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T-Mobile cracks down on unauthorized tethering on "unlimited" data plans

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Better Plan Naming (Score: 2, Insightful)

by bryan@pipedot.org on 2015-09-02 23:00 (#K8Q8)

They should just stop calling their plans "Unlimited" and most of the confusion would disappear. If a dairy farmer sold you a "gallon" jug of milk but only put 3 quarts of milk in it, the FDA would rightly complain against the incorrect labeling. Likewise, if an ISP sells you an "unlimited" connection but then artificially limits your speed after certain defined caps, the FCC is justified by complaining about the incorrect labeling.

Re: Better Plan Naming (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-09-03 01:33 (#K90V)

I think this is fine as is. On the plans page, it clearly says "on-smartphone only" right below "unlimited" in a readable size. There's also no absurd fees. I'll hate on how AT&T and Verizon handled this all day, but this seems reasonable.

Re: Better Plan Naming (Score: 3, Insightful)

by billshooterofbul@pipedot.org on 2015-09-04 17:13 (#KEZF)

Yeah, I don't know. They're trying to place limitations where it doesn't technically make sense to put limitations. Its like trying to separate salt water from fresh water at a river intersecting an ocean.

I understand the business case of why Tmobile is trying to separate out Smartphone data from every other kind of data, but it seems kind of silly. Data is data. It can be routed from one device to anther fairly easily.

It would be easier and technically better to just call all data: data and put a cap on it. Make it something absurd like 100 gig. 100 is much bigger than 10 gig and you really don't affect that many people. Tether if you want to or don't

Moderation

Time Reason Points Voter
2015-09-04 17:20 Insightful +1 bryan@pipedot.org
2015-09-05 09:43 Underrated +1 evilviper@pipedot.org

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