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hottboiinnc4
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH

hottboiinnc4 to flycuban

Member

to flycuban

Re: Own you?

you may own the device- but not their network. Your monthly fee gives you the privilege to use it and they say what happens on it. If you don't like it; then there are other carriers that will take your business.
mmay149q
Premium Member
join:2009-03-05
Dallas, TX

mmay149q

Premium Member

said by hottboiinnc4:

you may own the device- but not their network. Your monthly fee gives you the privilege to use it and they say what happens on it. If you don't like it; then there are other carriers that will take your business.

So what happens when no one is satisfied with all the carriers and the terms to use their network? Everyone should just put up with it and feel privileged to pay more for antiquated technology that's been around for 30 years now?

Matt
ISurfTooMuch
join:2007-04-23
Tuscaloosa, AL

ISurfTooMuch to hottboiinnc4

Member

to hottboiinnc4
said by hottboiinnc4:

you may own the device- but not their network. Your monthly fee gives you the privilege to use it and they say what happens on it. If you don't like it; then there are other carriers that will take your business.

Yes, but tethering is not a network function; it's a phone function. The tethering happens after the data has been received by the phone. At that point, it is no longer traversing their network.

That would be like your ISP telling you that you can't use a wireless router in your house. Once that data comes out of the LAN side of their modem, it isn't any concern of theirs what you do with it. Or, if you want an older example, it would be like the phone company telling you that you had to only use a telephone that you rented from them. If you wanted more extensions in your house, you had to get the phone company out to install them, and you paid more for renting extra phones. It didn't matter that you still only had one line. If you wanted another phone, or a different kind of phone, you had to get Ma Bell's OK.
WernerSchutz
join:2009-08-04
Sugar Land, TX

WernerSchutz

Member

And that is exactly what they are working toward. All the government regulation and customer protections be damned. I am looking forward when those kind of "features" come to a car or a house that you buy.

Fascism is a lot of fun.
jjeffeory
jjeffeory
join:2002-12-04
Bloomington, IN

jjeffeory to mmay149q

Member

to mmay149q
I can tell you the answer. We do without. Screw us! You want to participate in modern society? Too bad. Pay up or shut up!

Sucks, huh?
jjeffeory

jjeffeory to ISurfTooMuch

Member

to ISurfTooMuch
I had a cable company tell me that I couldn't use a router at home. It was against their TOS. That was in '06 in a LARGE metro area too. I looked at them and laughed!
hottboiinnc4
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH

hottboiinnc4 to mmay149q

Member

to mmay149q
You do as the carrier wishes and you agree to. You signed the contract agreeing to their terms of using that device. You know up front that it will cost you extra for the hotspot device then you agree to pay for it if you wish to use it.
hottboiinnc4

hottboiinnc4 to ISurfTooMuch

Member

to ISurfTooMuch
Yes but putting that device on a computer can and most likely will cause more strain on the network due to pulling more data over it.
hottboiinnc4

hottboiinnc4 to jjeffeory

Member

to jjeffeory
and if its in your contract yes they can. Still their network that you lease access to.
en103
join:2011-05-02

en103 to mmay149q

Member

to mmay149q
I was supposed to be why net neutrality rules were attempted.
To ensure that carriers wouldn't 'double dip' or block certain services.
Instead - they just raise prices.
Personally - since there is a 2GB 'cap' (overage charged), they shouldn't care if I tether or not. Most likely, they'd like to keep those that have data lines from using the phone as a modem w/o extra revenue.
dr_jack
join:2002-04-21
Irving, TX

dr_jack to hottboiinnc4

Member

to hottboiinnc4
said by hottboiinnc4:

Yes but putting that device on a computer can and most likely will cause more strain on the network due to pulling more data over it.

So, basically you agree that the point of the fee is to make it difficult for a user to use the 2 GB of data for which they have already paid (assuming a $30/month data plan).

I am sure that all the carriers love to charge customer a fee for minimum usage and then have them use very little data.

If you have already paid for 2 GB, you should be free to use it as you wish. If you pull more than 2 GB ("..strain on the network"), then overages increase the bill.

asdfdfdfdfdf
@myvzw.com

asdfdfdfdfdf to hottboiinnc4

Anon

to hottboiinnc4
So what? I thought we were moving to pay per use where those who use more will be paying more to offset the costs of such additional strain.
mmay149q
Premium Member
join:2009-03-05
Dallas, TX

mmay149q to jjeffeory

Premium Member

to jjeffeory
said by jjeffeory:

I can tell you the answer. We do without. Screw us! You want to participate in modern society? Too bad. Pay up or shut up!

