[Slashdpc]

Greetings Crackberry forum denizens,

At my company, I am about to cancel an employee's air card and upgrade him to a Blackberry Bold so he can tether on the 3G network, and save us money at the same time. Now, we all know you really don't need the tethering plan on AT&T to tether, however that specific plan that does allow you to legitimately tether state a 5gb data cap vs the normal $30 data plan which says "unlimited data" as scene on their website, tinyurl.com/d6n4am


So is the "unlimited data" really unlimited or is there a hidden 5gb cap?

[fabuloso]

Just a few threads to help you out:

TetherBerry
http://forums.crackberry.com/f134/tetherberry-168026/
http://forums.crackberry.com/f121/te...rberry-176668/
http://forums.crackberry.com/f83/tetherberry-186745/
http://forums.crackberry.com/f116/un...imited-180850/

Blackberry Bold as a modem
http://forums.crackberry.com/f83/bla...ervice-139863/

[heavylee]

The unlimited data plan is unlimited; the tethering plan is 5GBs total (of tethering and data).

[Apollon_CB]

It isn't really unlimited because one month I had reached 5GB of data w/o tethering and AT&T just called me to warn me about my data usage. My bill came to 5347737 KB which is approximately 5.1GB.

[papped]

Yeah they will get on your case if you exceed 5gb. Tons of people like to say it only applies to wireless card plans, but that's BS for pretty much any carrier.

Any carrier gets wary if you start exceeding 5gb and they can charge you overages or terminate the account eventually...

[centerfield]

Now, we all know you really don't need the tethering plan on AT&T to tether, ...

You don't need a tethering plan to tether as long as you are OK with theft of services.

In which case I'm sure you wouldn't mind if someone stole your phone. Or didn't pay you for whatever goods or services you sell in your business.

Here's an idea - you can advertise your business like this:

"We save YOU money because we steal telecommunications from ATT and then pass the savings on to YOU."

[blak8830]

AT&T's terms of service explicitly forbid tethering unless you've got a tethering plan:
" Furthermore, plans(unless specifically designated for tethering usage) cannot be used for any applications that tether the device (through use of, including without limitation, connection kits, other phone/PDA-to computer accessories, Bluetooth� or any other wireless technology) to Personal Computers (including without limitation, laptops), or other equipment for any purpose."

Don't know if/how they monitor or can tell - but looks like it's tether at your own risk.....

[heavylee]

Yeah they will get on your case if you exceed 5gb. Tons of people like to say it only applies to wireless card plans, but that's BS for pretty much any carrier.

Any carrier gets wary if you start exceeding 5gb and they can charge you overages or terminate the account eventually...

They will get on your case, but do they charge you for it?

[papped]

They will get on your case, but do they charge you for it?

They certainly can and say they will. Now if they actually do it depends. It could take multiple offenses, or they might just boot you. Who knows. They have it in writing that they can charge you overages above this limit.

Consequences (and benefits) never tend to be set in stone with cell carriers.

[dougherj]

You don't need a tethering plan to tether as long as you are OK with theft of services.

In which case I'm sure you wouldn't mind if someone stole your phone. Or didn't pay you for whatever goods or services you sell in your business.

Here's an idea - you can advertise your business like this:

"We save YOU money because we steal telecommunications from ATT and then pass the savings on to YOU."

This is the 2nd harsh response that I have seen from you on people attempting to tether. So how long have you worked for AT&T. Your moral outrage doesn't seem to have a problem with their cavalier use of the word "unlimited". Here's the definition of "unlimited", 'stolen' from the Merriam-Webster site.

1 : lacking any controls : unrestricted <unlimited access>
2 : boundless, infinite <unlimited possibilities>
3 : not bounded by exceptions : undefined <the unlimited and unconditional surrender of the enemy � Sir Winston Churchill>

Not bounded by exceptions? I don't see the tethering exception in that definition. Infinite is not equal to 5GB.

Please do not bother to respond with the nonsense about their TOS. They changed them to address tethering. Many like myself joined in good faith long before this convenient redefinition of 'unlimited'. I would incur significant switching losses and costs to change carriers, an oligopoly worse than the oil companies.

If they have a suggestion box (there's a dated concept) there at AT&T, man up and suggest that they honor their promise of unlimited data access or stop the shameless and lying practice of using this word in their advertising (can't do that - might hurt sales). Basically, suggest that they stop chiseling their customers.

[Asturcon]

And, as far as I know, one mega of data is the same if you use it on your blackberry or you tether it with your laptop. Why then do we have to pay more for using, for example, 5G with our bb tethering with our laptop than using them with our bb only ???

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[TgeekB]

This is the 2nd harsh response that I have seen from you on people attempting to tether. So how long have you worked for AT&T. Your moral outrage doesn't seem to have a problem with their cavalier use of the word "unlimited". Here's the definition of "unlimited", 'stolen' from the Merriam-Webster site.

1 : lacking any controls : unrestricted <unlimited access>
2 : boundless, infinite <unlimited possibilities>
3 : not bounded by exceptions : undefined <the unlimited and unconditional surrender of the enemy � Sir Winston Churchill>

Not bounded by exceptions? I don't see the tethering exception in that definition. Infinite is not equal to 5GB.

