Mobile Hotspot and Unlimited Data Plan

[mshallop]

Mobile Hotspotting free until June 15  - that's all good and thank you.

Feelings of foreboding ...  my "unlimited data plan" will not include mobile hotspotting (my #1 reason for dumping AT&T's iPhone) and I will incur yet another additional monthly charge for this feature...?

How is this not "data" and if I am going to get ... sex'd ... for another monthly charge, how much will this add-on feature be?

TIA...

--mike

[AZSALUKI · Accepted solution]

i believe it's $20/month for up to 2 gigs of data shared to other devices. your phone gets the unlimited data.....not every pc, laptop, and other smartphone that accesses it. it would be nice if it were free unlimited everything....but that's just not realistic. we would all drop our home and work internet plans and would just feed off of our smartphones. it would crush the network and kill profits. this has been their pricing structure for a while. 

[mshallop]

That makes sense, unfortunately.  

Caveat utilitor.

Thanks...

[PJNC284]

Why would you think it'd be any different? None of the so called "unlimited" plans on any of the carriers have included the mobile hotspot feature afaik.  The Pre/Pixi Plus were the only exception and that was because Verizon couldn't give the stupid things away.

[Ann154]

Even Sprint, PJNC284?

[mshallop]

b/c data is data.  aside from the price gouging common to all carriers for texting, one may still opt to pay a premium price for unmetered texting.

data is data and a carrier plan offering "unlimited data" with no visible caveats, eg: "except for mobile hotspotting which, although it will still access the same data content from the same data sources, but we're going to charge you extra for it b/c you're pipelining said data to a device you're not paying us for" is, at best "creative marketing".  If I choose to pay a premium price for "unlimited data", then it should be unlimited data - how I choose to use, distribute, or access it is my business.

It's not a hard concept to understand.

[Edited to comply with Terms of Service]

[PJNC284]

---

Ann154 wrote:
Even Sprint, PJNC284?

---

Sprint also charges a mobile hotspot fee of $30.  The difference is that at least with sprint, that option offers unlimited tethering as long as you aren't roaming iirc.  

Plus we don't pay for "unlimited data" we pay for "unlimited email and web for Smartphones".  That's the gotcha.  And it doesn't make business sense for a carrier to include tethering on unlimited plans.  You're pretty much opening up the network to be abused.  Look at the 50-100GB+ numbers that some are getting with the free trial.  My stand is that they should just go tiered and include tethering.  You pay for 2GB, you get 2GB of data PERIOD.  Doesn't matter whether it's on the phone or a tethered device.  Not any of this silly 2GB data plan on the phone + additional 2GB plan for tethering.  Then it's just money money money.

[mshallop]

I can agree to that...if it were offered.

But another $20 or $30 per month for similar functionality isn't going to get me to open my checkbook.  Death by a Thousand Cuts pricing - geh.

It was moderated out of my earlier post so I'll make a generic statement - there are alternatives to Mobile Hotspotting which are price competitive and easily achievable. 

[doublesnaggle]

There are many ways to tether. No unlimited hotspot? Watch me.

[gina7289]

2 gigs for $20 is not going to be the plan only for 3g. There creating a new 4g specific plan. The update is removing the hotspot. It says in the free promotion that the 2gig plan won't be the new plan quoted from tech support as well as the store. It's the only current plan but for 3g