I've read about "tethering" on this site while browsing through other topics, and I thought I had a basic understanding of it.

Then I googled it, and it pretty much confirmed my "basic understanding".

ITT, you tell me if/how I can use it in my new house because I'm tired of Comcast's shitty service and high cost ($60 a month for wireless). I have a Blackberry Bold and AT&T is my cell phone provider. I think I read somewhere that cell phone providers are changing their "unlimited data plans" because people that "tether" are jacking up their costs. So would that mean my cell phone bill would be astronomical if I tried to "tether"?? And how reliable is the connection??

I'm just tired of Comcast and don't like paying $60 a month for spotty service.

6/29/2010 11:37:09 AM

almost all the provider's plans are $20/month for 2GB, in addition to the $30/month for unlimited data (the first 5GB), it won't be enough for home usage. it's really just more for travelling.

when i tether i get about 1.5Mbps down and 300Kbps up (VZW)

[Edited on June 29, 2010 at 11:44 AM. Reason : .]

6/29/2010 11:42:11 AM

You will pay a LOT more than 60 a month to tether your phone to a computer at home. And it's going to be multiple times slower than the "shitty" comcast you already have.

6/29/2010 11:51:07 AM

i didnt even know comcast did wireless

[Edited on June 29, 2010 at 11:52 AM. Reason : e]

6/29/2010 11:51:54 AM

Nevermind then.

And I'm in Charleston, so Comcast is pretty much the only option I have...and they fucking suck.

6/29/2010 11:59:11 AM

wow, i have comcast in Denver, and it's the best cable service i've ever had, heck, even comcast in Arlington, VA was great.

6/29/2010 12:09:06 PM

Quote :

"when i tether i get about 1.5Mbps down and 300Kbps up (VZW)"

Sucks. Getting 3+ with AT&T. Although if you want real speed pick up one of those Sprint 4G laptop cards.

I mainly use it while traveling. Can't imagine using tethering at home. Especially since i use my internet at home when i'm not there.

[Edited on June 29, 2010 at 12:16 PM. Reason : s]

6/29/2010 12:15:37 PM

uh, i have yet to see anyone on AT&T get over 1.5Mbps, and over 50Kbps upload speed, so consider yourself lucky... also AT&T won't let you tether on the unlimited plan, you have to DOWNGRADE to a limited 2GB plan, THEN pay another $20 for 2GB/month to tether. so for the same $50 or so you get 7GB on VZW versus 4GB on AT&T

[Edited on June 29, 2010 at 12:31 PM. Reason : ,]

6/29/2010 12:30:40 PM

Don't know where you are but i've always gotten atleast 2 in Raleigh and Charlotte. Will hit 3+ depending on time of day/where I am. Still have the unlimited plan and jailbroken so I'm not paying to tether.

Was great in Europe too. Picked up a 15 euro sim card and had unlimited data for 30 days (never there that long but 15 is a steal) and used Skype for $.02/min calls (compared to 1$+ on AT&T in europe). Oh wait. You can't even use a Verizon phone in Europe. lol.

Just playin. I just travel too much and Verizon/CDMA has such horrible coverage.

6/29/2010 1:12:44 PM

Well technically speaking if you're jailbroken/root, you are illegally tethering, which it sounds like we're both doing .. it still doesn't mean you won't be capped in terms of data usage. As for coverage, VZW has the best coverage in the U.S. so unless you're talking about living in Europe, I'm not sure what you're talking about. Travelling overseas, yes you'll want a GSM carrier.

[Edited on June 29, 2010 at 1:48 PM. Reason : /]

6/29/2010 1:40:53 PM

I just want a GSM phone in general for when I do travel. As far as i'm concerned AT&T's coverage is just as good as Verizon's. I'm rarely outside of Urban areas and if i am AT&Ts edge is just as extensive as Verizon 3g and works fine.

Anyway all the android phones remind me of my Sony PDA from 2002. Unresponsive and laggy. As much as I hate Apple and after using both phones for extensive amounts of time Apple really does kill the competition.

6/29/2010 1:55:25 PM

Quote :

"Unresponsive and laggy."

this tells me you haven't touched an Android phone in the last 6 months.

