Database Users

The Dreaded Premium Data-Add on

I'm looking to get the Evo but the $10 a month Premium data-add on is something that is holding me back. What I am trying to figure out is whether this is actually required by the phone or not. I was told back in the days that the Blackberry Internet Service was "required" for activation, yet I easily activated the phones without the internet plan, and I was even able to activate a few with the internet plan then go back and remove the internet plan and it still worked! I to this day don't believe Sprint when they tell me something won't work, so I'm trying to find a solution to this. Is there anyway the command forcing the phone to search to see if the subscriber has the data add on can be accessed? Would it be a file or a command? And wouldn't I just be able to do what I did with my Blackberry's in the past and just cancel the premium data add on after activation and keep the phone working like normal?
Another user explained to me that a user on these forums: Toast is working on some sort of solution to this?

I'm pretty sure no. As with the pre and hero I think the sprint system knows the imei for the phones and will require this. Looking in my account, I can see the premium data plan, and It does not let me remove it. If there's some special way, who knows, but I don't think I've heard of one yet.
I'm actually ok with the premium data plan. It means that less people ran for the phone (which means I got one easy) and it means less people jamming the network with one, which leads to higher speeds for me lol... Sprint's always been good to me otherwise. I can eat the 7.70 a month I have to add on.

You must have the plan or your phone disactivates.

It's worth it, free Telenav and sprint tv, plus 4g
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App

Speed alone is worth it. If that doesn't sell you I read somewhere a plan pricing comparison and Sprint with the +$10 plan is still cheaper than most services out there when it comes down to it.

chandlerw88 said:
It's worth it, free Telenav and sprint tv, plus 4g
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App
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The free sprint TV is crap, but the navigation seems very good!
But...Navigon will be releasing an android nav app this year, so that will make it useless, lol
Basically if you don't get 4G or don't need it...it's just an extra crap fee.

ballerx43 said:
I was told back in the days that the Blackberry Internet Service was "required" for activation, yet I easily activated the phones without the internet plan, and I was even able to activate a few with the internet plan then go back and remove the internet plan and it still worked!
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This is pure blind luck. When the Blackberry add-on was still sold by Sprint, not having it on the account was possible...but lead to a great deal of issues. Blackberry devices can and will check the web often. If you dind't get hit with data charges. Some people did. Some people's phones couldn't even make phonecalls without the pack.
And just for reference, the price of that add-on was set by RIM, NOT by Sprint.
EVO-lution said:
You must have the plan or your phone disactivates.
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Half true. There's no way to remove the feature as every Rep knows that it has to be there.
Of course if you do manage to find a way to remove the feature you'll end up paying MORE, so that's probably not in you r best interest!
Personally, I rarely use 4g. It has major penetration issues (know I'm going to hear more on that phrase!) but considering I'm at 1.3GB since the 27th of last month on this thing, odds are good I'll reach and/or exceed the 5gb cap that typiccally accompanies this kind of gear. $10 to allow me to use the phone as much as I want, in whatever way I want?
Sold.

I don't see the big issue. I came from AT&T paying $250 a month. This is nothing to worry about.

you can get this phone on $70/month plan. google slickdeals, check their hotdeals foroums. it's there.

Neotelos_com said:
The free sprint TV is crap, but the navigation seems very good!
But...Navigon will be releasing an android nav app this year, so that will make it useless, lol
Basically if you don't get 4G or don't need it...it's just an extra crap fee.
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yeah, but you can get nav on the evo from google maps....
I think it's a ripoff to charge an extra $10 that most of the country can't access yet for some reason, people still pay it.

I originally was upset by the $10 surcharge, however, after using the Evo for a weekend I consume WAY more data on it than any other phone I've used. Its so hard not to. I almost prefer browsing on it compared to my laptop, YouTube is great, and Maps and Navigation on the big screen is a joy to use. Besides, Sprint's plans are still a hell of a lot better than the competition, even with the extra fee.

So is there a definitive answer whether the 3g is truly unlimited or is it only 4g? There seems to be conflicting answers everywhere.

bockjacob said:
So is there a definitive answer whether the 3g is truly unlimited or is it only 4g? There seems to be conflicting answers everywhere.
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http://www.phonescoop.com/news/item.php?n=5973
case closed
From CNET News: "If the thought of having to pay for 4G without actually getting 4G makes you mad, it might be some slight consolation that there will be no data cap associated with the Premium Data add-on, regardless of whether you're using 4G or 3G, according to Phone Scoop."

