Busted by ATT for Tethering on Iphone 2g?

[Megum07]

ive never heard of you getting charged for data, cause yeah, the iphone plan is "unlimited" however, if you keep doing a LOT of dl, and its out of control month after month, your service can be shut off until your next bill cycle starts, and if it continues to be a problem, might be canceled.

[Limegrntaln]

There is no 5GB cap on the actual iPhone unlimited data plan, Verified by AT&T.

[kraziebone]

There is no 5GB cap on the actual iPhone unlimited data plan, Verified by AT&T.

I hate to break it to you but you can NEVER believe what they tell you calling AT&T customer no-service (thank you Clark Howard).

This is directly from the small print saying that there is in fact a soft cap, and they have the right to cap you at that 5GB even if they don't enforce it:

"We may, at our discretion, suspend your account if we believe your data usage is excessive, unusual or is better suited to another rate plan. If you are on a data plan that does not include a monthly MB/GB allowance and additional data usage rates, you agree that AT&T has the right to impose additional charges if you use more than 5 GB in a month"

Here is the location of that mice type: http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-pho...plan-terms.jsp

Anyone know if now AT&T has this new sanctioned tethering plan, will mywi users be monitored and then consequently charged for that unsanctioned tethering or can they not detect that? I have heard it both ways

[remag49]

ya i've heard about people getting charged extra but only for roaming
tethering i haven't heard much about people getting charged

but att always has something up their sleeves

[kraziebone]

I actually don't think they would charge you extra, I have used over 10GB in a single month once and had no problems but if someone was just going crazy and using a very high amount of data month after month, it would get to the point where AT&T no longer makes money off that customer and I think that clause is in there just in case. I use almost 250GB per month on my home Qwest line and if I used that on AT&T w/ tethering they would just kick me off. They can try to impose additional charges but it says later in the small print that if you're on the unlimited and they charge you for excess usage, you have the right to leave so basically it voids your contract.

[ZepRider]

My understanding of tethering is that the PC uses the iPhone as a router rather than a modem. The expected result being that ATT cannot see your tethered PC. They should only see DIDO. How quickly your accessing data and how quickly you move about on the net, can, in itself be a signature of PC tethering. The iPhone is quick, just not PC and mouse quick.

[Cer0]

With the added bonus that the iPhone has the user agent signature of mobile and when tethered it still sends the user agent as a normal browser request.

So they can see that on sites that the iPhone is normally supposed to get the mobile browser version is instead getting a desktop browser build request.

[techierob]

Maybe agent switcher for Firefox would do the trick!

In order to emulate an iPhone, the basic principal is to change the Firefox user agent to an iPhone.

1. Go and download the user agent switcher by clicking here. Follow the installation instructions in Firefox.

2. The next step is to add the iPhone user agent. Click Tools | User Agent Switcher | Options | Options. In the dialog, click Add.

3. In the description field, enter ‘iPhone‘. In the User Agent field, cut and paste the following:

Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419 (United States)

4. Click OK.

5. When you get back to Firefox, click Tools | User Agent Switcher | iPhone.

6. Now test it with awebsite that distinguish between an iPhone vs any other browser. For example Facebook is a good example. What you will see when you open Facebook is that it recognize the new user agent and thinks it’s talking to an iPhone. As a result you can see the URL bar displays Welcome to Facebook | Facebook instead of the usual Welcome to Facebook. And that’s when you know your Firefox has now turned into an iPhone.

[Mp3]

I don't think they care. I started this thread 9 months ago and have been tethering ever since on the $10 unlimited family data plan and have not gotten caught.

[techierob]

Thanks for the update... Same here no problems at all. Good to be an old timer sim swapper.

[Trooper Sam]

Been tethering for a year and a half, since I first got a 3G right before my son was born. No troubles, no questions, no charges. And no worries.

[murl]

I used a gig today on my iphone alone. I didn't even need the help of tethering lol.

