Warning to iPhone users

mp3duck · 26 May 2011 at 20:58

Apples latest update has a new feature called "Personal Hotspot"

I activated this to test it out with my iPad.

Turns out this cost me £5, as that's what Vodafone charge for tethering. (they charge £5 per 500MB of data).

Vodafone actually refunded me, but may be something for people to watch out for!

godinman · 26 May 2011 at 21:01

Why the heck do they charge for tethering?

Yas786 · 26 May 2011 at 21:04

Because networks are a greedy bunch of knobbers thats why??...ive tethered my blackberry playbook with both my iphone4 and my BB 9780 and browsed quite a bit the past week and i havent been charged by Tmobile...lets see if they do charge me though.

mp3duck · 26 May 2011 at 21:04

Because they can I guess.
They consider it an extra service!

Jimbeam3678 · 26 May 2011 at 21:08

That is one thing that does suck big time!

Tute · 26 May 2011 at 21:11

I'm with Orange and mine is just disabled in the menu. To use the tethering I have to get it enabled at their end (with an extra charge) before it can be used on the phone.

Of course, a jailbreak gets you around that.

mp3duck · 26 May 2011 at 21:12

Tute said:
I'm with Orange and mine is just disabled in the menu. To use the tethering I have to get it enabled at their end (with an extra charge) before it can be used on the phone.

Of course, a jailbreak gets you around that.

yeah. Brother's with Orange, and his is disabled. I'm on a Sim Only deal with Vodafone, and my phone is unlocked to all networks!
Guess that's why it's enabled.

Reckon a lot of people would use it without knowing that they would get charged for it!

andy_mk3 · 26 May 2011 at 21:13

I've never ever been charged for tethering on Voda.

Robbo · 26 May 2011 at 21:22

You shouldn't be able to enable it without a tethering agreement from the network, that is why Vodafone refunded you.

"andy" · 27 May 2011 at 02:09

i cant tether without being redirected to the vodafone TandCs

however if you just tether via jailbreak its fine

Mr Paul · 27 May 2011 at 12:00

Tethering on android is free, tethering on iPhone isn't.

Why? I have no idea...

Mr-White · 27 May 2011 at 12:38

Vodaphone don't charge to tether my Desire HD. With my work Iphone o2 charged £10 to tether :-/ Don't really understand why people continue to buy iphones.

MW

randal · 27 May 2011 at 12:43

Mr-White said:
Vodaphone don't charge to tether my Desire HD. With my work Iphone o2 charged £10 to tether :-/ Don't really understand why people continue to buy iphones.

MW

Because they can be used for other stuff than tethering? Tethering is handy, but I can think of one occasion in the last 12 months where I've needed it and conveniently had a 'droid phone to do it with.

Currently rocking iPhone and broadband again with no qualms.

JeditOjanen · 27 May 2011 at 12:57

Mr Paul said:
Tethering on android is free, tethering on iPhone isn't.

Why? I have no idea...

Because they know iPhone owners have money, and are willing to spend it to be given something they want without any consideration of whether they could do it themselves.

randal · 27 May 2011 at 13:22

JeditOjanen said:
Because they know iPhone owners have money, and are willing to spend it to be given something they want without any consideration of whether they could do it themselves.

Obvious troll is obvious. Frugal Apple user here, currently enjoying Apple products and cheaper alternatives as the task suited for each dictates. :rolleyes:

Robbo · 27 May 2011 at 13:23

Mr Paul said:
Tethering on android is free, tethering on iPhone isn't.

Why? I have no idea...

It isn't supposed to be, the software just means you can do it without any restrictions. They will start monitoring it in future and restrict it across all phones.

JeditOjanen said:
Because they know iPhone owners have money, and are willing to spend it to be given something they want without any consideration of whether they could do it themselves.

They pretty much have no choice unless they Jailbreak and the majority of people aren't going to do that.

randal24 said:
Obvious troll is obvious. Frugal Apple user here, currently enjoying Apple products and cheaper alternatives as the task suited for each dictates.

He loves to make little digs at Apple in nearly all of his posts. Its pretty sad I know.

randal · 27 May 2011 at 13:31

Robbo said:
He loves to make little digs at Apple in nearly all of his posts. Its pretty sad I know.

I know I shouldn't feed, but it's lunchtime and I've read all my usual sites so twiddling my thumbs.

Back O/T it's probably worth reiterating that these are network lead charges which are probably part of the subsidy agreement with Apple to have that built into the OS. The joys of desirable products, and a market willing to pay for them I guess. One negative in a sea of positives for me though, iOS in my humble one is one of the best (if not the best) mobile OS. More so once jailbroken.

Narj · 27 May 2011 at 14:29

Robbo said:
It isn't supposed to be, the software just means you can do it without any restrictions. They will start monitoring it in future and restrict it across all phones.

How on Earth would they ever do this? I'm guessing that Android is just using NAT to hide the tethered devices behind it's own real IP? If this is the case then there's no way they'll be able to tell unless there's some sort of feature or app enabled on 'droid phones to let the carrier know what you're doing. Even then, custom ROMs will get around this.

Robbo · 27 May 2011 at 14:32

PianoBasher said:
How on Earth would they ever do this? I'm guessing that Android is just using NAT to hide the tethered devices behind it's own real IP? If this is the case then there's no way they'll be able to tell unless there's some sort of feature or app enabled on 'droid phones to let the carrier know what you're doing. Even then, custom ROMs will get around this.

I thought that too, but apparently it is very easy for the networks to tell.