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Verizon now cracking down on jailbreak tethering

Posted by at August 8, 2011, 8:04 pm in News, Tech | 13 comments

Verizon, like AT&T has now started blocking jailbroken phones from using un-sanctioned tethering apps. Verizon will now require users to be subscribed to a mobile tethering plan to be able to use tethering at all.

Users on the Verizon network who try to circumvent the paid subscription plan will be redirected to a page to purchase the upgrade. The plan which will cost an additional $20 a month.

Honestly I think that the carriers are blocking these services because their networks are getting too saturated and it is costing them too much to add new hardware. Verizon is the number 1 mobile network followed closely by AT&T whom will overtake Verizon after the merger completes. These companies honestly need to start lowering their data prices otherwise Sprint or other companies, with unlimited plans will start to take some of their users.

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Matt Jurek
I was a Computer and Information Technology student at Purdue University. I have always wanted my own website and have been fascinated with technology my entire life. So here I am, what's next?

  • Anonymous

    uh no. .they’re doing it because they can. why invest in infrastructure when they can artificially hike prices?

  • http://www.tekgoblin.com Sanity

    yeah its complete bs in my opinion

  • Anonymous

    I work for Verizon Wirelesss and we are expanding the data network as fast as we can.

  • http://twitter.com/stomponmyliver Lord Helmut

    I used to work for Verizon Telecom and all they EVER cared about was screwing the customer in any new and novel way they could. Customer service and value are NOT core tenets of that place. This is solely a way to suck out more money for the same bits. Its like your water company charging you extra if you take a shower as opposed to drinking the water.

  • http://www.tekgoblin.com Sanity

    I just don’t believe in tiered data plans in the way they have been implemented by the major carriers. I can see them throttling connections but such low caps at 2GB? Horrible.

  • Anonymous

    I agree with you about how ridiculous the tiered data plans are.   The year is only half over and we have already added 215 data carriers and converted 111 sites to Ethernet back haul. I really don’t understand why they need to put in low caps now after we have added this much data capability to the network.

  • Anonymous

    T-Mobile did this to me recently. They interrupted my work and sent me a text message asking me to call them about the tethering. I got offline and made the call. Then they told me that I couldn’t get back online through my phone unless I agreed to an extra monthly charge. I was away from home and pushing a deadline in the middle of the night, so I had no choice but to agree to that. I said, “I have an unlimited data plan. The data is all going through the phone, whether I touch the browser icon or click the IE shortcut. Why do you care how I access the data?” The rep said something like, “Those are the new rules.” I asked where on the website I could read about these rules, and she couldn’t tell me. I asked, “Why are you just now implementing a policy that nobody can read but everyone must follow, when thousands of people have been doing this for over a year now?” She couldn’t tell me that either. I did, however, get a $25 T-Mobile gift card when I wrote to them and told them what I thought of their squeeze play. I put it on my bill.

  • RO

    Hmm – wonder if this change has anything to do with my use of Google Maps on my Vzw WinMo 6.1 phone (not tethering – in this case) that has kept losing the data connection in the last couple weeks or so even in strong signal areas (like right in a mall parking lot that has always had 4 bars, and still shows that, or -70db on FieldTrial).  It comes and goes in a seemingly random pattern – last night I sat and waited, and it came back.   I am on the old data plan, and usually stay well under 1GB per month. 

    Unintended consequences?

  • Anonymous

    you better hush…don’t give the water company any ideas.  Next we’ll have the WIAA (Water Industry Association of America) getting the courts to pass judgements in their favor and forcing customers to install usage monitors to track flow to the toilets, showers and faucets.  Pay up America!

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  • Patrick Frank

    I personally think all phone companies are not trying to expand as fast as they can and are using that as a scheme to charge more for data plans etc…  Again another company leading us backwards in technology, thanks Verizon!

    Maybe you should xcut the pay of your CEOs and use that to hire morde people to expand faster, obviously are are not fast enough. To me you are hypocritical, based on all your commercials on how fast you are etc.. but you restrict us and charge us more and more at every turn.

    Someone needs to whip these cell and TV/Internet companies, and soon… funny how many other countries have systems that handle uncapped unlimited everything plans but we can’t.. I know we have the capability, its just the companies are aware that people here are ignorant and they can get away with it.

  • Joe Klein

    Lets make it simple. 

    Verizon and AT&T are playing the same game they did when the Internet was offered by the independent ISP’s, and that is, over subscribing their networks and hoping no one notices. It was not until the received federal funding to upgrade their network, did Verizon and AT&T decreased their over subscription rates. Buy the way, this federal funding killed many start-ups, eliminating compensation. 

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  • Robert Mitilieri

    If tethering or using your phone as a hotspot uses your data minutes why should the companies charge more. Regardless of how you use your minutes you have the same cap. Am I missing something?

  • http://www.tekgoblin.com Sanity

    You aren’t missing anything. It is just greed.

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