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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

#41

Post by kevko »

ben1040 wrote: post #29

This isn't that new; PDANet has been blocked on AT&T in this manner for at least a year (from my experience having tried to download it when I first got an N1). Searching for it in the Market yielded nothing when an AT&T SIM was in the phone. On my N1 the easy solution to the block was just to power down the phone, pull the SIM, then access the market over wifi. All those carrier blocked apps suddenly reappeared. I d…

Putting the phone in airplane mode and turning on Wifi mode also effects the same behavior on many Android phones from AT&T. This would probably work for your Nexus, too.

Re: Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps

#42

Post by shrikant »

seabee wrote: post #27
StavrosK wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Desire HD does that as well, as do most (all?) other Android mobiles I've seen in Greece. However, we don't have unlimited data plans, we only have ones that cost 0.10 cents (yes, cents, apparently) per megabyte for overage.

€1 per gigabyte is pretty reasonable as overage charges go...

Only for reasonably numerate folks.

See http://verizonmath.blogspot.com/2006/12/verizon-doesnt-know-... for a related horror story (Verizon and USA, but the basic point holds - you should understand what they really mean, and logic/reason holds no relevance!)

Re: Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps

#43

Post by kevko »

muro wrote: post #6

is there a source for the claim?

I wrote one of the (non-root, virtual network-adapter based) apps like PdaNet, and I can say that a number of people on VZW have reported this. I wonder what would happen if my app were one day open-sourced so that anyone could publish an apk to the market in 15 minutes...

Re: Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps

#44

Post by tzs »

TillE wrote: post #34
hammock wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Combination of two factors. A) the obvious one, that they are overselling their network capacity; and B) that given A, it is much better to reclaim bandwidth by fucking over the 0.1% of tetherers by discriminating against them at the margin than it is to fuck over 100% of normal users by throttling/changing pricing plans/etc. The carriers have put themselves into a corner where they have to make someone unhappy. All…

> they are overselling their network capacity Seriously? Two lousy gigabytes a month is "overselling"? That's, say, three hours at 200KB/s. Per month. I find that difficult to believe, except in the very most crowded areas.

Oh man, imagine the consumer confusion if they tried to tier data prices by how crowded your area is. So, someone in the middle of nowhere gets cheap data, but someone in a crowded area does not. Now in addition to voice roaming, we'd have to worry about data roaming as we move around between city, suburbs, and rural areas.

Re: Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps

#45

Post by tzs »

napierzaza wrote: post #9

Looks like Google is becoming more and more closed as the day goes on. Where is your open-source god now?

> Where is your open-source god now?

OT, but that raises an interesting question. Could you have an open source god? What would a religion be like if its holy texts were a wiki, that any believer could edit?

Re: Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps

#46

Post by tzs »

RexRollman wrote: post #16

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

People use bandwidth differently depending on how they access it. Carriers design their networks and plans around the use patterns associated with particular access methods. Tethering is a difference access method, with different usage patterns, and so may not fit in well with a particular carrier's system.

Re: Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps

#47

Post by arron61 »

Why is this even a surprise? Why is everyone saying it's an open vs close issue? The TOS clearly states that apps that utilize high bandwidth is a violation. Google hasn't enforced this strongly but it is against their TOS. It's the same as in Google banning porn-related material. This is not anything special.

Of course Gruber jumps on the course saying it's against their open nature, but please, at least most users (besides some AT&T handsets) can still go and just install the app from a website.

Re: Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps

#48

Post by wmf »

sp_ wrote: post #40
PetrolMan wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't had any charges on T-Mobile as of yet. That being said I've only used the hotspot and tethering a handful of times so I may not have hit some unforeseen limit.

Tethering on T-Mobile is free. I don't have cable/DSL at home. Rather, I tether through my T-Mobile cell phone exclusively. Word on the street (T-Mobile forums) is that there is a 5 GB soft cap on data. Once you hit it, you are dropped to Edge speeds. Last month I went over 5 GB for the first time (5.5 GB) but speeds were not dropped.

No, it's definitely not free: http://forums.t-mobile.com/t5/myTouch-3G-Slide/T-Mobile-crac...

Re: Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps

#49

Post by msg »

tzs wrote: post #45
napierzaza wrote: post #9

Looks like Google is becoming more and more closed as the day goes on. Where is your open-source god now?

> Where is your open-source god now? OT, but that raises an interesting question. Could you have an open source god? What would a religion be like if its holy texts were a wiki, that any believer could edit?

New Age?

Unitarian Universalist?

Not trying to be rude, these are merely the most obvious cases that mold themselves to the believer's opinion. Also, observe the syncretism of Buddhism in different regions.

Re: Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps

#50

Post by technomancy »

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?

Yet another reason you have to be crazy to buy a phone with carrier firmware.
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