Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps

thisismynext.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 73 posts

Re: Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps

#51

Post by bitwize »

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?

Probably Judaism.

Seriously, I think the Jews invented the wiki: consider the form and structure of the rabbinical commentary on their holy texts, very wiki-like in form and purpose. Of course ordinary believers couldn't "edit" it...

Re: Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps

#52

Post by msravi »

arron61 wrote: post #47

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…

Which TOS are you referring to? The Android Marketplace TOS? Could you please point to the section of the TOS that mentions this? I find it very strange that the marketplace would be concerned about an application's bandwidth usage.

Re: Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps

#54

Post by nuclear_eclipse »

sp332 wrote: post #8
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?

Yeah, I did that on Verizon one time when our DSL went out for a few days. I got a bill for $700 in overages. Sprint is better, it's about $30/mo. for unlimited (yes, actually unlimited) tethering.

T-Mobile is even better by giving you free tethering on any mobile data plan, and afaik they don't restrict Android firmwares to remove the tethering and wifi hotspot options. I've been using the tethering on my android phones for almost two years and never had to pay anything beyond the standard data plan.

Re: Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps

#55

Post by hnsmurf »

broknbottle wrote: post #38
hnsmurf wrote: post #35

I'm not sure this matters much. To use one of these apps you have to root your phone. Anyone who knows to do that knows you can sideload apks. Average consumers, who don't have the slightest clue what rooting is or why they'd want to do it, just use the tethering app installed by the carrier, or nothing at all.

this isnt exactly true. I just purchased the Optimus V for use on virgin mobile and all I need to download from the market was an app called quick settings. I was than able to tether w/o even needing to be rooted

How is that possible? Was it USB tethering or something?

Re: Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps

#56

Post by Someone »

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?

Lots of forks, as in Protestant churches (http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bestand:Gereformeerd.svg really starts to look like a history of Unix)

Of these http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mennonite_Church_in_the_Netherl... probably would be popular; every church member writes his own confession when joining the church.

Re: Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps

#57

Post by gamble »

nuclear_eclipse wrote: post #54
sp332 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I did that on Verizon one time when our DSL went out for a few days. I got a bill for $700 in overages. Sprint is better, it's about $30/mo. for unlimited (yes, actually unlimited) tethering.

T-Mobile is even better by giving you free tethering on any mobile data plan, and afaik they don't restrict Android firmwares to remove the tethering and wifi hotspot options. I've been using the tethering on my android phones for almost two years and never had to pay anything beyond the standard data plan.

You can tell when a cell phone provider is in desperate straits - they're forced to please customers, instead of screwing them out of every last penny.

I don't expect these policies to survive a merger with AT&T.

Re: Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps

#58

Post by nuclear_eclipse »

gamble wrote: post #57
nuclear_eclipse wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

T-Mobile is even better by giving you free tethering on any mobile data plan, and afaik they don't restrict Android firmwares to remove the tethering and wifi hotspot options. I've been using the tethering on my android phones for almost two years and never had to pay anything beyond the standard data plan.

You can tell when a cell phone provider is in desperate straits - they're forced to please customers, instead of screwing them out of every last penny. I don't expect these policies to survive a merger with AT&T.

sadly, neither do I. T-Mobile was the only carrier in the US that actually operated like a European carrier. They had no problem selling you just a sim card, would charge you a lower monthly fee for buying your phone upfront and/or providing your own....

Re: Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps

#59

Post by nooneelse »

tzs wrote: post #44
TillE wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

It would be great to have the networks offer service to devices in small units of time, and have the phone decide which plan on offer to go with automatically based on the user's preferences, then we could have an efficient market for this resource. But entrenched companies seldom like playing in an well functioning market when they can be rent collectors instead.

Re: Google plays ball with carriers to kill tethering apps

#60

Post by guelo »

dspillett wrote: post #39
guelo wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real reason is that for years they have overcharged corporate customers for tethering plans and they don't want to lose that revenue. Same reason why sms is so expensive per GB, basically because they can.

Actually while SMS messages are overcharged for, especially messages that pass between international boundaries, on pre 3G networks they are far more of a burden on the network than you would imagine which means the networks have a vested interesting in keeps the numbers being sent down a little. See http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/10/sms_denialofse... for some details on a theoretical DoS attack based on…

Thanks for the details but I think it backs up my contention, as the networks are all upgraded the companies are trying to maintain the old sms prices without technical justification.
Post reply on HN