AT&T is fighting the “evils” of unofficial tethering. Verizon is doing the same. But who’s fighting for your right to party tether?!? That would be a nonprofit group called Free Press. Both AT&T and Verizon left the 700MHz auction with huge chunks of spectrum. Verizon has been using that spectrum for its 4G LTE network. Free Press believes that Verizon charging additional fees for tethering and blocking third-party tethering apps violates the FCC’s auction rules.
The organization lodged a complaint with the FCC, calling out Verizon for not allowing third-party tethering on its LTE phones. Verizon replied that it didn’t do any blocking; it merely “suggested” to Google that third-party tethering apps should be unavailable to its LTE phones through Android Market. In a press release addressing Verizon’s (almost funny) response, Free Press policy director Matt Wood said:
Verizon Wireless essentially claims that subscribers who use tethering apps are stealing service, but this argument is as ridiculous as it is offensive. When users buy wireless data service — whether capped or unlimited — they should be free to decide how they use that data. Verizon would rather call tethering a separate service and require its subscribers to pay twice for the same data. But under that warped view, what’s to stop a carrier from deciding that instant messaging or streaming video applications compete with the carrier’s own services, and consequently blocking subscribers from accessing these applications?
The good news is that Free Press is correct. The 700MHz spectrum is supposed to be “open”. The bad news is that the definition of open was bastardized by corporate lawyers and lobbyists. While blocking tethering solutions violates the auction in human terms, intentional vagueness and convenient loopholes will almost definitely allow Verizon to keep blocking unofficial tethering solutions.
I love that Free Press is fighting the fight against American mobile carriers. It is completely ridiculous that the same data gets handled and charged for in different ways. While I somewhat understand the need to reign in unlimited customers, double dipping on a tiered data system is a total scam.
Between outmoded data caps, silly throttling, data discrimination, and dumb tethering rules, it’s almost as if the carriers don’t want mobile broadband to truly evolve. Oh wait, they’re all afraid of becoming dumb pipes….
That is why I won't buy the tethering package. I pay $30/mo for my unlimited data. For tethering it is $50 on top of that and then my entire data package is then limited to 5Gb per month and I am paying $80. Doesn't seem very fair to me. I would gladly pay a TOTAL of $50 for tethering if they left it at my uncapped package.
Don't you have to give up unlimited data to get the tethering package on AT&T? Or is that not right?
Yes and no. I used to buy tethering. They LET me keep my unlimited plan and pay $30/month and to use tethering I had to pay an extra $50/month. Once you sign up for the tethering you are then LIMITED to just 5GB of data usage per month. It is $10 per Gb over 5.
Needless to say when I realized it was $50 on top of my $30 I cancelled tethering and was able to just go back to my unlimited data usage for $30/month and now "illegal" tethering.
Like I said I wouldn't mind paying it but it is so outrageously priced.