dslreports logo
 story category
Verizon Wireless Settles For Blocking Tethering Apps
FCC Notes They Violated 2008 Spectrum Conditions

The FCC today announced (see Order and Consent Decree and press release) that the agency has settled with Verizon Wireless to the tune of $1.25 million for allegations that Verizon Wireless had been blocking tethering applications from the Android Market. According to the FCC, blocking those apps violated the conditions attached to the C Block spectrum acquired by Verizon in 2008, which prohibited Verizon from blocking or impeding consumer access to the network, devices or software of their choosing.

Click for full size
As a few legal experts noted at the time, the rules were vague enough to pretty much allow any and all bad behavior, assuming it could be claimed the action was to protect the integrity of the network. In this case the FCC still got Verizon to settle, and to set up internal training guidelines so that employees understand the protection.

Verizon's decision to budge could be explained by the fact that Verizon was already moving away from charging extra for tethering (and by proxy blocking tethering apps) with their new switched to their shared data plans.

In other words, the FCC took action and finally enforced 2008 rules when they knew Verizon was already changing their ways -- without FCC involvement. Meanwhile, the FCC is rumored to be ready to sign off on Verizon's marketing relationship with the cable industry, despite the serious anti-competitive and coverage issues that deal raises. This tethering ruling could be a way to pretend to appear "pro consumery" before approving the Verizon cable deal.

"This case was the first of its kind in enforcing the pro-consumer open access obligations of the C Block rules," said FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Michele Ellison in a prepared statement. "It underscores the agency’s commitment to guarantee consumers the benefits of an open wireless broadband platform by providing greater consumer choice and fostering innovation."
view:
topics flat nest 
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

1 edit

tmc8080

Member

4 year lag?

Maybe in another X years they'll see that charging $100 for 4gb of data is also a bad thing and no-compete and raised prices for wireline services is also bad... Who's going to give a crap if you take care of these problems 4 years later?!?!?

Verizon's astray path is damaging their reputation and yet consumers are feeding like pigs at the trough for this broadband data.. it boggles the mind. If you have another reasonable choice.. make that choice.. don't buy from Verizon.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

Re: 4 year lag?

Who's your choice?

You already downed Sprint.

AT&T? They're as bad, if not worse.

T-Mobile is okay where they've invested in infrastructure in the past five years, but that leaves rural areas out in the cold.

Clearwire? Yeah...no.

I have a Verizon iPad. It's fast on 4G and I've been able to tether it since day one. A friend's HTC Rezound is now allowed to tether, using his $30 for 4GB plan, as a result of this decision.

Is this a hollow victory, since Share Everything users can already tether, and tablet users have (at least in the case of the iPad) been able to as well? Sure. However it is a plus for folks who don't have SE, do have limited-data plans and want to tether without rooting.

john
@midcoast.com

john

Anon

Re: 4 year lag?

us celluar is real good if you can get it

JasonOD
@comcast.net

JasonOD to tmc8080

Anon

to tmc8080
said by tmc8080:

Maybe in another X years they'll see that charging $100 for 4gb of data is also a bad thing....

Supply and demand baby.
rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO

rradina

Member

Re: 4 year lag?

How does supply and demand dictate policies of an oligopoly?
Crookshanks
join:2008-02-04
Binghamton, NY

Crookshanks

Member

Re: 4 year lag?

Because "demand" is increasing for a luxury service in spite of the alleged unfairness (*) of the current offerings. The bolded words are key. I love my smartphone but I can't claim with a straight face that it's anything but a luxury. It would be one of the first things to go if money became tight.

(*) I say "alleged unfairness" because I've been around long enough to remember when "mobile data" meant a 9600 baud dial up connection that used your limited pool of minutes while precluding incoming calls. Nowadays people are bellyaching because mobile data isn't cheap enough to use as a replacement for wireline data services.
rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO

rradina

Member

Re: 4 year lag?

How does classifying something as a discretionary service vs. a necessity change how law is enforced? Are you suggesting that businesses delivering discretionary products and services can thumb their nose at the FTC?
Crookshanks
join:2008-02-04
Binghamton, NY

Crookshanks

Member

Re: 4 year lag?

If you have proof of anti-trust why aren't you contacting the US Attorney?

Wireless is a GROWTH market at this time. They don't need to compete on price when people are lining up to get smartphones. That will change when the market matures in a few years.
rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO

rradina

Member

Re: 4 year lag?

