AT&T begins forced tethering plans for iPhone jailbreakers

OneMoreThing... · Aug 4, 2011

AT&T begins forced tethering plans for iPhone jailbreakers

AT&T is starting to force capped iPhone tethering plans on people with unlimited data plans who have been tethering their devices via jailbreak, accounts suggest. The carrier has held a forced switch policy for some time, but is now allegedly giving people fixed deadlines, possibly with a hard cutoff of August 11th. Under AT&T's official data plans, tethering requires paying $45 a month, and limits total data usage to 4GB before overage rates apply....

chscag · Aug 4, 2011

Looks like some "jail breakers" may be headed for Ma Bell's jail. ;P

Doug b · Aug 4, 2011

Hilarious really. ATT equates 4 gigs of data to = unlimited now eh? I really don't see how it's any of ATT's business how people use their unlimited data plans. I could perhaps see if there was a fine printed clause which stated that unlimited data was not to exceed say...10 gigs a month (just a number I'm tossing out, but still contradicts the initial term stating "unlimited") but to then force someone to pay an extra $45 for the same amount of data they've been consuming since day one, should be illegal.

It's the same crud as charging people for texting, when the protocol which sends said texts are exactly the same for any other transfer of data.

How in the world these corporations get away with stuff like this amazes me. Why isn't there a plea being made to the FCC. If there was ever a time that called for a CAL, this would be it IMHO. And believe me, I'm not a fan of frivolous law suits.

Doug

Boosted_Brian · Aug 4, 2011

Doug b said:
Hilarious really. ATT equates 4 gigs of data to = unlimited now eh? I really don't see how it's any of ATT's business how people use their unlimited data plans. I could perhaps see if there was a fine printed clause which stated that unlimited data was not to exceed say...10 gigs a month (just a number I'm tossing out, but still contradicts the initial term stating "unlimited") but to then force someone to pay an extra $45 for the same amount of data they've been consuming since day one, should be illegal.

It's the same crud as charging people for texting, when the protocol which sends said texts are exactly the same for any other transfer of data.

How in the world these corporations get away with stuff like this amazes me. Why isn't there a plea being made to the FCC. If there was ever a time that called for a CAL, this would be it IMHO. And believe me, I'm not a fan of frivolous law suits.

Doug

ATT did away with "unlimited" data a while ago. however, some people are still grandfathered into there old plans. ATT can't force the 4gb limit on customers that have their old contracts still in place. They can however force them to change to a currently offered plan at the time of renewal, or upgrade, however, to my knowledge they have not forced this issue. From what I remember, when they started the 2GB data plan, only the top 2% were going to be affected by the change. What the article is bringing to the forefront is the fact that many people who have the old iPhone plans that included unlimited data have jailbroken and used there device as a wifi hotspot. This IS in fact a violation of the original contract.

Doug b · Aug 4, 2011

Yeah, I understood that, but what I'm wondering is, how exactly do they determine who is tethering etc ? And there's also something rather fishy (IMO) concerning where it says in ones contract that doing so is a breach. You're likely asking how or why... and to that I say.. there are people who have been grandfathered in since forever. I'm guessing that a lot of these people have contracts with no such stipulation, since no such features were available at those times.

And you only ever re-sign a contract when you change something from the original contract, correct? So if that is true, then all one would have to do is look at their original contract and find that it is ATT whom may be breaching the terms/conditions. I'm sure that would never stick, however, seeing as how the little guy never wins.

Doug

baggss · Aug 5, 2011

I'm amazed at the number of people who are all up in arms about this issue. If you want to tether, do it legally and pay. If you don't want to pay, then don't tether. If you don't like the terms of the contract, don't sign it. Probably the same folks who see no issue with taping their neighbors cable TV line too...

Doug b · Aug 5, 2011

baggss said:
I'm amazed at the number of people who are all up in arms about this issue. If you want to tether, do it legally and pay. If you don't want to pay, then don't tether. If you don't like the terms of the contract, don't sign it. Probably the same folks who see no issue with taping their neighbors cable TV line too...

It wasn't a matter or question of whom is or isn't tethering legally, it was a question of how would ATT recognize such activities. And baggs, let me ask you a question. How much of the media you have on your external drives, has been obtained totally legally vs through torrent sites etc? Because I'm sure I've seen you allude to the fact that not everything you have comes from a paid for service OR from what you're ripped/burned etc.. Just sayin', stones and glass houses and all....

Doug

schweb · Aug 5, 2011

Doug b said:
It wasn't a matter or question of whom is or isn't tethering legally, it was a question of how would ATT recognize such activities.

It's actually pretty easy to tell from network logs.

Doug b · Aug 5, 2011

schweb said:
It's actually pretty easy to tell from network logs.

I had thought of such a thing, but I think it would be more evident if data usage suddenly went up significantly, and in a very short period of time at that. Judging based solely on a network log, which can show fairly general information I would think is reaching at best.

What specifically do you think such a log would tell you about the data being transferred which would indicate actual tethering? I guess I"m asking to be educated here.

Doug

schweb · Aug 5, 2011

If you think companies like AT&T and Verizon only have the technology to tell in a general sense what internet traffic is running on their network, you're really underestimating them.

It's pretty easy to tell when traffic is coming from or to an app that doesn't exist on iOS. There's of course also the volume of data.

Dysfunction · Aug 5, 2011

schweb said:
If you think companies like AT&T and Verizon only have the technology to tell in a general sense what internet traffic is running on their network, you're really underestimating them.

It's pretty easy to tell when traffic is coming from or to an app that doesn't exist on iOS. There's of course also the volume of data.

Or it's going to ports that flat out aren't used in an iOS environment. Really, none of this is significantly difficult to discern. People would really be amazed at the level of logging that exists.

Doug b · Aug 5, 2011

Ok, cool. I asked, and I got an answer that makes sense. In a way I think I already knew that, but the rebel in me just wants to fight the man! I'm more perturbed that any of these companies have the gall to say that you have an unlimited data plan, while forcing you to pay extra for a limited data connection in order to access what boils down to basically the same type of data.

Granted, mobile sites vs. non mobile sites will tax bandwidth a bit more, but significantly enough to raise the stakes as such?

Doug

baggss · Aug 5, 2011

Doug b said:
Just sayin', stones and glass houses and all....

Shatter proof and bullet proof glass....

AT&T begins forced tethering plans for iPhone jailbreakers

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