Hack evo for free hotspot

Ok so I just got the evo and I'm I. Love I had a moment b4 this and the the pre and the moment was very disappointing but the evo defined did the trick for Mr any way I'm very new to this whole rooting and hacking so I don't kno to much info or where to go get the info I was wonder if there there was a way I could use the hotspot feature without paying 29.99 so if anyone has any info or can point me in the right direction that would be great thanks in advance
Sent from my HTC EVO using XDA App

You would need to root your phone.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/index.php?title=HTC_Supersonic/Guides_&_Tutorials
Please read up on it before you actually do it. Read the stickies at the top of each forum.

I did this literally 5 minutes ago. I have all the recent updates, and used unrevoked.
http://unrevoked.com/recovery/
The whole process took less than 5 minutes.
http://code.google.com/p/android-wifi-tether/downloads/list
Download that .apk, install and boom.

Thanks for the info fmedina2, im new to the evo and everything 2, but since the link is currently not working. If I root my phone is there a possibility my phone could break or not work properly?

Sprint really doesn't bust users for pulling down hotspot quantity data-activity without paying the $30/mo Mobile Hotspot fee ?

I put 2.1 back on my friend's phone. Now he gets to use the sprint hotspot for free. For some reason he doesn't like free tether, but I do.

IFMISM said:
I put 2.1 back on my friend's phone. Now he gets to use the sprint hotspot for free. For some reason he doesn't like free tether, but I do.
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If you root then apply Calkulin's usb tether fix, it will also make the native Hotspot app work. The fix disables authentification for both wired and wireless tethering.
Personally, I think that the way these phones hog data out of the box that it would be hard for sprint accuse you of unauthrized tethering unless you were doing something like using the phone as your primary internrt connection.

I cancelled my comcast as soon as I got my evo. I've used it for XBOX live, webbrowsing during the day and leave it on to torrent over night. Sprint hasn't said anything to me.

thekingofmean said:
I cancelled my comcast as soon as I got my evo. I've used it for XBOX live, webbrowsing during the day and leave it on to torrent over night. Sprint hasn't said anything to me.
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This. I pushed upwards of 11GB worth of data in m first month with no hassle.

thekingofmean said:
I cancelled my comcast as soon as I got my evo. I've used it for XBOX live, webbrowsing during the day and leave it on to torrent over night. Sprint hasn't said anything to me.
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sobis1dm said:
This. I pushed upwards of 11GB worth of data in m first month with no hassle.
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Please, stop. You people are why we're going to lose unlimited bandwidth.

drmacinyasha said:
Please, stop. You people are why we're going to lose unlimited bandwidth.
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You're absolutely right. I'm rooted, and CAN tether for free, but I pay the $29.99 anyway because it's the right thing to do. If you are using it for a lot of data (your main connection), you should pay for it.

thekingofmean said:
I cancelled my comcast as soon as I got my evo. I've used it for XBOX live, webbrowsing during the day and leave it on to torrent over night. Sprint hasn't said anything to me.
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if you do ghetto things like that, you'll live just that kind of life.
good luck with that...

sobis1dm said:
This. I pushed upwards of 11GB worth of data in m first month with no hassle.
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Get ready for tiered data plans.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Hahaha you should pay for it? Why because they tell you too? Hey simple man root your phone thru unrevoked(easy as hell) then use pdanet or caulkins method or flash a rom that has it already integrated.
Hey your paying an extra $10 for extra bandwith so use it. Why pay $40 more now to stream on your phone..hey AT&T is 15 a month for dsl a year...so it may be right but it ain't smart..... Also I believe unlimited bandwith is for aircards and not for wireless. There is a thread discussing that. At the end of the day too each his own....
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

P.S. I don't abuse or really use tethering but I don't see the problem. I don't use 90% of the internet based stuff on my phone but I pay the $10 and don't complain...
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

drmacinyasha said:
Please, stop. You people are why we're going to lose unlimited bandwidth[/url].
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david279 said:
Get ready for tiered data plans.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
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The reason I came to Sprint is because they allow it, and every rep I've talked to knows this. What good is the ability to push unlimited data (which, please, most people here can burn 11GB in a day, let alone a month) if you're morally restricted to limiting yourself to the competition's tiers anyways? Sprint's angle against the Big Two has been unlimited data for a long time now, and they're not going to switch it. If they do, I can promise you that the reason is NOT some guy using PDANet and watching a lot of streaming football while he's at work.