Don't pull us off topic. It doesn't matter what I think. We are discussing what you think. So luxury is out and growth is in as the reason laws don't apply to wireless?

How deep can you go? Be careful, Curly is behind you and he's putting his dirt in your hole.
Crookshanks
join:2008-02-04
Binghamton, NY

Crookshanks

Member

Re: 4 year lag?

said by rradina:

So luxury is out and growth is in as the reason laws don't apply to wireless?

Which laws do you think don't apply to wireless?

They have a product. They charge X dollars for it. People buy it. Which laws are being broken? Maybe you're more versed in the legal profession than I am because I'm not seeing the crime here.
rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO

rradina

Member

Re: 4 year lag?

You keep trying to ask me how I think and that's taking us away from what we're discussing. You made the statements regarding luxury and growth. Support your position as to why either or some combination of both eliminate the need for government.

Perhaps I can help. Why did the government establish a maximum rate that can be charged on credit cards? There are tons of credit card providers, lots of competition, some free, some not free. Some with lower interest, some with higher interest. Some designed for people with bad credit. Some with cash back awards. Some with frequent flier miles. Some offer insurance policies on products and vacations. Some even go so far as to cover rental car damages if you are in an accident. Everyone wants a credit card. Everyone who gets a card uses it. Some people even take terms that will end up putting them in debt from which they will never recover. Credit cards are not a necessity because debit cards allow the same access to goods and services. Why did the government need to involve itself in this market?
Crookshanks
join:2008-02-04
Binghamton, NY

1 edit

Crookshanks

Member

Re: 4 year lag?

said by rradina:

You made the statements regarding luxury and growth. Support your position as to why either or some combination of both eliminate the need for government.

You assume facts not in evidence, for I never said that anything about eliminating the need for government. Here's what I said in the initial comment you replied to:

Because "demand" is increasing for a luxury service in spite of the alleged unfairness (*) of the current offerings. The bolded words are key. I love my smartphone but I can't claim with a straight face that it's anything but a luxury. It would be one of the first things to go if money became tight.

I said nothing about Government, for, against, or indifferent. All I said was that wireless data service is a luxury item that would be the first thing to go if money became tight in my household.

You're reading things into my comments that simply aren't there.

Your reply to my comment said:

How does classifying something as a discretionary service vs. a necessity change how law is enforced? Are you suggesting that businesses delivering discretionary products and services can thumb their nose at the FTC?

Now I missed the bit about the FTC (my apologies for that) but I'm still not understanding where you're getting this notion that I'm against the government from.

On this particular issue Verizon was in the wrong. It sucks that it took the FCC four years to fix this problem but that's par for the course with our legal/regulatory system.

Incidentally, wasn't this problem fixed quite awhile ago? I only recall tethering apps being blocked for a month or so; I found them all in the Android market last year without any issue and was not forced to download them from an external site or do anything special to make them work.
rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO

rradina

Member

Re: 4 year lag?

The entire thread of conversation was in response to this:

tmc8080: Maybe in another X years they'll see that charging $100 for 4gb of data is also a bad thing and no-compete and raised prices for wireline services is also bad... Who's going to give a crap if you take care of these problems 4 years later?!?!?

JasonOD: Supply and demand baby.

me: How does supply and demand dictate policies of an oligopoly?

At this point, you replied to me and classified the "demand" as being for a luxury service -- presumably to argue against government involvement because high demand, luxury services will take care o themselves when the value exceeds what people can afford. I assumed this because I was still in the context of the OP which was a response to the article regarding how long it took the FTC to act regarding Comcast's violation.

I'm lost if the context is not rooted in the OP's comments which I interpret to be slamming the FTC for not acting four years ago and not acting to the present market situation which, in my opinion, is an oligopoly where it is unlikely that normal market forces are acting to govern capitalism.

Don't think I'm a liberal who likes big government. I consider myself a moderate conservative that loves this country and I absolutely believe in the free market when run by ethical leaders who care about their employees, their customers, the environment and the profit of their owners. If such a market exists, there wouldn't be much of a need for government oversight. However, I'm not naive enough to agree with congressmen who waive a jobs flag and want to get rid of regulation when most of today's leaders repeatedly demonstrate they will eat their own young to inch the needle one unit higher than their competitors.

