And here it starts! Goodbuy unlimited on sprint

[djphatjive]

Sprint Capping Phone as a Modem to 5GB Starting October 2nd » Sprintfeed

Looks like Sprint might be in the first steps to limiting its unlimited internet. It says no grandfathering in too. Kind of sucks.

[Vyruz Reaper]

it is such a goodbuy

[slivkjs]

Originally Posted by djphatjive

Sprint Capping Phone as a Modem to 5GB Starting October 2nd » Sprintfeed

Looks like Sprint might be in the first steps to limiting its unlimited internet. It says no grandfathering in too. Kind of sucks.

According to the article (if you read the full thing) - they are making several changes in order to KEEP unlimited web usage on phones - and knocking down the limit on modem usage (wifi hotspots) is one way to keep the data usage down in other areas so that they can keep it unlimited on the phones. It'll be a long time before they add limits on their phone plans. Think about it, if Sprint gets the iphone - having the unlimited plans will be a big differentiation among their competition, and will draw more customers to their service.

[GTAFan9999]

Originally Posted by slivkjs

According to the article (if you read the full thing) - they are making several changes in order to KEEP unlimited web usage on phones - and knocking down the limit on modem usage (wifi hotspots) is one way to keep the data usage down in other areas so that they can keep it unlimited on the phones. It'll be a long time before they add limits on their phone plans. Think about it, if Sprint gets the iphone - having the unlimited plans will be a big differentiation among their competition, and will draw more customers to their service.

And to support your comment, I don't think it's really necessary to use your phone as a modem when you can just get a separate one from and actual company that sells internet service. Or the person could just get a wifi router rather than using their phone.

[jcerwinske]

Originally Posted by slivkjs

Think about it, if Sprint gets the iphone - having the unlimited plans will be a big differentiation among their competition, and will draw more customers to their service.

I've seen Sprint commercials for a while that have talked up the slogan "The Best Unlimited Plan Wins," while illustrating how their competitors aren't really unlimited. It seems to me to be the PRIMARY differentiation Sprint is trying to sell to customers on. Turning right around and engaging in the same limits for they are simultaneously attacking their competitors would be a huge bullet through their own foot.

[jcerwinske]

Originally Posted by GTAFan9999

I don't think it's really necessary to use your phone as a modem when you can just get a separate one from and actual company that sells internet service. Or the person could just get a wifi router rather than using their phone.

You are overestimating the consumer's willingness to spend more money on redundant services.

[jdod]

So, can they "see" Free Tether? And can they limit it, or charge when you you go over a limit?

[angiest]

Originally Posted by jcerwinske

You are overestimating the consumer's willingness to spend more money on redundant services.

Or business customers use tethering to do work when they don't have access to a wired or "real" wireless network. I have to do that for support sometimes, it beats having to drive home or into the office if something comes up that requires attention "right now."

[jcerwinske]

Originally Posted by jdod

So, can they "see" Free Tether? And can they limit it, or charge when you you go over a limit?

They often check the agent that sends requests over the network, and if it's fishy looking (ie IE user agent coming from a supposed webOS phone), they determine it to be tethering. This is similar to how Hulu tries to block users on mobile devices from their site.

I don't know if the carriers use more sophisticated techniques or not. I assume they must also look at the sheer amount of traffic you're generating/consuming.

[OldSkoolVWLover]

Originally Posted by jdod

So, can they "see" Free Tether? And can they limit it, or charge when you you go over a limit?

I am guessing they will be looking extra closely at folks going over that 5 gig limit with a phone only plan. That is quite a bit of data in only using your phone. I know P|C had one user that said he used about 7 gigs a month, but he was streaming pandora all day every day at work, plus other data.

When I was on Sprint, I could get between 3 and 4 gig with rarely using WiFi anywhere. Using wifi on my faster AT&T service and doing some data to the TouchPad, I am well under 2 gigs a month.

[jcerwinske]

Originally Posted by angiest

Or business customers use tethering to do work when they don't have access to a wired or "real" wireless network. I have to do that for support sometimes, it beats having to drive home or into the office if something comes up that requires attention "right now."

Right, but those carriers want so called "business customers" to buy their separate tethering mobile hotspot device with a separate service contract. Using the phone to tether is the exact scenario that renders this model DOA, which is why they want to eliminate it.

Hence, my comment about the consumers "willingness to spend more money on redundant services." They aren't, and here we are in this thread.

[pogeypre]

Capping the shared data is a good move. My guess is that the majority of the data hoggers are using their smartphones as tethered devices. Capping that will keep unlimited data on phones around longer.

[jmleese]

Well they must of changed their minds because I just read where they are keeping them and even offering an unlimited data plan for the iphone... 69.99 for starters and comes w 450 min talk time & 99 for unlimited everything plan. My guess is they are trying to lure a large chunk of the iphone users over that don't have gf'd in unlimited data plans?

-- Sent from my HP TouchPad using Communities

[stu5797]

What about the $10 rip off fee?

[Syndil]

The thing is even with the $10 "rip-off" fee, Sprint's plans are still the best and least expensive choice for most people. There's the unlimited data, of course, but Sprint also includes navigation and messaging in their plans, whereas other carriers charge a la carte for those services.

-- Sent from my HP TouchPad using Communities

[OldSkoolVWLover]

Originally Posted by Syndil

The thing is even with the $10 "rip-off" fee, Sprint's plans are still the best and least expensive choice for most people. There's the unlimited data, of course, but Sprint also includes navigation and messaging in their plans, whereas other carriers charge a la carte for those services.

-- Sent from my HP TouchPad using Communities

Just saying, adding the $10 fee for us made Sprint more expensive than AT&T. Since we can pay for the services we need, the minimum 1500 minute family plan is overkill with unlimited mobile to mobile for example.

[Orion Antares]

Originally Posted by Syndil

The thing is even with the $10 "rip-off" fee, Sprint's plans are still the best and least expensive choice for most people. There's the unlimited data, of course, but Sprint also includes navigation and messaging in their plans, whereas other carriers charge a la carte for those services.

-- Sent from my HP TouchPad using Communities

We got Verizon to give us a promo ages ago such that if we have unlimited text and data they give us a $20 per phone monthly credit ($100). It brought our Verizon service cost right inline with what it would cost us on Sprint for similar service options. Plus Verizon has better coverage in the areas we are active in. Sprint/AT&T/T-mobile don't even have basic coverage in some of those areas.

[deesugar]

Far as I know 5GB has always been the unofficial cap for Sprint. Far back as 5 years ago I talked with a Sprint engineer about tether workarounds that some of us were using and whether Sprint would terminate this illegal activity. His response back then was that Sprint wouldn't do anything unless you went over 5GB.

And even that was geared more towards people using the Sprint service as a connection for a server or main way to download movies and fat content. 5GB would equal over 170 Megabytes a day, every day for a whole month! That's a lot of usage for just emailing web browsing and occasional large file downloads.