[yoshi64]

There is no 5GB cap on the actual iPhone unlimited data plan, Verified by AT&T.

There's a soft rule for it man, don't kid yourself. Read that data-related fine print on their site it specifically mentions 5GB.

[SuperVee3]

Soft cap? If there is I never felt it. U always go through more than 5 gb with speeds anywhere from 2 to 5 Mbps

[kraziebone]

Family $10 unlimited data plan? Where is that?

[dsjr2006]

I hate to break it to you but you can NEVER believe what they tell you calling AT&T customer no-service (thank you Clark Howard).

This is directly from the small print saying that there is in fact a soft cap, and they have the right to cap you at that 5GB even if they don't enforce it:

"We may, at our discretion, suspend your account if we believe your data usage is excessive, unusual or is better suited to another rate plan. If you are on a data plan that does not include a monthly MB/GB allowance and additional data usage rates, you agree that AT&T has the right to impose additional charges if you use more than 5 GB in a month"

Here is the location of that mice type: PLAN TERMS - Wireless from AT&T.

Anyone know if now AT&T has this new sanctioned tethering plan, will mywi users be monitored and then consequently charged for that unsanctioned tethering or can they not detect that? I have heard it both ways

You copied and pasted from a section that does not apply to the iPhone data plan and you call that proof?? Get a life, lots of people have been doing it since the 3G with no charges including me.

Way to bring back an old thread btw

[425hpChargerSRT8]

I don't know what you mean by "in trouble" but I'm guessing you mean charged extra for using too much data (over 5GB which is AT&T's limit).

I did a lot of research into this because I went to Hawaii for a month and knew I wouldn't have the internet in my house there so I downloaded the mywi app (a tethering app). What I learned from forums about this topic was that AT&T has a limit of 5GB, so you should probably stick to below that and if you do, you wont have any problem, I promise (at least until they officially add tethering packages and charge you $60 a month). However, if you decided to go crazy like I did while in Hawaii, AT&T has a limit, but charges you exactly $0.00 for every mb you go over. So basically the limit is just there to monitor those who go over. If you do go over, they will flag your account and start paying a little better attention to your account. If you continuously go over, supposedly they will ask you to get on one of their higher priced plans (but I have never heard this happen). From what I have read, people go over all the time and don't have problems (One guy even claims he used over 100GB in one month). Personally, I was broadcasting Mywi all month in Hawaii with 4 computers constantly using my iPhones internet and I was still under 5GB (barely 4,865MB) . So, it's pretty hard to do but if you do, nothing happens. If anyone has a personal story of something happening to them (and not something they heard happen), it would be very informative if you shared with us

im just curious, but where did the rumor of a 5GB cap come from? I have gone over that the past 6 months with no charger, and it was actually this site that made me call AT&T to verify i wouldn't get charged for going over that amount. The lady on the phone said unlimited is unlimited. While i certainly dont believe that, i do know you can use well above 5GB without a problem. Atleast in my case.

Soft cap? If there is I never felt it. U always go through more than 5 gb with speeds anywhere from 2 to 5 Mbps

5GB and 5Gb are completely diff, which are you referring to

[kraziebone]

For sure you can use over 5GB and they won't cut you off for that, but I would guarantee that there is a point at which AT&T would be losing money if someone was using huge data amounts and at that point they would refer you to the fine print and would have the right to boot you. Who knows what the max they'll allow though. Apparently it's pretty high. I've used almost 20 in a single month but that's not normal for me.

Dsjr2006, just cause everyone goes over the 'soft' cap, including me, and doesn't get charged does not mean it doesn't exist. They don't want to lose their customers but there is a point at which it's a liability for them

[BenderRodriguez]

There is NO CAP for unlimited, I watched 3 full movies on 3G racking up 12gigs, never saw a charge for this, no I do t do this every month, no I didn't call them and tell them to please wave it, idk if apple forwards that your using an app when it happens