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Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps

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Re: Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps

#11

Post by nightpool »

michaelcampbell wrote: post #7
muro wrote: post #6

is there a source for the claim?

I don't know where it's coming from, but I can no longer get the market to install a couple tethering apps that I once could (US, Verizon, original Droid). I'm rooted, so it doesn't matter, but this is definitely happening.

In fact, something most forget about android, you don't even need to be rooted to still install the applications, just download them from the companies website and you can install on your own. Unless you're on AT&T, who disabled that choice on their phones.

Re: Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps

#13

Post by bane »

Tichy wrote: post #10

Tethering is built into Android from Version 2.3 (or even 2.3), no marketplace apps needed. Anyway, I don't understand what Google is supposed to do if carriers choose to disable it. Maybe customers should be looking into other carriers if they don't like the way their carriers conduct business.

Any US carriers with good national coverage you can recommend?

Re: Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps

#18

Post by ctoneal »

RexRollman wrote: post #16

Can someone explain why the carriers even care? Bandwidth is bandwidth; isn't it?

I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that the networks don't have the capacity to handle as much as they say they do. Add on to that that someone on a laptop is probably going to eat up more data. Multitasking is easier (I generally only look at one page at a time on my phone, but I might have five tabs loading on my laptop at any given time), and there are more applications available that can chew through a connection (MMOs, torrenting, etc).

Re: Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps

#19

Post by michaelcampbell »

nightpool wrote: post #11
michaelcampbell wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know where it's coming from, but I can no longer get the market to install a couple tethering apps that I once could (US, Verizon, original Droid). I'm rooted, so it doesn't matter, but this is definitely happening.

In fact, something most forget about android, you don't even need to be rooted to still install the applications, just download them from the companies website and you can install on your own. Unless you're on AT&T, who disabled that choice on their phones.

That's true, but this article is specifically about the Android market limiting access, and I was reporting my experience with it.

Re: Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps

#20

Post by hammock »

JonnieCache wrote: post #2

The Galaxy S goes beyond tethering and has a Mobile AP feature which just turns the phone into a wifi access point that runs NAT in front of the 3g modem. People I know who still have 'unlimited' data plans have used this for weeks to provide internet to their whole household in the absence of working cable. I assume this feature is removed in the US carrier-modified firmware builds?

You say that like it's a bad thing.
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