Please do not bother to respond with the nonsense about their TOS. They changed them to address tethering. Many like myself joined in good faith long before this convenient redefinition of 'unlimited'. I would incur significant switching losses and costs to change carriers, an oligopoly worse than the oil companies.

If they have a suggestion box (there's a dated concept) there at AT&T, man up and suggest that they honor their promise of unlimited data access or stop the shameless and lying practice of using this word in their advertising (can't do that - might hurt sales). Basically, suggest that they stop chiseling their customers.

Sorry to disagree, but attempting to deflect blame does not make something right.

[xobrian]

And, as far as I know, one mega of data is the same if you use it on your blackberry or you tether it with your laptop. Why then do we have to pay more for using, for example, 5G with our bb tethering with our laptop than using them with our bb only ???

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

It is because they know that when tethering you can chew up data much faster with a laptop than with your blackberry. You average blackberry user might use 20MB or less per month (yes there are some that use a lot more and some that use less too though) but your average cell card probably uses several GB.

[Chaldo]

Pulled that on my BOLD on AT&T No problem at ALL with that tethering thing.

Did some on speak easy, got 2.16 mb down, 355 up. Not bad at all.

[matte119]

The 5GB cap was put in place because 99% of the customers using data cards and tethering were only using around 2 to 3 GBs per month. Abusers were using aircards and tethering to download movies, music, gaming and all other things that a home internet service is meant to handle. It's too expensive to handle this amount of traffic on the network. And when people use that much it degrades the service quality for everyone else. Now that's not to say that it won't be better in the future, but for right now just understand that the cap is meant to make things better for the other 99% of the customers that were getting screwed by the abusers.

[iHoop#CB]

not unlimited

[pacosdog]

unlimited should be just that unlimited not unlimited until you reach 5gb

[rubyblood]

ok the plan is unlimited for bb use only tethering without the tethering package could make your bill grow/get ur services temporarly disabled. ive talked to many people that did it without a package and got charged pay per use for kb they used tethering it is monitored and they can tell the differenece between using it on your phone and using it on your computer the reason for the extra charge is the bandwith for the device is small for the computer is too large if everyone tethered on the 30 plan the network would explode.

[juergen99]

I am on Verizon with a Berry but a buddy of mine has an Iphone on AT&T (of course). He just got an e-mail from AT&T today stating that he is using too much data while roaming. It mentioned 24 megabytes. I don't recall the exact wording. He spends 2 or 3 days a month out of town roaming but really only uses the browser (no streaming). It wasn't quite clear what he was supposed to do but it sounded like a warning. I'll see if I can get him to forward it to me. This is far from unlimited or even 5GB for that matter. I think the roaming is the issue. Is there yet another hidden limit now for roaming data

[papped]

I am on Verizon with a Berry but a buddy of mine has an Iphone on AT&T (of course). He just got an e-mail from AT&T today stating that he is using too much data while roaming. It mentioned 24 megabytes. I don't recall the exact wording. He spends 2 or 3 days a month out of town roaming but really only uses the browser (no streaming). It wasn't quite clear what he was supposed to do but it sounded like a warning. I'll see if I can get him to forward it to me. This is far from unlimited or even 5GB for that matter. I think the roaming is the issue. Is there yet another hidden limit now for roaming data

This isn't new either. For a long time, people were "getting out" of contracts by forcing roaming and using large amounts of data (this goes for multiple carriers).

Also the 5gb cap isn't going to apply to roaming data. 5gb roaming in 1 month is ridiculous and you would practically have to try to do that to accomplish it.

[Craig_C]

If you are so unhappy with ATT's "unlimited" data then switch carriers. Nobody is forcing you to stay with ATT. I believe T-mobile offers tethering with their plans. I'm not sure if/what the cap is though.

[Zach7]

So is it still unlimited or is it 5GB? Thanks.

[Asturcon]

It is 5Gb limit. Less if you are roaming.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Traconesu02]

You don't need a tethering plan to tether as long as you are OK with theft of services.

In which case I'm sure you wouldn't mind if someone stole your phone. Or didn't pay you for whatever goods or services you sell in your business.

Here's an idea - you can advertise your business like this:

"We save YOU money because we steal telecommunications from ATT and then pass the savings on to YOU."

If you data plan states you are limited to 5g and you do not have to worry about ever going over that limit then they should simply block you once your 5g limit is reached. It does not matter if you get your 5g by using your phone or your computer through your phone as long as you stay under your agreed 5g. I do not feel this is stealing because you have paid for that 5g of data regardless of how you got it. It should be up to the provider to limit you to the 5g if that is there upper limit.

[Artemis68]

If you're worried about things being "unlimited" you can always switch carriers.

I'm with T-Mobile and their data includes tethering and is pretty much unlimited. The cap is at 10GB but I haven't heard of them enforcing it...and they def won't charge you for more if you reach that, they would just slow your service but again, I haven't heard much abou that.

I'm not trying to bash AT&T here, I'm just saying that there are options out there for people who use more than 5GB of data and want to tether.