Do we need any better example than banking? After the great depression we tightened regulations on banks by creating the Glass-Steagall act. It forbid institutions that accepted deposits from speculating in markets. Because international banks were not bound by these ideals, the finance industry cried and said they could not compete on a world market. I remember the arguments because in 1999, Clinton repealed that law with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley financial modernization act. (Sounds better when they give it a catchy name, eh?) Suddenly insurance companies and investment banks were able to purchase regular banks and commercial banks and look what happened 8 years later.

I was watching a 60-minutes episode last night on CNBC about dust explosions. Yeah -- dust explosions. Apparently industries that process raw materials that create large amounts of dust have a tendency to explode because when the air-dust ratio is just right, a small spark can lead to a violent explosion. People die and OSHA is supposed to be protecting workers. They played a few excerpts of Congress cleaning the floor with the OSHA leader because they haven't acted. OSHA admitted that there are probably 30,000 high risk plants and they inspect 300 per year. (Yay...plants are inspected once every 100 years!). When queried why they didn't act to force these companies to do a better job mitigating the dust, OSHA replied that there are "clean workplace" rules that if followed would eliminate the problem.

While I don't know whether or not there need to be new regulations, it seems pretty difficult to fathom a factory run by a quality leader with ethics who cares about their employees, the environment and their owners would willfully run a dirty place that one day explodes and completely destroys the entire operation. That scrimping on something as simple as installing air filters and other containment devices to keep the air reasonably clean, would be so cost prohibitive and uncompetitive that they just cannot afford it.

In closing, I sincerely hope that the wireless carriers are run by quality leaders with ethics who will not eat their own young. Hope and trust are not the same. As Ronald Reagan said regarding the USSR, "Trust but verify".
rradina

rradina

Member

Re: 4 year lag?

I'd like to correct the statement regarding former President Clinton. He did not repeal the law. He agreed with and signed a bill from Congress that repealed the law. It's not all his fault. I believe a majority republican congress created the bill and he signed it.

FLATLINE
join:2007-02-27
Buffalo, NY

FLATLINE to Crookshanks

Member

to Crookshanks
The basic landline telephone was a luxury at one time and so was good old rabbit eared television. But look what just those two luxuries meant to the world. Just think what those two things did for the advancement of the human race. Sure you can make jokes about couch potatoes and such but seriously. The internet and everything that utilizes it is going to be just as important.
mmay149q
Premium Member
join:2009-03-05
Dallas, TX

mmay149q to tmc8080

Premium Member

to tmc8080
said by tmc8080:

If you have another reasonable choice.. make that choice.. don't buy from Verizon.

Unless you can find one of those kiosks in the mall that are Verizon Wireless resellers, got my Galaxy S3 with my upgrade, and was still able to keep unlimited data. Just don't go to the Verizon corporate stores and you'll be ok, the resellers are much more willing to "bend the rules" since I think they get commission and such.

Either way, point of the story is never go to Verizon Corporate directly, they'll always just follow the rules and screw you anyway possible...

Matt

Jim Kirk
Premium Member
join:2005-12-09
49985

Jim Kirk

Premium Member

Re: 4 year lag?

said by mmay149q:

said by tmc8080:

If you have another reasonable choice.. make that choice.. don't buy from Verizon.

Unless you can find one of those kiosks in the mall that are Verizon Wireless resellers, got my Galaxy S3 with my upgrade, and was still able to keep unlimited data. Just don't go to the Verizon corporate stores and you'll be ok, the resellers are much more willing to "bend the rules" since I think they get commission and such.

Either way, point of the story is never go to Verizon Corporate directly, they'll always just follow the rules and screw you anyway possible...

Matt

When did you do this? IIRC, the GS3 was available for a few days before the "you only keep your unlimited if you pay full price for your phone" policy kicked in.
mmay149q
Premium Member
join:2009-03-05
Dallas, TX

mmay149q

Premium Member

Re: 4 year lag?

said by Jim Kirk:

said by mmay149q:

said by tmc8080:

If you have another reasonable choice.. make that choice.. don't buy from Verizon.

Unless you can find one of those kiosks in the mall that are Verizon Wireless resellers, got my Galaxy S3 with my upgrade, and was still able to keep unlimited data. Just don't go to the Verizon corporate stores and you'll be ok, the resellers are much more willing to "bend the rules" since I think they get commission and such.

Either way, point of the story is never go to Verizon Corporate directly, they'll always just follow the rules and screw you anyway possible...

Matt

When did you do this? IIRC, the GS3 was available for a few days before the "you only keep your unlimited if you pay full price for your phone" policy kicked in.