My 2 cents: our ten dollar a month 4g fee....covers truly unlimited data, at least that's how sprint justifies it. Even though I have used upwards of 9 gigs without ever touching tether. 10 or 15 is not that bad, imo.tiered plans are a scare tactic . Att feels the pain of that already. Hardcore users have started jumping ship now that they realize 2 gigs is nothing the more they use their phones.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

Kcarpenter said:
My 2 cents: our ten dollar a month 4g fee....covers truly unlimited data, at least that's how sprint justifies it. Even though I have used upwards of 9 gigs without ever touching tether. 10 or 15 is not that bad, imo.tiered plans are a scare tactic . Att feels the pain of that already. Hardcore users have started jumping ship now that they realize 2 gigs is nothing the more they use their phones.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
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You're right in that 2GB really is nothing nowadays. Sprint offers On Demand television, live sporting events, and devices with screens big enough to actually utilize these things; and when Netflix comes to Android, do they really think users will stay within 2-5GB?
Even without Netflix or tethering, Evo can burn through caps like noone's business on push alone. The phone was built and marketed as a multimedia powerhouse - stream HD, refresh your FriendStream every 15 minutes, push the news, get your email, upload huge photos from your 8MP cam, all within a few swipes.
It makes sense for Sprint to cap the non-premium data users, and just use that as an incentive to make $10/mo from that many more customers. But seriously, companies really should start focusing on making the network's capacities better - not limiting the consumer.

drmacinyasha said:
Please, stop. You people are why we're going to lose unlimited bandwidth.
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I second that!!

We aren't losing unlimited bandwidth. We pay extra for not having 4G in our areas aka a 'richer data experience'.
This is that richer data experience. Tether it up.

Verizon PRL Hack - Just Don't

I don't know how many of you have been kicked off for this (doubt anybody has as not one of you that do use the hack have ever potsed about it finally working) but please stop doing it, all youre doing is upping the costs for everyone. To get kicked off the network we all know you have to constantly roam (excessive roaming) however Sprint will still check and require proof of address to have your ETF waived, once they see you're constantly roaming in a coverage area you will still get stuck with the ETF. Just a heads up, we all complain about prices going up but there's also tons of people that participate in making costs go up.

DirtyShroomz said:
I don't know how many of you have been kicked off for this (doubt anybody has as not one of you that do use the hack have ever potsed about it finally working) but please stop doing it, all youre doing is upping the costs for everyone. To get kicked off the network we all know you have to constantly roam (excessive roaming) however Sprint will still check and require proof of address to have your ETF waived, once they see you're constantly roaming in a coverage area you will still get stuck with the ETF. Just a heads up, we all complain about prices going up but there's also tons of people that participate in making costs go up.
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Thanks for the info. Did not realize you were a sprint employee.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

I don't know about anyone else but I've been using this hack for months and don't have any roaming data. I know it's working or doing something because I notice a great deal of improvement in coverage.
Sent from my PC36100

Sprint's data service is so bad that many find it as essential. If I pay $10 for a PREMIUM data add on, I expect premium data not 200-500 kbps. I've yet to do the PRL hack but everything is so damn slow. Downloading apps used to take a couple of seconds now it takes a couple of minutes.

Award Tour said:
Sprint's data service is so bad that many find it as essential. If I pay $10 for a PREMIUM data add on, I expect premium data not 200-500 kbps. I've yet to do the PRL hack but everything is so damn slow. Downloading apps used to take a couple of seconds now it takes a couple of minutes.
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I'm not talking about the speed, I have horrible speeds too for the past 2 months, i'm talking about people using it to get kicked off.

