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Let my Wi-Fi go: FCC rules Verizon can't charge for Wi-Fi tethering

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Re: Let my Wi-Fi go: FCC rules Verizon can't charge for Wi-Fi tethering

#91

Post by HotKFreshSwag »

nilsbunger wrote: post #59
tkahn6 wrote: post #28

This is a no-brainer. As others have pointed out, this is a wholly artificial fee. You still have to pay for the data. They're just charging you for how you access the data. Basically it's extortion. Here's something that congress should do. Telecom companies are government-granted monopolies. Why not acknowledge that it's already not a free market situation and cap the profit margin that these companies are allowed…

They do it to segment their customers. A lot of us startups do it too when we offer one plan for $9 per month, another for $19 per month. The delta isn't necessarily because our costs are different, but rather because the value to the consumer is different. You could argue that cellular networks should only be allowed to be dumb pipes because they are a government-granted monopoly (of spectrum). That would put them i…

On the other hand high bandwidth prices slow down adoption, usage and evolution for all other industries which uses these telecom services. The rest of the economy is held back by these prices.

I would argue that the benefits of low bandwidth prices for the rest of the economy outweighs the benefits from the current telecom profits.

Re: Let my Wi-Fi go: FCC rules Verizon can't charge for Wi-Fi tethering

#92

Post by praxulus »

ceras wrote: post #79
Ixiaus wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Verizon is ending the grandfathered in unlimited plans though... (can't find the press release ATM)

Only if you buy a new phone through Verizon, I think. If you keep your existing phone, you'll still have an unlimited plan indefinitely.

I believe you can buy a phone elsewhere and maintain your plan too. It's the contract renewal that happens when you get a subsidized phone that will remove your unlimited data.

Re: Let my Wi-Fi go: FCC rules Verizon can't charge for Wi-Fi tethering

#93

Post by ben1040 »

ceras wrote: post #79
Ixiaus wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Verizon is ending the grandfathered in unlimited plans though... (can't find the press release ATM)

Only if you buy a new phone through Verizon, I think. If you keep your existing phone, you'll still have an unlimited plan indefinitely.

You can buy one at full retail price through Verizon and keep unlimited, but there's no point in that when you could buy used off eBay/Craigslist and save relative to the $650 off-contract price.

Re: Let my Wi-Fi go: FCC rules Verizon can't charge for Wi-Fi tethering

#94

Post by melvinram »

praxulus wrote: post #92
ceras wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if you buy a new phone through Verizon, I think. If you keep your existing phone, you'll still have an unlimited plan indefinitely.

I believe you can buy a phone elsewhere and maintain your plan too. It's the contract renewal that happens when you get a subsidized phone that will remove your unlimited data.

I don't remember the source on this but I believe that will only be true for 3G access plans. To use it with a 4G device, you'll need to upgrade your data plan and that means that you'll need to agree to the new terms.

Re: Let my Wi-Fi go: FCC rules Verizon can't charge for Wi-Fi tethering

#95

Post by degenerate »

This is so funny. I just moved into my new place today; downloaded a tethering android application and got online by tethering through my Verizon phone. First website I open? HN. First article I see (on top)? This one. The point is that I wasn't quite sure if I would be charged for this or not -- guess not!

Re: Let my Wi-Fi go: FCC rules Verizon can't charge for Wi-Fi tethering

#96

Post by tedunangst »

Steko wrote: post #64
paul9290 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess this is nice to see, but with Verizon's new data plans they are eager for you to use as much bandwidth as possible. Thankfully and at the moment there are carriers that provide unlimited data like Sprint. We need more of them!