Last Friday, I have a family plan with 3 lines, so the added the phone brand new to the 3rd line, and then swapped it over to my line to make it look like I bought the phone outright, I think they did this because as soon as they said I HAD to remove my unlimited data, I told them to instantly cancel the transaction and took my device from their hand, and started walking away. It was actually kind of amusing after thinking about it xD

Matt
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned) to mmay149q

Member

to mmay149q
said by mmay149q:

said by tmc8080:

If you have another reasonable choice.. make that choice.. don't buy from Verizon.

Unless you can find one of those kiosks in the mall that are Verizon Wireless resellers, got my Galaxy S3 with my upgrade, and was still able to keep unlimited data. Just don't go to the Verizon corporate stores and you'll be ok, the resellers are much more willing to "bend the rules" since I think they get commission and such.

Either way, point of the story is never go to Verizon Corporate directly, they'll always just follow the rules and screw you anyway possible...

Matt

Your info is wrong. You can only keep unlimited if you pay full price for a phone. If you take an upgrade you lose unlimited.
mmay149q
Premium Member
join:2009-03-05
Dallas, TX

mmay149q

Premium Member

Re: 4 year lag?

Click for full size
So... no upgrade used eh?
said by 88615298:

said by mmay149q:

said by tmc8080:

If you have another reasonable choice.. make that choice.. don't buy from Verizon.

Unless you can find one of those kiosks in the mall that are Verizon Wireless resellers, got my Galaxy S3 with my upgrade, and was still able to keep unlimited data. Just don't go to the Verizon corporate stores and you'll be ok, the resellers are much more willing to "bend the rules" since I think they get commission and such.

Either way, point of the story is never go to Verizon Corporate directly, they'll always just follow the rules and screw you anyway possible...

Matt

Your info is wrong. You can only keep unlimited if you pay full price for a phone. If you take an upgrade you lose unlimited.

Really? I'm sorry does that say unlimited or 2GB's? I can't tell... I don't have my glasses on. Or at least to my knowledge I thought the S3's cost way more than $217 unsubsidized... Why don't you troll somewhere else, thanks. :-D

Matt
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned)

Member

Re: 4 year lag?

The fact is those that pre-ordered the SIII were able to keep unlimited. I'm am telling you that since June 28th if you wanted to keep unlimited you have to pay full price for the phone. If you don't believe me go to the Verizon website and check out the forums and Verizon employees themselves will tell you that is the case. I have a friend that is on unlimited but their upgrade isn't until October and they asked and Verizon confirmed that if they take a discount upgrade they lose the unlimited. They have to pay full price for any phone to keep unlimited.
mmay149q
Premium Member
join:2009-03-05
Dallas, TX

mmay149q

Premium Member

Re: 4 year lag?

Yes but you keep talking about Verizon employee's, where I had this done was NOT a official Verizon store, it was a 3rd party kiosk in the mall. l2r

Matt

P.S. I didn't pre-order either.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned)

Member

Re: 4 year lag?

said by mmay149q:

Yes but you keep talking about Verizon employee's, where I had this done was NOT a official Verizon store, it was a 3rd party kiosk in the mall. l2r

Matt

P.S. I didn't pre-order either.

I'm talking about official Verizon policy. You can NOT keep unlimited data and still get a subsidized phone. That is a FACT.
mmay149q
Premium Member
join:2009-03-05
Dallas, TX

mmay149q

Premium Member

Re: 4 year lag?

said by 88615298:

said by mmay149q:

Yes but you keep talking about Verizon employee's, where I had this done was NOT a official Verizon store, it was a 3rd party kiosk in the mall. l2r

Matt

P.S. I didn't pre-order either.

I'm talking about official Verizon policy. You can NOT keep unlimited data and still get a subsidized phone. That is a FACT.

Well hate to burst your bubble, but I can, and I did do this, sorry you don't have an open mind

Matt
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned)

Member

Re: 4 year lag?

said by mmay149q:

said by 88615298:

said by mmay149q:

Yes but you keep talking about Verizon employee's, where I had this done was NOT a official Verizon store, it was a 3rd party kiosk in the mall. l2r

Matt

P.S. I didn't pre-order either.

I'm talking about official Verizon policy. You can NOT keep unlimited data and still get a subsidized phone. That is a FACT.

