[ShackDiesel]

So I recently purchased Tether when it was on sale. I set everything up and it is working very well.

I closely monitor my tether stats (data sent/received etc...) as I am surfing the web since I have heard that you need to use it in moderation.

My question is... what is considered moderation or acceptable usage. I have an unlimited data plan with VZW but I heard that there is an unwritten cap of 5 GB. Should I be stopping with tether once I hit 5 GB sent or received? How does that work?

Also, does that 5 GB fall in a certain time frame? Does all memory sent or receive reset with tether and you can start fresh?

Can someone who has used tether frequently with no issues please weigh in and let me know??

Thanks!

[FF22]

There are a number of tether threads. Tether most likely violates your service agreement with Verizon. No one can definitively answer but suddenly ramping up your data use to the "threshold" of 5gigs might look mighty suspicious. Going over might really arouse suspicion. Legitimate use of data without tether supposedly has no limits.

[SCrid2000]

I think the general rule is just be careful; if you used 100mb for 6 months, and all of a sudden go up to 5gb, they might be suspicious.
I was told by a Sprint customer service app that it wouldn't work, when I told him it did he said "well... there's no way we can tell, so just don't use it too much" lol.
Ultimately, tether is way slower than wifi so I usually don't even bother with it.
BTW, facebook is a HUGE data drain. Just so you know.

[trjnberry]

So I recently purchased Tether when it was on sale. I set everything up and it is working very well.

I closely monitor my tether stats (data sent/received etc...) as I am surfing the web since I have heard that you need to use it in moderation.

My question is... what is considered moderation or acceptable usage. I have an unlimited data plan with VZW but I heard that there is an unwritten cap of 5 GB. Should I be stopping with tether once I hit 5 GB sent or received? How does that work?

Also, does that 5 GB fall in a certain time frame? Does all memory sent or receive reset with tether and you can start fresh?

Can someone who has used tether frequently with no issues please weigh in and let me know??

Thanks!

Per your PM, let me shed some light on this issue. If you read your Verizon TOS, streaming audio and video is not allowed, either. So, do we conclude that Pandora and YouTube are violations of our TOS because they have streaming audio or video? I haven't heard of anybody getting their service terminated because they used Pandora or YouTube. Nor have I have heard any major news of Tether users getting their service terminated for using Tether. Compare that to Napster and Kazaa, which both got shut down for their promotion of music piracy. Last year at this time in this forum, there was a BlackBerry TV app that showed network TV channels on your BB, which got shut down within a few months for copyright infringement by the TV networks. Tether has been around for several years and is often promoted on CrackBerry, and yet, no news of Verizon suing the developer to stop selling it or disciplining their network users for using the app. That lack of enforcement by Verizon would suggest that there is some form of acceptable use, but they don't want to specify that acceptable use in a legal contract.

So, what then would be acceptable usage?

My guess would be limited usage. My account resets in 3 days and I used Tether for 10 days this month, and my data usage for the entire month to this point, including YouTube, Pandora, Podtrapper, browsing, and Tether, is only 1.28 GB. Depending on what data intensive sites I go to or how long I am connected, my Tether sessions have run as low as 5 MB to as high as 80 MB. So, if I used Tether every day every month, I'd likely run as high 2.6 GB a month, per my current usage of the app. I just signed up for VCast Videos, so I can watch full episodes of many of favorite shows via my phone, so I don't need to use Tether any longer to go video. That may reduce my overall usage, too. Data doesn't count when using VCast Videos. I would just use Tether like using Pandora or YouTube... don't leave phone connected to internet all day or all night.

[Jaji_vzw8330]

I had a trial of VZW's tethering service and that has a 5 gig cap that I used up in less than 2 weeks. I believe the 5 GB is referring to VZW's tethering service. With that, I got a text message from VZW when I hit the 2.5 mark. With tether, I have gone well over 5 gigs, downloaded movies and all and have had no problems. I guess you should be careful and monitor usage (done easily via My Verizon) but I haven't had a problem despite going well over 5 gigs multiple times.