Tethering question

stevemcmahon40 · ‎02-22-2011

I've been an ATT customer for some years now, with uverse triple play at home and partner and I each have an iPhone and an iPad. Here's my question/issue: I've been paying for unlimited data which I don't use too much of simply for future proofing. I know ATT has a lot of convoluted ways to charge people for things which have already been paid for, such as charging for tethering and making them switch off unlimited data, when in reality unlimited data should include tethering at no cost. They also throttle people who use their unlimited plans generously.

I travel for medical treatment and as a loyal customer, would like to see a perk for choosing to keep my business with ATT. I'd like to be able to turn on the personal hotspot when I travel without worrying about being moved to a tiered data plan or being charged an extra fee to use the same data that I'm already paying for. Now, I'm happy to keep my usage under the 3 or 5 gigs a month. (ATT throttles at 3Gigs for 3G and 5Gigs for fake 4G for unlimited plans).

Has anybody had any luck with ATT giving them this type of perk in exchange for their continued loyalty?

I'm also paying for data on my iPad LTE when I travel, but for some strange reason there is no option to activate personal hotspot on the iPad, even though I'm paying for tiered data with that device. I'd actually consider paying for the $50 plan instead of the $30 plan on the months I activate iPad data if I could use it to feed data to one of my laptops.

Airport wifi is worthless and having 2 devices which give me data, arguably the best mobile devices in the world, I should be able to do this without being gouged further.

I also don't buy the argument that the entire ATT data using community suffers when a person tethers, without paying extra fees. ATT made 6 billion dollars in profit last quarter. Over the last 4 years I've probably used about 500 megs a month of data on average, if that, for my unlimited plan. You didn't see me trying to exact a refund for the unused data.

Has anybody received this type of concession from ATT by asking for it? Thanks for your responses.

dwill05 · ‎04-06-2005

AT&T doesn't seem to offer things like this in exchange for "loyalty". I suspect the reason is that once you do it for one person, everyone will want the same because everyone thinks they are special.

johninsj · ‎07-07-2010

AT&T cannot give you this perk - in order to enable the tethering option on your device you have to be on a compatible plan, and no grandfathered unlimited plan is compatible (they all predate the introduction of tethering in iOS)

So you can either convert to a metered plan that supports tethering, or not use tethering.

There is NO additional charge for tethering on the metered plan, you just prebuy more data at exactly the same cost as you would otherwise pay for that data (ie, +2GB + $20, or $10/GB) - you were gonna use that data anyway, right?

disneymagik · ‎09-30-2009

I tried to use their "tethering" plan on my husband's iPhone 3GS so he could share a connection with/to my son's iPod touch so he could watch something on Hulu or Netflix while we were waiting at one of my recent long MD appt's. I figured it was as good a time as any to try it out with antsy kids in a waiting room, and it DID NOT WORK! I would turn on the hotspot, the iPod touch would find & recognize the device (iPhone) by name, then look as though it was going to connect and both devices would drop each other. The iPhone would exit the Personal Hotspot w/o touching anything & the connection indicator on the top status bar of the iPod would disappear & it would quickly exit to the home screen, again w/o anyone touching the device. We tried MANY times and even tried troubleshooting but no dice. I switched that plan back to the 3GB Data Pro Plan TootSweet!! And I used my husband's iPhone to try it and NOT MINE, because I have the coveted UNLIMITED DATA PLAN! I've had it since my 3GS & now with my 4. I jailbroke my 3GS and as I learned how to customize & maximize the potential of my phone, i LOVED all the AWESOME THINGS I could do. One of my favorite things being MyWi. After all the frustration I/we went through trying to get tethering to work to no avail, it ended with extremely frustrated parents and ten times as ornery kids! But I later realized that whole fiasco was a message for me to stop procrastinating and liberate my iPhone 4 already!!

johninsj · ‎07-07-2010

Consider yourself lucky - tethering to stream video over 3G is a really bad idea, unless you like spending $10 an hour to watch stuff on Netflix.

Tethering works fine on more modern iPhones - my spouse uses it to connect her laptop and iPad to the internet when needed - but even with 5GB of data it's really not good for streaming video. You churn through data way too fast.

Facci · ‎11-30-2005

Not to mention that I think anybody who is with AT&T, even only for 6 months considers themselves "loyal".

anton697 · ‎02-24-2012

johninsj wrote:

Tethering works fine on more modern iPhones...

As opposed to what--that tethering may not work fine on "less modern" iPhones...even if it is officially supported on such an iPhone? Wow, didn't realize that arguably the greatest smartphone of all time included "less modern" models; does that make those iPhone models no more modern than dumbphones?

I can see the banter now--"My iPhone is more modern than your iPhone"...LOL!!!! I mean, it's one thing for iPhone lovers to argue that their iPhones are better (or, "more modern") than other smart and/or dumbphones...but now folks are differentiating between iPhone models?

21stNow · ‎07-07-2010

What? Are you arguing that the first iPhone and the iPhone 4S are the same, that the 4S isn't more modern than the original?

johninsj · ‎07-07-2010

anton697 wrote:

johninsj wrote:

Tethering works fine on more modern iPhones...

As opposed to what--

The 3/3GS have far slower CPUs, and this does limit their ability to do tethering well. I have used it on iPhone4 and 4s phones and it works without issue there.

gphipps · ‎01-31-2011

iPhone 3GS does not offer wifi hotspot.

disneymagik · ‎09-30-2009

Well that explains it, but then it SHOULD NOT be an option available to select as a feature. It's misleading & and I KNOW they can easily remove that option for users with 3G/3GS users if they can IMMEDIATELY remove the option of your previous smaller data package once you select a larger one.

dwill05 · ‎04-06-2005

disneymagik wrote:
Well that explains it, but then it SHOULD NOT be an option available to select as a feature. It's misleading & and I KNOW they can easily remove that option for users with 3G/3GS users if they can IMMEDIATELY remove the option of your previous smaller data package once you select a larger one.

The 3G/3GS can tether, so it's a valid option. The difference is that those models can only use the USB cable or bluetooth to connect, while the 4/4S can use those methods plus WiFi. That's a limitation Apple put on the earlier phones, not AT&T.

wingrider01 · ‎05-26-2008

disneymagik wrote:
Well that explains it, but then it SHOULD NOT be an option available to select as a feature. It's misleading & and I KNOW they can easily remove that option for users with 3G/3GS users if they can IMMEDIATELY remove the option of your previous smaller data package once you select a larger one.

It may not be able to be used as a hotspot, but it can be tethered via a direct connect

disneymagik · ‎09-30-2009

Well it was trying via Bluetooth and kept failing. As far as direct connect, I'm not too tech savvy so if you would be so kind as to explain that'd be great.

21stNow · ‎07-07-2010

A direct connect would be plugging the phone into the USB port of the laptop, as opposed to setting up a Wi-fi hotspot on the phone, or using BT to tether.

disneymagik · ‎09-30-2009

Ok, that makes sense. I learn something new every day!

johninsj · ‎07-07-2010

disneymagik wrote:
Well it was trying via Bluetooth and kept failing. As far as direct connect, I'm not too tech savvy so if you would be so kind as to explain that'd be great.

Sounds like the BT connection was the issue

wingrider01 · ‎05-26-2008

johninsj wrote:

disneymagik wrote:
Well it was trying via Bluetooth and kept failing. As far as direct connect, I'm not too tech savvy so if you would be so kind as to explain that'd be great.

Sounds like the BT connection was the issue

need to dig up a BT specifications, the 3GS is Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR wireless technology, not usre that can be used for data transmission pairing, can't remember what release of bluetooth that came in with