Rem3Dy said:
Do you really have evidence of this? Or are you just some disgruntled cheapskate passing off opinion as fact?
This really required its own thread? You are just screaming for attention aren't you.
BTW many people have posted about this actually getting sprint to cancel their account ETF free.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
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What the hell are you talking about? Reading > You.

He's talking about people that use it to get out of paying the etf...for instance they download torrents 247 just to get excessive roam instead of just using it for Verizon coverage...I read it pretty clear, don't know what's wrong with everyone
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

i totally 100% agree with the op

i kinda agree but then again i understand why they are doing it been fighting with data speeds to the point i thought about doing the prl hack to get released from my 5 phone contract

I just hate to see good things come to an end because of a select few. Prices are going to go up, no doubt, but there's no sense in having them go up faster. It's a lose-lose situation. Customers get less for their money and employee's get less (benefits).

so, what you're bringing to my attention is that there is a way to get out of my contract without an etf?
this is news to me and probably several others. I had no idea there was a vzw prl hack. can you explain in great detail how this is done and what I should search Google for?
oh wait I guess you just did in the OP.
thanks.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

thedudejdog said:
so, what you're bringing to my attention is that there is a way to get out of my contract without an etf?
this is news to me and probably several others. I had no idea there was a vzw prl hack. can you explain in great detail how this is done and what I should search Google for?
oh wait I guess you just did in the OP.
thanks.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
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Reading > You.

DirtyShroomz said:
Reading > You.
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all i'm saying is if something is bad and you don't want people doing it, probably not the best idea to draw attention to it. just let it die.

thedudejdog said:
all i'm saying is if something is bad and you don't want people doing it, probably not the best idea to draw attention to it. just let it die.
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Or you can educate them that by doing this hack you won't be let go ETF free as proof of address is still required to have ETF waived.

can anyone give me a link on how to do this? I would love to test out the speeds on it

raul602 said:
can anyone give me a link on how to do this? I would love to test out the speeds on it
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http://tinyurl.com/47z9cbn

Although I see where you're going with this, we are a very small percentage of the Evo owners. And a smaller amount of rooted Evo owners that actually user this hack. I know quite a few Evo owners that don't even want to root their phone, one of them being my wife. If Sprint set their plans up like TMO, where I could bring a paid off phone to their network and pay less monthly since I wasn't on a subsidized phone then it would different. Rates are determined partially about how providers will recover phone costs, and that is the ETF (obviously), but what about all the people that have paid there phone off by contract and continue to pay the same rates. This came to my attention, or rather opened my eyes when I wanted to add my daughter on our family plan with a blackberry that I had laying around. And even though it was paid off, it still required a 2 year activation..WTF...i didn't understand when I wasn't buying a subsidized phone, since I wanted the ability to shut the phone off for grades, behavior, etc. I mean why would I be responsible for etf for a phone that wasn't subsidized. I wish a plan similar to TMO would come to other providers.
Swyped from my CyanoSavaged Evo

mustangboy88 said:
Although I see where you're going with this, we are a very small percentage of the Evo owners. And a smaller amount of rooted Evo owners that actually user this hack. I know quite a few Evo owners that don't even want to root their phone, one of them being my wife. If Sprint set their plans up like TMO, where I could bring a paid off phone to their network and pay less monthly since I wasn't on a subsidized phone then it would different. Rates are determined about how providers will recover phone costs, and that is the ETF (obviously), but what about all the people that have paid there phone off by contract and continue to pay the same rates. This came to my attention, or rather opened my eyes when I wanted to add my daughter on our family plan with a blackberry that I had laying around. And even though it was paid off, it still required a 2 year activation..WTF...i didn't understand when I wasn't buying a subsidized phone, since I wanted the ability to shut the phone off for grades, behavior, etc. I mean why would I be responsible for etf for a phone that wasn't subsidized. I wish a plan similar to TMO would come to other providers.
Swyped from my CyanoSavaged Evo
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You can start a line without a contract if you bring your own phone, don't let anyone tell you any different.

I encourage you to call Sprint yourself and clarify that. That is not the case when adding a new line. I can activate a phone under my line and not affect my contract, but adding a line is different.
Swyped from my CyanoSavaged Evo

mustangboy88 said:
I encourage you to call Sprint yourself and clarify that. That is not the case when adding a new line. I can activate a phone under my line and not affect my contract, but adding a line is different.
Swyped from my CyanoSavaged Evo
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I don't need to, I work there.

