Are Some Jailbreakers Losing Their Unlimited Data Plans from AT&T?

[mmaboi21]

I received the text today(8/23) only i have the 2gb plan... i thought this only occurred to unlimited data people... Has this happened to anyone else who has the 2gb plan?

[DSR500cr]

I received the text today(8/23) only i have the 2gb plan... i thought this only occurred to unlimited data people... Has this happened to anyone else who has the 2gb plan?

If you have MyWi installed on you're device you need to restore it with iTunes. Even if you delete MyWi it is not enough to keep you
" out of trouble " you must restore.
Hope this helps you...

[i.Annie]

I don't think a restore is necessary.

I've heard of some other people get the notification even when they are on the 2GB data plan. I find it odd that they would do that ... it's silly IMO.

[mmaboi21]

Yah thanks for the advice but if I do restore I'd need my backup and seeing that mywi is already installed I dont think mywi would be gone entirely.@ I.Annie this the very first time I've heard of this happening... At first I was like meh... I could do without but now I'm really thinking about upgrading my plan because I do need it at times for school. Well I guess it's just one of those things when you get caught, you stop. So long tethering... Ha

Thanks for your help guys

[Bubba66]

Basically At&t has a special APN used for data tethering and MyWi uses it making it easy for big blue to know who’s tethering and whos not. It is reported that TetherMe and PDANet actually use the normal Data APN for tethering so At&t can’t see your sneaky little self unofficially tethering, both apps are available through cydia for a small fee. Check em out if you want to avoid the expensive At&t tax…

Either use TeatherMe/PDANet and make sure the appropriate settings are on or keep MyWi and edit your Teather APN so that it matches your data APN.

He is an interesting article. The most interesting part is where MyWi developers contact redmondpie.

How AT&T Tracks Unauthorized Tethering On Your Jailbroken iPhone, And How To Hide It From Them | Redmond Pie

It kind of makes me think that they are just targeting people that use a lot of data. And can't tell if you are tethering. Time will tell

[The6uest]

I thought they were only going after high data users too but they tagged another phone on my account for tethering and that person uses less than 400mb a month. That's not much compared to what many other people use.

I'm glad to hear that Sprint and T-mobile are supposed to get the iPhone 5 because I am ready to switch to a different provider after all this mess. If AT&T can't show proof that people are tethering then I don't think they should be allowed to change plans on us. One AT&T person I talked to said that using bluetooth to watch a video on your tv from your iPhone is considered tethering and that's BS.

[mmaboi21]

+1 I'm ready to switch. I think sprint will be the right choice.

[Gerneio]

Now on 8/22 and I still tether nearly daily using tether me. Have not received any notices, and I just payed a cycle on my AT&T bill last week. No new charges, and my account looks unchanged in account settings. I tether for several hours a day at work on my iPad 2. I wonder if people who tether their Laptops/Macs are the only ones having this problem, as I'm sure surfing and using PC/mac based applications uses a different form of data versus the mobile data information sent from websites to mobile platforms like iPhones and iPads. And since iPad uses the same data usage, maybe AT&T can't tell the difference between the two.

On another note I have a question-everyone seems to think that using tetherme will get you caught as well...consider this: if you use blue tooth tethering on your iPhone using tetherme, then how on earth could AT&T possibly know when you use blue tooth to connect to a device? That's just not possible because nothing is being sent to AT&T. It's not a wifi hotspot. This is what makes me think that the only ones getting caught are people tethering to PC's/Macs, because it's a different type of data being transmitted. You're accessing sites via the desktop, and not mobile versions. Thoughts? If you've received a notice and a change of service from AT&T please post what you were tethering to...was it a tablet? Laptop? Gaming device?

And for those who say I'm the type that's complaining and I should be caught and punished, consider this...I'm not tethering to a laptop or computer-I'm simply using a device that's larger than the one I already own to view the exact same content on. IPad's and iPhones are no different from one another, other than screen size and speed. I have the exact same apps on my iPad as I do on my iPhone...so what difference should it make which device I use? So why tether? you might ask...because it's a bigger screen

Your argument is way off. First off, the iPhone can view more than just mobile Websites, it can view anything just like if you were on the computer. For example, you can use mercury browser to make the website think that you are on Internet explorer or firefox, so that's relaying the same info to your phone as it would to your computer. Hell, I can even download anything off the Internet from my phone, just like my computer, if I wanted to. And another thing, the Bluetooth, either way the data is going through the same end path. As for my tethering, I used a gig or two towards my laptop but the rest of my data, 6 gigs or so, was all on my phone, downloading pretty big files, now if I'm correct, I dont think there's is any "term" on my contract that says I can't download files onto my phone straight off the Internet

[HCWHunter]

He is an interesting article. The most interesting part is where MyWi developers contact redmondpie.

How AT&T Tracks Unauthorized Tethering On Your Jailbroken iPhone, And How To Hide It From Them | Redmond Pie

It kind of makes me think that they are just targeting people that use a lot of data. And can't tell if you are tethering. Time will tell

I have been resetting my usage stats each month on my billing date so I can monitor my cellular data usage vs. tether data usage with the SBSettings data usage button. I had already switched from Mywi to PDANet but I noticed some small amount of tether data usage, a few kilobytes, building up even though I was not tethering at all. Then I noticed that the tether data usage spiked up a couple hundred kilobytes after I updated a dozen or so apps in the App Store. Just to test this, I re-loaded Mywi and used it while on a trip out of town and there was no increase in tether data usage. I recently updated some more apps and the tether usage went up again. There's something in the communication of the iPhone with the App Store that uses the tethering APN. I'll bet there are other instances where Apple uses the tethering APN too, other than actual tethering.

[sziklassy]

I SERIOUSLY doubt that the issues are occurring because of mywi simply being installed. AT&T wouldn't be foolish enough to be scanning your system for "illegal" installs.

[Greatbiguns]

Umm is AT&T trying to change the meaning of "UNLIMITED"?
Has anyone notified "Webster" of this?

[plnkeye21]

Your argument is way off. First off, the iPhone can view more than just mobile Websites, it can view anything just like if you were on the computer. For example, you can use mercury browser to make the website think that you are on Internet explorer or firefox, so that's relaying the same info to your phone as it would to your computer. Hell, I can even download anything off the Internet from my phone, just like my computer, if I wanted to. And another thing, the Bluetooth, either way the data is going through the same end path. As for my tethering, I used a gig or two towards my laptop but the rest of my data, 6 gigs or so, was all on my phone, downloading pretty big files, now if I'm correct, I dont think there's is any "term" on my contract that says I can't download files onto my phone straight off the Internet

So I'm assuming since you're saying I'm "arguing" that you were hit with the upgrade. Since you didn't state anywhere in your response to the contrary, it's safe to assume this, even if I'm wrong. And since you were hit with the upgrade and you're apparently tethering to a laptop using a gig or 2, I'm going to put a "1" next to "User's who tether to laptops" category.

Lastly-I wasn't arguing, merely stating a theory. And if I'm correct in that you were upgraded because of tethering, you added credence to it, and I thank you

And one more thing-since survey's are able to differentiate the difference between mobile browsers and desktop browsers, there has to be difference in data being sent to an iDevice/mobile device vs. a desktop browser. Here's a quick table on stats for different browsers, both iOS and non-iOS types. Somehow sites as well as AT&T are able to tell the difference regardless of what browser app you use on your phone.

Table Link:

Mobile browser stats for July - QuirksBlog