Doesn't Sprint also throttle you over a certain GB limit? I have a hard time deciding if I want unlimited or not. I certainly don't need unlimited. I know there are people who use 50-100+ GB a month but I don't come anywhere near that and don't want to subsidize those people. I'm perfectly fine with a per GB charge or a decent sized base plan and a reasonable per GB overage. OTOH those caps need to grow every year be…

I had a Sprint 4G hotspot with unlimited data. Until one month they decided to change my plan to 5GB with big overage charges. They "announced" this change by slipping a notice in the PDF ebills I never once downloaded. After $200 in overage charges (which I disputed for hours, only to be repeatedly told I was given "valid" notice) I cancelled the service. Fuck Sprint.

I should mention this occurred right at the same time they were making a big advertising push about how their unlimited data plans were truly unlimited. The fine print was that only phones got unlimited data. Hotspots and other data devices were pushed onto a limited plan even if you started out unlimited. Fuck Sprint some more.

Re: Let my Wi-Fi go: FCC rules Verizon can't charge for Wi-Fi tethering

#97

Post by noonespecial »

beambot wrote: post #74
paul9290 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess this is nice to see, but with Verizon's new data plans they are eager for you to use as much bandwidth as possible. Thankfully and at the moment there are carriers that provide unlimited data like Sprint. We need more of them!

Doesn't Sprint charge for tethering too? (I currently have a Sprint plan. I'm pretty sure that it's unlimited data, but they don't allow tethering without paying extra fees or rooting your device.)

On my plan, not only do I have to pay for tethering on my "unlimited" plan, I am also limited to 3 or 5 gig of tethered data depending on how much I pay for tethering! The data on the phone is unlimited, tethered data is not.

That's a hell of a rent-seek for "-j MASQUERADE" at the bottom of it all. Sigh. jailbreak. This sure is going to seem quaint to our kids.

Re: Let my Wi-Fi go: FCC rules Verizon can't charge for Wi-Fi tethering

#98

Post by nl »

huxley wrote: post #78
ars wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Um, they didn't? What are you talking about?

Yes they certainly did: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/08/google-verizon-netneut...

You'll note that document is divided into Good, Interesting, Troubling and Fail sections.

It certainly is less than ideal, but I guess that is true of most compromises.

Re: Let my Wi-Fi go: FCC rules Verizon can't charge for Wi-Fi tethering

#99

Post by panthera »

Thank god the government is here to tell private companies what they can and cannot do. The FCC spent $336M of your money last year on such activities.

> During the last two decades, the FCC has manufactured the idea that the electromagnetic spectrum used by wireless devices is scarce. Spectrum auctions became another way to restrain trade. Deep pocket operators, like AT&T and Verizon Wireless, overbid for spectrum and then pass along high costs to the consumer in the form of $40 monthly fees and cryptic calling plans. It's a longer conversation, but with the right network architecture, smart devices can be programmed to share huge swaths of spectrum without interfering with other users. If we do it with Wi-Fi for data, we can certainly do it for phone calls.

online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704594804575649141727853232.html

Re: Let my Wi-Fi go: FCC rules Verizon can't charge for Wi-Fi tethering

#100

Post by pasbesoin »

thetabyte wrote: post #51

While this is wondeful, ZDNet misses something huge picked up on Ars. "The FCC concedes that Verizon may charge $20 per month for customers who retain grandfathered unlimited data plans." http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/07/tethering-apps-must-b... So I won't be benefitting from this. The most ridiculous, bullshit part of all of this is that unlimited plans aren't unlimited anyway . They have "Fair Access Policy"…

Neither did they require Verizon to refund collected fees. Since this was apparently a clear violation of the licensing agreement (i.e. it was never "correct" or "permitted" under that agreement), I'd argue the FCC should have made them make the affected consumers whole.

Now that might have sent a significant message with respect to ending this kind of bullshit, and to deliberately -- I'd argue, maliciously -- pushing the limits of what they can get away with.

I don't know how many users actually knuckled under to these fees. But even it it didn't represent an enormous amount of revenue, refunding it would have been a nice exercise for their management and administration to undergo. (I don't care how much of a "hassle" it might cause them.)

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