Email sent to Dan Hesse

I sent an email to Dan Hesse (no im not gullable enough to think he is actually going to read it) asking why they took away the tethering feature with this update. I konw most of you are rooted here and this doesn't affect you but this was a big deal. I bought this phone for this reason and now it is gone, how is that legal? Anyone else want to get a class action lawsuit going?

cardsfan01 said:
I sent an email to Dan Hesse (no im not gullable enough to think he is actually going to read it) asking why they took away the tethering feature with this update. I konw most of you are rooted here and this doesn't affect you but this was a big deal. I bought this phone for this reason and now it is gone, how is that legal? Anyone else want to get a class action lawsuit going?
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Free tethering wasn't a feature you signed onto when you signed your contract. It was a nice little extra that Android provided which is clearly not what the carriers wanted and for which they now took away.

Did you see that Sprint just had a net loss of almost 850 million dollars... Despite a GAIN of 1 million subscribers. They have to do something lol.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk

I was pissed about that as well, mostly because when I bought the phone the rep said it was a feature of the phone and since google was in charge of updates that sprint couldn't take it away. However, in another thread someone pointed out to me that tethering is an explicit violation of the terms of service agreement and the phone is subsidized by sprint so they are not really doing anything that you could sue them about. It is disappointing, but at least getting it back is easy through rooting.

Is this thread serious?
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App

the tethering app itself is there and still works, it does what the app is supposed to do. sprint how ever just disabled the connection on their end to accounts that dont have the add on........which is totally their right to do. while the app comes with the phone is free no one ever said the service was included

ryno502 said:
Did you see that Sprint just had a net loss of almost 850 million dollars... Despite a GAIN of 1 million subscribers. They have to do something lol.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk
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More than 600,000 of those were in the prepaid sector. They actually had a net loss of more than 100,000 in the post paid sector.
Sent from my SCH-I800 using Tapatalk

With Sprint I sort of understand the legitimacy of wanting to charge extra for tethering, since they have true unlimited data and people who tether regularly can use an assload of bandwidth. But the other carriers all cap their data plans and charge extra for tethering. That is bullcrap.

Just root your phone and install tether and stop complaining... it takes 5 seconds.

i dont use the tether and dont have any plans to, i agree that using the rooted one is all too easy (its what 99% of teh rest of the android population have to do).
BUT
i do believe its rather annoying that the nexus 1 came and went with free tethering, the nexus s is on so many different carriers domestic and international.. yet sprint is the first one to throw up a fit about tethering. not saying that its wrong for them to, just feeling like a red headed stepchild of the nexus s family.

cardsfan01 said:
I sent an email to Dan Hesse (no im not gullable enough to think he is actually going to read it) asking why they took away the tethering feature with this update. I konw most of you are rooted here and this doesn't affect you but this was a big deal. I bought this phone for this reason and now it is gone, how is that legal? Anyone else want to get a class action lawsuit going?
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The free tether was not advertised as being free it was never writter or expressed. You just got a free bonus. IMO. Also the free tether was supposed to be remove on the update that occurred right after the phone was launched and it wasn't. I suggest rooting your phone its easy with an untold amount of benefits.

Does the removal of free tethering constitute as change in contract ? I would love to get out of my contract without penalty.

wow I love how people get up on a soapbox and complain without research first.
Free tethering was never offically free from sprint. So you want to cancel your contract/send emails/get red in the face over something that most people already knew.
get over it there are ways around these things which for the most part why we are all here to enhance our phones.

teshxx said:
Does the removal of free tethering constitute as change in contract ? I would love to get out of my contract without penalty.
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Read your contract and let me know if you see free tethering in there
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App

hellcatt said:
the tethering app itself is there and still works, it does what the app is supposed to do. sprint how ever just disabled the connection on their end to accounts that dont have the add on........which is totally their right to do. while the app comes with the phone is free no one ever said the service was included
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I thought the 2.3.5 update is what disable it? If so, that is hardly "on their end." It's on our end, inside our own hardware which we purchased.
Unless I am mistaken and they rolled out a network change at the exact same moment as a software change. But if they were magically blocking tethering from their end... then wouldn't it block our rooted tethering too?
I agree it's not the end of the world and rooted tether is easy. But I think it might be inaccurate to say an update to our phones is happening on their end.

