do it BUT after the latest ruling from the FCC I no longer feel it as being wrong or illegal because the FCC clearly said that Verizon could not block any apps and that it was legal to tether on the 4G LTE spectrum. Even on CNET they said it is now ok to download an app like FoxFi (and use it) and not face issues from Verizon due to this ruling, even if you are still on the old unlimited plans. I still only resort to using apps like FoxFi when absolutely necessary. Like today when my school's wifi network went down and our small class of around 10 people HAD to have the internet to finish a project. I was able to fire up FoxFi and we were online and we were able to finish our projects which were due at the end of today, no excuses!
My usage will really spike in the next few months with hunting season starting. I expect it to spike just like last year with over 90gb or more of usage. But when you consider the circumstances it is justified! I will have online school work due (research projects, video projects, etc), a few collaboration based assignments with other students from my school, watching Netflix 24/7 (There is no cable in the middle of the woods but strangely enough there is 4 bars of 4G LTE) and I will be forced to tether to my computer to keep up with every day things such as managing my websites, social media (Android's Facebook app is a joke), perfecting a few FCPX projects with my group of friends (we get paid for editing videos, etc and trying to do this collaboratively requires a lot of bandwidth! )
Overall, I think the Verizon Sales Rep at my local store said it spot on, "You definetly know how to take advantage of your device and use it to its potential." You should of seen the look on her face when she was trying to sell me into the share everything plan and she did the account analysis to find I average 40Gb a month! Let's just say she never mentioned the share everything plan again.
***Update*****
I just read further into the report published by CNet and it says that if you are under the old unlimited 4G plans you would still have to pay for tethering but honestly, I haven't seen anyone else get in trouble and it would probably be more work than it is worth for them to track users down and prosecute them. Not to mention I'm sure a lawyer could tear up the terms of service without any problems. I've heard of others doing it when put in a bind and they were easily able to find loopholes out of their predicament.
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