6/29/2010 2:49:00 PM

Haha i'm just messing. But yes i've messed with the Droid Incredible and the HTC EVO4. I guess just in comparison to an iPhone they seem laggy and unresponsive. I've held them side by side. There's a distinct difference in response. I do want to like Android phones they're just not smooth enough yet.

6/29/2010 2:58:28 PM

well i'd agree with you on the stock Droid and NexusOne, but an OC'd phone or any of the newer OMAP phones that run Android are much smoother.

also it's kind of a difference between how the platforms multitask, the iOS only has to work on one app at a time and a limited set of APIs in the background, Android actually has multiple apps in memory and thus seems a little less responsive, but in either case you gotta see a phone with 2.2, the speed difference really is about 400% over 2.1

6/29/2010 3:03:55 PM

True. Some analyst said the iPhones coming to Verizon in January though. We'll see how the market goes.

[Edited on June 29, 2010 at 3:28 PM. Reason : s]

6/29/2010 3:05:22 PM

wrong thread

[Edited on June 29, 2010 at 3:23 PM. Reason : .]

6/29/2010 3:21:48 PM

Yeah that's what i said. Wonder who's right.

6/29/2010 3:23:09 PM

my palm pre on sprint tethers pretty nicely

6/29/2010 3:27:43 PM

Quote :

"uh, i have yet to see anyone on AT&T get over 1.5Mbps, and over 50Kbps upload speed, so consider yourself lucky... also AT&T won't let you tether on the unlimited plan, you have to DOWNGRADE to a limited 2GB plan, THEN pay another $20 for 2GB/month to tether. so for the same $50 or so you get 7GB on VZW versus 4GB on AT&T"

I usually get about 2.5 down when I tether and I'm in the middle of nowhere.

Also adding the $20 tethering option to AT&T doesn't give you any extra data. So it's actually $45 a month for only 2GB. Which is why I don't feel so bad about hacking my phone to get it for free on the rare occasion that I need it.

6/29/2010 9:04:15 PM

Quote :

"uh, i have yet to see anyone on AT&T get over 1.5Mbps, and over 50Kbps upload speed, so consider yourself lucky... also AT&T won't let you tether on the unlimited plan, you have to DOWNGRADE to a limited 2GB plan, THEN pay another $20 for 2GB/month to tether. so for the same $50 or so you get 7GB on VZW versus 4GB on AT&T"

yet another reason why AT&T sucks

unlimted data plan on Sprint FTW

6/30/2010 12:21:13 AM

I still have my unlimited data plan on AT&T. Oh and as far as I know Sprints "unlimited" data plan is capped at 5GB just like AT&T and Verizon. I consider myself a heavy mobile user and i rarely go over 1.5 gigs.

6/30/2010 12:41:32 AM

There is no 5GB limit on Verizon for smartphone data. That applies to the tethering add-on and 5GB mobile broadband plans. Verizon does reserve the right to terminate you if you're deemed as having an adverse effect on their network though but who knows how much that amount actually is.

As for Sprint, data really isn't unlimited as they can terminate you if you have more than 300MB of roaming data. The Wifi Hotspot feature on the Evo does give you unlimited tethering over 4G but they state that they can limit throughput speeds or amount on 3G data transferred.

6/30/2010 8:00:34 AM

I don't see how any semi-decent ISP could suck so bad that you are willing to tether 24/7 for your internet needs. 5 bar WiMax maybe but ATT 3g at this point in time? Even in a vacuum I believe latency still runs around 100-200ms. Comcast has retention tactics, so call them up and explain your situation and maybe they can work with you before you commit to cell internet. Also who is your phone company? Because you may be in an area that offers dry-loop DSL. Centurylink's [Pure] branded service is 60/month for 10Mb or 40/month if you're willing to sign the 1 or 2 year contract. ATT/Bell South has most of RTP on lockdown IIRC, though.

I realize that doesn't answer your question, but when I get to work I'll try to dig up some forum threads on people that consider replacing their primary ISP. Usually the only people I've known to stick with it are the ones who by some miracle have great cell coverage and absolutely no other option for data services. Then they pay the 60/month for a datacard.