DirtyShroomz said:
Read your contract and let me know if you see free tethering in there
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App
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If the purchase contract to my car said I couldn't drive it while chewing gum, I'd walk out of the dealer. If the purchase contracts for ALL cars said that, I'd buy one of them and then go home and break the terms.
Just because it's in the contract doesn't mean it is right. We pay for a DATA service to a piece of hardware. What we do with data that has been fed into that device is our own decision, morally and logically. Sprint does not govern the airwaves in my own house that originate from a piece of hardware I own.
In reality it's not a big deal, but in principle it is 100% wrong.

The111 said:
If the purchase contract to my car said I couldn't drive it while chewing gum, I'd walk out of the dealer. If the purchase contracts for ALL cars said that, I'd buy one of them and then go home and break the terms.
Just because it's in the contract doesn't mean it is right. We pay for a DATA service to a piece of hardware. What we do with data that has been fed into that device is our own decision, morally and logically. Sprint does not govern the airwaves in my own house that originate from a piece of hardware I own.
In reality it's not a big deal, but in principle it is 100% wrong.
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The DATA service to use the phone as a wireless hotspot/tether is an extra $29.99, whether we agree with that or not. If you don't think a contract is right then you don't sign it/use the service.

The111 said:
If the purchase contract to my car said I couldn't drive it while chewing gum, I'd walk out of the dealer. If the purchase contracts for ALL cars said that, I'd buy one of them and then go home and break the terms.
Just because it's in the contract doesn't mean it is right. We pay for a DATA service to a piece of hardware. What we do with data that has been fed into that device is our own decision, morally and logically. Sprint does not govern the airwaves in my own house that originate from a piece of hardware I own.
In reality it's not a big deal, but in principle it is 100% wrong.
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Your fight is with congress. Verizon/at&t/comcast/etc they lobbied pretty hard so that net neutrality not be on wireless lines. So the government has allowed from now and out what can be defined as a data over wireless. So what if sprint wants to charge you extra on your contract for a smartphone when you want to use their network for serving up data for laptops/some use for Xbox live and stuff if it is needed so badly on the users end to have mobile data well.
So think about if sprint were to allow free tethering on all phones, well businesses would flock to them for company plans to cut costs, and the flocks of data whores out there that love to rack up data on their phones. Our network would blow, congestion please.
Sprint and wireless telcos don't govern all the airwaves in your own house just the frequencies they use to provide you with a service which at signing is for that piece of hardware you bought from them, then activated that hardware on their network.
This by no means is me getting angry with you but hopefully more people will read this and look this up and let the information flow out. Our government is to blame allowing this to happen. By allowing them to define mobile data is why we have to pay the most expensive data rates for texting and such.
Now imagine this verizon which is new kinda to home tv and high speed fiber to the home. Perhaps they use some of the lte network to start providing tv and home internet. Now they would have complete control over how you watch and your internet. Maybe they have to throttle your HD channels cause you've been watching to much HBO movies. Why not they will all tell you Netflix kills their backend but watching vod has no strain on the network.....I've been ranting for too long sorry
Sent from my A500 using XDA Premium App

BrianDigital said:
So think about if sprint were to allow free tethering on all phones, well businesses would flock to them for company plans to cut costs, and the flocks of data whores out there that love to rack up data on their phones. Our network would blow, congestion please.
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Agreed 100%, but the issue is traffic, not tethering. If they want to limit traffic or introduce a tiered plan, that is fine (it might piss me off, but it is a rational right they have). It is rational to expect to pay per amount of data streamed to my device. But it is not rational to tell me what to do with data received on my end.
Replace DATA with WATER. If I pay the city for x amount of water per month, once it arrives on my doorstep, can they charge me more if I add plumbing in my house that transports it to the backyard, or my basement? Or install an extra faucet in a guest bedroom?

seezar said:
The DATA service to use the phone as a wireless hotspot/tether is an extra $29.99, whether we agree with that or not. If you don't think a contract is right then you don't sign it/use the service.
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Please see my example above about water.
If every single water company in town told you it was $50 per month to get 200 gallons of water piped to your house, but there would be a $30 surcharge (for the same amount) if you had more than 2 faucets in your house, would you:
(a) Tell them about all 4 of your faucets and pay $80
(b) Tell them you have 2 faucets and pay $50
If (a), then I question your thought processes. Common wisdom (in my mind at least) is that it is a citizen's duty to disobey unjust rules. Yes, I am being overdramatic here, and no a contract from Sprint is not a law. But it leans on the law (as the post above mentions), and ALL providers lean on that same unjust law...