Well hate to burst your bubble, but I can, and I did do this, sorry you don't have an open mind

Matt

I don't care what you did. I'm am stating FACT. FACT can be proven. YOUR supposed fact CAN NOT be proven. I guess the CEO of Verizon is wrong when he said you can't get a subsidized phone and keep unlimited. You're right the guy who runs the company is wrong. Makes sense.

From the Verizon forums

Hi IV,

Your feedback is greatly appreciated and I can happily alleviate the confusion. You are able to keep your unlimited data when purchasing a device at the full retail price. When upgrading at a discounted price you can choose between a Usage Based data plan or a Share Everything. How much data do you use currently? Which plan do you currently have? How many active lines of service? Have you had the opportunity to identify how you would be affected by a Share Everything plan? If not, this fantastic tool can assist you:»bit.ly/KBmvR7. I hope this information is helpful. Please let me know if you have any additional questions or concerns.

Thank you for your involvement in our community forums,

AyaniB_VZWSupport

Follow us on twitter @VZWSupport

skuv
@rr.com

skuv to tmc8080

Anon

to tmc8080
The FCC isn't going to regulate the price of a private company's product. Maybe if there weren't multiple cellular carriers, but there are.
rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO

rradina

Member

Re: 4 year lag?

Yes there are multiple wireless carriers. From Wikipedia here's the top 8 by customer count (I added the percentage column*):

Verizon Wireless (108.7 million, 31.89%)
AT&T Mobility (103.2 million, 30.27%)
Sprint Nextel (55 million, 16.13%)
T-Mobile USA (34 million, 9.97%)
TracFone Wireless (19 million, 5.57%)
MetroPCS (9 million, 2.64%)
U.S. Cellular (6 million, 1.76%)
Cricket Wireless (6 million, 1.76%)

If this is really a competitive environment, why would the FTC prohibit the merger between AT&T and T-Mobile? That would still leave what looks like plenty of carriers. Granted, had the merger been approved the top two would have gone from owning 62% of the market to over 70% of the market but there's plenty of other carriers and seemingly, plenty of competition. So why did they prohibit the merger?

* Percentages are skewed since all subscribers are not represented. The top 8 claim 340M subscribers. The current US pop is 314M. 340M may include international subscribers and business users who have separate work and personal phones.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned)

Member

Re: 4 year lag?

said by rradina:

Yes there are multiple wireless carriers. From Wikipedia here's the top 8 by customer count (I added the percentage column*):

Verizon Wireless (108.7 million, 31.89%)
AT&T Mobility (103.2 million, 30.27%)
Sprint Nextel (55 million, 16.13%)
T-Mobile USA (34 million, 9.97%)
TracFone Wireless (19 million, 5.57%)
MetroPCS (9 million, 2.64%)
U.S. Cellular (6 million, 1.76%)
Cricket Wireless (6 million, 1.76%)

If this is really a competitive environment, why would the FTC prohibit the merger between AT&T and T-Mobile? That would still leave what looks like plenty of carriers. Granted, had the merger been approved the top two would have gone from owning 62% of the market to over 70% of the market but there's plenty of other carriers and seemingly, plenty of competition. So why did they prohibit the merger?

* Percentages are skewed since all subscribers are not represented. The top 8 claim 340M subscribers. The current US pop is 314M. 340M may include international subscribers and business users who have separate work and personal phones.

Well let's assume that people like BABIES don't have cell phones. In fact let assume most kids under 5 don't. That's 7% of the population.

Also there are many people that can't get most of those carriers.
rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO

rradina

Member

Re: 4 year lag?

What's your point?
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned)

Member

Re: 4 year lag?

said by rradina:

What's your point?

My point is that you claim that these companies have a smaller share the US population than they actually do since 5 year old can't have cell phones.
mmay149q
Premium Member
join:2009-03-05
Dallas, TX

mmay149q

Premium Member

Re: 4 year lag?

said by 88615298:

said by rradina:

What's your point?

My point is that you claim that these companies have a smaller share the US population than they actually do since 5 year old can't have cell phones.

You still keep quoting company rules, and aren't using your brain to think about 3rd party resellers that only care about keeping their stand open because the economy is crap.

As far as proof, I already proved it with screen shots, not my fault you don't believe it.

The way this was done:

Reseller put Samsung Galaxy S3 on 3rd line I have on family plan with 2GB of data to use so I could get upgrade discount price, after completed transaction reseller put S3 on my line to look like I bought the phone full price, reseller then put my old (not even feature) phone back on 3rd line, and BAM used upgrade to get S3 and kept unlimited

Matt
rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO

rradina to 88615298

Member

to 88615298
The percentages are based on the market size claimed by the top 8 carriers (340M). Wikipedia determined the top 8 by using numbers claimed directly by the providers or from various news sources.