Sucks, huh?

Not really, if we unite as a nation and all decide to drop our phones I'm pretty sure the carriers will change their tune when all their customers leave, honestly, investors can't keep a company afloat if they aren't getting return on investment.

Matt

r81984
Fair and Balanced
Premium Member
join:2001-11-14
Katy, TX

r81984 to asdfdfdfdfdf

Premium Member

to asdfdfdfdfdf
said by asdfdfdfdfdf :

So what? I thought we were moving to pay per use where those who use more will be paying more to offset the costs of such additional stain.

LOL
Paying by the byte is not used to offset any costs. They would never go to a true pay by the byte system or sell internet less than the cost risking that enough people use enough of data to pay for the network.
The costs are already 100% covered with a great profit from your flat monthly price.
Paying by the byte is being implemented to prevent competition for TV services and to get extra profits.

Originaly with cell phones and the internet the price was very high so they charged lower up front fees and charged by the minute otherwise people could not afford it.
In 1995 bandwidth got so cheap and there was so much competition they went to unlimited and were greatly profitable. With cell phones they did the same thing. In the mid 2000s cell phone bandwidth got so cheap they started to offer unlimited minutes, unlimited internet because of competition.

Now with internet all the competition has been shutout with broadband and the companies are now regressing to charging by the byte to rip customers off. Cell companies are doing the same thing with wireless.
mmay149q
Premium Member
join:2009-03-05
Dallas, TX

mmay149q to hottboiinnc4

Premium Member

to hottboiinnc4
said by hottboiinnc4:

You do as the carrier wishes and you agree to. You signed the contract agreeing to their terms of using that device. You know up front that it will cost you extra for the hotspot device then you agree to pay for it if you wish to use it.

When I got my device the functionality was free, and since at the time PDANet was free and able to be downloaded on the Market I went that route to tether for free, so I didn't break any ToS or ToU, I used the device naturally with app's that were already in place on the Market. Since then VZW has changed my ToS/ToU so since they did that does that mean I should cancel my plan and pay an ETF? Naaaaah, I think not

Matt
ISurfTooMuch
join:2007-04-23
Tuscaloosa, AL

ISurfTooMuch to hottboiinnc4

Member

to hottboiinnc4
said by hottboiinnc4:

Yes but putting that device on a computer can and most likely will cause more strain on the network due to pulling more data over it.

No it won't. Will it consume more data? Yes, but it can't pull it any faster than the network allows. The carrier is selling access at a particular speed, and that's what you're paying for.

But the real reason they don't want you to actually use that speed is because the whole affair is a bunch of smoke and mirrors. The network is oversold, sometimes badly so, but they aren't going to tell customers that. It's all a juggling act. They sell you that speed hoping that you never use it because they know they can't possibly support it if a majority of their customers take full advantage of it. It's just like the airlines overbooking flights, except for two things: First, the carriers oversell much more than the airlines do, and second, if you can't get a seat on your plane, the airlines have to compensate you and get you on another flight. If the carriers ran the airlines, you could still buy tickets, but you'd be penalized if you tried to use all the plane tickets you bought. For example, if the airline overbooked 20% of its seats, you'd be expected to not use 20% of the tickets you bought. And if you wanted to use all the tickets you bought, you'd be labeled an abuser of the system.
ISurfTooMuch

ISurfTooMuch to hottboiinnc4

Member

to hottboiinnc4
And no one said they couldn't do it. However, it's still unreasonable.

And before you say that's ridiculous because these are private businesses, that's true, but they're befitting from government-imposed subsidies in the form of access to public rights-of-way and easements. Did you personally cut a deal to allow the phone and cable companies to cross your property with their lines? No? Then I dare you to go out there and dig them up. You'll find yourself charged with tampering with their equipment, even though it's on your property without your permission. And it's all because your local or state government has decided that these companies should, in the public interest, have the right to put their facilities on your property, and you have no say in the matter.

So, if you want a true free market where it's perfectly OK for any company to be able to extract anything from you as long as it's in a contract, then let's have a real free market and force these companies to have to negotiate to cross every single piece of private property. If you're going to argue that muni fiber is unnecessary because cable TV and Internet access aren't necessary services, then let's take that to its logical conclusion and deny them rights-of-way and easements. Then, once these are true private entities that receive no government subsidies, they can do any damn thing they want.