Tmo figured me out!

In the last few days Tmo has been redirecting me to buy that stupid hotspot service when i try to hot spot my work computer. I tried Clockworkmod's tether app, and got the same ****. Im in the process of downloading CM9's nightly, im hoping when i flash ill be back to getting what i pay for.
But if it doesnt, and since its a redirect i doubt flashing a rom will help, does anyone know how to get around it?

I dont understand why yu want to get it free. You are allowing your phone to give internet access to multiple devices thereby increasing bandwidth usage compared to how much youd overall use by accessing data services on your phone alone (hence throttling)Explain how it should be free?.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA

You can get the five gigs plus tether for thirty bucks. Quit being cheap. Compared to other carriers we have it good.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium

Having to work for tmobile is awesome . Having a dealer line and unlimited data access is amazing. I'm just happy
Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2

monkeypaws said:
I dont understand why yu want to get it free. You are allowing your phone to give internet access to multiple devices thereby increasing bandwidth usage compared to how much youd overall use by accessing data services on your phone alone (hence throttling)Explain how it should be free?.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA
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Im already paying for data plan permonth. I shouldnt have to pay for it twice. Having to pay for tethering is a straight up money grab, i dont care how cool Tmo is (and they are a great company), i dont think i should have to pay twice for the data im already using and paying for.

Oskiee said:
Im already paying for data plan permonth. I shouldnt have to pay for it twice. Having to pay for tethering is a straight up money grab, i dont care how cool Tmo is (and they are a great company), i dont think i should have to pay twice for the data im already using and paying for.
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So if you have 2 phones on your account you should only have to pay for data on one if them but get it on both? By your logic that would be the same thing...
Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2

Data is data. Who cares, other than providers, where it's going?
Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2

xsteven77x said:
You can get the five gigs plus tether for thirty bucks. Quit being cheap. Compared to other carriers we have it good.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
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I tether fine with my 5gig data plan without getting any hotpost messages

On the 5GB and 10GB plans, you can get tethering for free. One of the things I love about Tmo.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2

clninja said:
So if you have 2 phones on your account you should only have to pay for data on one if them but get it on both? By your logic that would be the same thing...
Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2
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If he has unlimited data yes. If a customer has a 2gb hspa+ and unlimited edge after, who cares whether it's his phone or comp using the data? Charging for tethering is just charging for the service not the data. And considering a simple free app can do that service why should he pay extra?
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium

Data is data. Ones and zeros are ones and zeros. Im paying for ones and zeros. Not to mention i rarely use tethering at all, i just want it handy for that "every once in a while." $15 a month doesnt constitute that. Nor does it constitute using one of them "shared" bull **** that is $15 a month just to enable my phone to do it and use up the same data pool. Its a money grab and i refuse to pay for it.

algorhythm said:
Data is data. Who cares, other than providers, where it's going?
Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2
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This is right. You are already paying for your 2GBs, you should be able to use it as you want. Because at the end of the day, your going to get throttled once you hit your limit.
so even if your using just your phone, or a hotspot the data you use with the devices don't change.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA

If I'm not browsing on my laptop then I'm just going to pick up my phone and do it that way. How does that allow me to use an unfair amount? Data limits are still in place on my "unlimited" line.