To further explain the asterisk I included in my OP, it's a caveat to make sure the reader considers:

1) It doesn't include all providers. It's limited to the market defined by the top 8. Since the smallest provider listed has 6M subscribers, if there are 20 more significant carriers each with 1M customers, the total size of the market is actually 360M. This would cause Verizon's percentage to go from ~32% to ~30%.

2) The US population is only 314M and therefore the providers must be including international subscribers and/or a lot of folks have more than one account since it's impossible to claim 340M subscribers when there are only 314M people which, as you cited, includes babies.

I included the reference to the US population to make sure the reader specifically did not draw your conclusion but I could have made that more clear.

If you are interested, here's the reference to the Wikipedia article:

»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li ··· roviders

skeechan
Ai Otsukaholic
Premium Member
join:2012-01-26
AA169|170

skeechan

Premium Member

Subs get ready for...

and increase in your "regulatory recovery fee".
navyson
join:2011-07-15
Upper Marlboro, MD

navyson

Member

Foxfi

I have been using the tethering App Foxfi for about a year with no problems and no additional charges from Verizon.

•••
ke4pym
Premium Member
join:2004-07-24
Charlotte, NC

ke4pym

Premium Member

When do I

get to tether to my unlimited data T'bolt?

bobjohnson
Premium Member
join:2007-02-03
Spartanburg, SC

bobjohnson

Premium Member

So basically....

The FCC's price for approving the VZ and CableCo deal was 1.25 mil.

cork1958
Cork
Premium Member
join:2000-02-26

cork1958

Premium Member

Re: So basically....

Basically, yes!!

They should've just dissolved that miserable company, instead of fining them!
old_wiz_60
join:2005-06-03
Bedford, MA

old_wiz_60 to bobjohnson

Member

to bobjohnson
Yup. It's interesting to see an actual money number for bribes.

Old Jarhead
@myvzw.com

Old Jarhead

Anon

$30 refund!

So, who thinks VZW will drop the hotspot charge for those Subs who are already paying the $30 per month?
othas3
join:2002-07-15
Los Angeles, CA

othas3

Member

Re: $30 refund!

Hear! Hear! I activated mobile hotspot in April, after I got a WiFi only tablet. Let me add that I had to call Verizon to activate it. No one in the Verizon store was able to do it AND keep my unlimited data.
Crookshanks
join:2008-02-04
Binghamton, NY

Crookshanks

Member

Re: $30 refund!

That's because the unlimited data feature _does not_ include free tethering.

HarleyYac
Lee
Premium Member
join:2001-10-13
Allendale, NJ

HarleyYac

Premium Member

wait.......

So we did not NEED to pay the $20 + fee for mobile hotspot ?

fifty nine
join:2002-09-25
Sussex, NJ

fifty nine

Member

Unlimited data plans not covered

This ruling doesn't affect unlimited data plans. They can still charge a tethering fee for those.

Old Jarhead
@myvzw.com

Old Jarhead

Anon

Re: Unlimited data plans not covered

According to CNET: "It's unclear if customers with an unlimited data plan will be forced to give up that data plan if they use a tethering app. Previously, that has been the case. What's more, the settlement only applies apps on Verizon's 4G LTE network. It's unclear whether Verizon will continue to charge 3G-only customers the additional $20 fee for tethering their smartphones, if they use these third party tethering apps. "

fifty nine
join:2002-09-25
Sussex, NJ

fifty nine

Member

Re: Unlimited data plans not covered

Yes, but they can still charge the fee for tethering.

hanzoronin
join:2012-08-02
USA

hanzoronin

Member

Wireless phones are NOT a luxury (Tethering should be free)

Our DMVs and police phrased that "driving is not a right but a privilege". That simply is NOT applicable anymore in the real world. People will always drive cars because its a necessity and same goes for smartphones and wireless. Its a necessity b/c of ease and comfort that it created. Further, competition creates value, like the auto industry clearly shows, this is fueled by the commodity that driving created: Transportation and it also applies to a new commodity created by Telcos and the internet called: Communication (e.g. wireless) ... So please is some1 tells you your smartphone is a luxury slap his mama and buy him some running shoes to walk the floor instead (take his keys while your at it)