</2c.ramble>

6/30/2010 8:22:16 AM

Quote :

"Oh wait. You can't even use a Verizon phone in Europe. lol."

isn't that a silly thing to say when you didn't even use at&t in europe specifically because it was expensive? so, uh, congratulations on having the option but refusing to use it because the price is ridiculous

Quote :

"I just travel too much and Verizon/CDMA has such horrible coverage."

i assume you're only talking about traveling abroad, since CDMA coverage in the US is superior to GSM coverage...i mean, this is a fact, not an opinion

if you're talking about abroad, refer to the above

6/30/2010 8:32:47 AM

^^ yeah, my parents have a grandfathered unlimited alltel data plan with a Verizon mifi. Only other option for them is satellite internet which blows. Speeds are tolerable as long as you're not trying to stream hd content.

Quote :

"Oh wait. You can't even use a Verizon phone in Europe. lol"

That quote is false anyways as verizon does offer some phones with gsm support.

6/30/2010 8:38:59 AM

ohh well. in that case, lol

6/30/2010 9:31:00 AM

Quote :

"isn't that a silly thing to say when you didn't even use at&t in europe specifically because it was expensive? so, uh, congratulations on having the option but refusing to use it because the price is ridiculous "

Actually if you pay like $5-20 (depending on ammount data etc) that one month it's not to expensive to use AT&T which i have done before. (i only got the sim the last couple times i've been over seas in the past 6 months). Incoming text messages are free international, and outgoing texts aren't horrible. If you just remember to pay the international plan that month then data isn't really expensive at all. I mean free incoming texts is pretty awesome.

I was just pointing out that unlocking/buying local sim was cheaper, but most people I know who have AT&T just pay the small fee to get greatly reduced international rates.

Quote :

"That quote is false anyways as verizon does offer some phones with gsm support."

Hey if Verizon had nice Android gsm/cdma phones that I could unlock that'd be awesome. I didn't think any of the nicer Android phones had GSM. Do they? And how would that work? Verizon has GSM phones you can get that work in Europe? They have partnerships with non-cdma carriers? I'm not too famlier with that.

Quote :

"since CDMA coverage in the US is superior to GSM coverage...i mean, this is a fact, not an opinion"

I know. Although again I live in the city and typically only travel in places with 3G. When I am traveling in rural areas I've almost never fallen out of Edge and it's always been fast enough for email etc. I guess i'll sacrifice the few times in a year i travel in an Edge area for having faster speeds where i am 99% of the time.

6/30/2010 9:35:35 AM

yeah, while the selection is blah, they do offer CDMA/Quadband GSM phones with sim card support and can be unlocked to use prepaid sim cards overseas. They're mostly failberries like the Tour/Bold 9650 and Storm 1/2. Believe the Touch Pro 2 and one of their flip phones are the only other "world" phones. None of the current Android lineup offer gsm radios but that should change by the end of the year.

6/30/2010 9:43:01 AM

That'd be cool. So does Verizon just provide the phone and you have to find a GSM sim in europe or will your number/etc actually work in europe if you have a CDMA/GSM phone?

6/30/2010 9:47:25 AM

Believe they partner with Vodafone and Verizon offers their own global plan but after 6 months, you can usually have them unlock the phone for free to use other sim cards or pay for an unlock code from a place that sales them.
http://b2b.vzw.com/international/outside_us.html

[Edited on June 30, 2010 at 10:00 AM. Reason : ]

6/30/2010 9:58:22 AM

If I had to choose currently [read: If I were awesome enough to need it] then I would probably use a TouchPro2 as my world phone. The developer community and support for that device are simply amazing.

Which reminds me, I still need to paypal NRGZ28 a 6 pack.

6/30/2010 10:41:11 AM

Quote :

"As for Sprint, data really isn't unlimited as they can terminate you if you have more than 300MB of roaming data. "

Am I reading that right, as in if you use more than 300MB of data per month in standard mobile usage? Or do you mean roaming in the "your phone is in roaming mode"? If it's for standard mobile usage then they could terminate a damn lot of people, so I almost wonder if it's just a "we wrote this into the contract so we could terminate anyone whose data usage is annoying us" kind of thing.

6/30/2010 4:09:31 PM

300MB/month while on other carrier's CDMA towers. If you're out of state, but on the Sprint network it's fine.

6/30/2010 4:17:32 PM