Oskiee said:
In the last few days Tmo has been redirecting me to buy that stupid hotspot service when i try to hot spot my work computer. I tried Clockworkmod's tether app, and got the same ****. Im in the process of downloading CM9's nightly, im hoping when i flash ill be back to getting what i pay for.
But if it doesnt, and since its a redirect i doubt flashing a rom will help, does anyone know how to get around it?
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Click to collapse
T-Mobile didn't "figure you out" - most tethering is easily detectable. It's a matter of "does T-Mobile care enough to do anything about it?" ... Until recently, that answer was no.
The information to get around T-Mobile's tethering detection is available in this forum (read: search for it). I'll give you a hint: the user agent gives you away.

monkeypaws said:
I dont understand why yu want to get it free. You are allowing your phone to give internet access to multiple devices thereby increasing bandwidth usage compared to how much youd overall use by accessing data services on your phone alone (hence throttling)Explain how it should be free?.
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Do you own Tmobile stock?! What difference does it make? You know some of us are irritated that we are paying for unlimited data with at&t and we aren't able to tether our laptops every once in awhile. I have no need for tethering 95% of the time. But when I'm on the road and I need to check something on a flash website it is nice to be able to use my laptop. I shouldn't have to lose unlimited data AND have my data bill go up 66% just because I need to tether 15 times a year. You know if they said hey if you are going to be traveling pay us $5 and we will let you tether for a month I would say fine.

sitizenx said:
Do you own Tmobile stock?! What difference does it make? You know some of us are irritated that we are paying for unlimited data with at&t and we aren't able to tether our laptops every once in awhile. I have no need for tethering 95% of the time. But when I'm on the road and I need to check something on a flash website it is nice to be able to use my laptop. I shouldn't have to lose unlimited data AND have my data bill go up 66% just because I need to tether 15 times a year. You know if they said hey if you are going to be traveling pay us $5 and we will let you tether for a month I would say fine.
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I used to get the nasty emails from Ma Bell until I started using USB exclusively and Opera browser (uses a proxy). Ever since then, I've never gotten another one.

Seriously just pay for it with tmo.. Its like the people that pirate apk's... its a couple bucks for those and its like, why waste the time?

You "righteous" dudes are missing the point. I totally understand what the OP is saying. If I'm already paying for a certain amount of data, who gives a damn HOW it is used. In the end I'm STILL using the amount of data I paid for. Nothing more, nothing less. Charging for that is just like double billing in my opinion. These providers will do ANYTHING to milk more money out of the consumer.

Tmob is a business, not a non profit orginization. it's not like charging for the service is done just to "rob" consumers, if it wasn't for everyone expecting everything for free I think technological advancements would be in a completely different place. We only hinder ourselves with our sense of entitlement. I get the point of only tethering so often, but again, few ruin it for the many and use their phone as a modem for Netflix. Too bad it's in our nature to exploit everything. Just sayin
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium

Jlarsen5 said:
Tmob is a business, not a non profit orginization. it's not like charging for the service is done just to "rob" consumers, if it wasn't for everyone expecting everything for free I think technological advancements would be in a completely different place. We only hinder ourselves with our sense of entitlement. I get the point of only tethering so often, but again, few ruin it for the many and use their phone as a modem for Netflix. Too bad it's in our nature to exploit everything. Just sayin
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
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I do not believe issues such as this to be an unwarranted sense of entitlement. I have been an "unlimited" data user at At&T since 2005 - back when tethering was included in data. It was so little an issue back then I once called AT&T to ask for help setting up my Blackberry 7100.
For me to continue using my phone to tether win I switched to an iPhone, they tried to upsell me to a tethering plan, and the same when I briefly used a focus. I told them then, and I will tell them now, that as long as the plan that we BOTH agreed to regarding my ToS say that tethering is indeed included in my data plan - its not an entitlement, it is a right protected by the contract I had to sign while buying my beloved 8125.
The OP's individual situation may be different than this - but in all reality, if there is no abuse of the data caps on the users end - charging extra for tethering is in really bad taste from any of the carriers. It is NOT a service that they provide - it's a well established feature withing operating systems of the phones they sell. If that is unacceptable to them, then stop selling smartphones and go back to series Nokia 6125's. Then offer the 3g/4g hotspots as their own service so there is no longer a redundancy between smartphones and hotspots. Charging for both is just plain stupid.
Especially if the data plan I pay for has more than covered the data I use. I tether my laptop and tablet once or twice a week, and have not come close to the 5GB "softcap". If I'm not going over my limit, Who the heck are you to tell me I'm abusing the network? Leave me alone and go bother the jerk who's torrenting 720p movies on Friday night.