When the fuck did a mobile hotspot become something you have to pay extra for?
It's my goddamn motherfucking mobile data and MY PHONE. I should be able to use it however I want. My wifi went down because the greedy, cunt-faced shitbags at Comcast stole taxpayer subsidies to enrich themselves instead of actually providing the service we're paying for. I tried to switch to a mobile hotspot and my phone refuses to open one. Everyone responsible for this shit should be fed to alligators locked away in a fucking gulag. We have no rights and live in a corporate plutocracy.
USA mobile carriers have been charging for tethering since devices implemented the tethering feature. Android enforced it through carrier firmware. I don't remember how apple enforced it.
I remember having to jailbreak all my iPhones so I could get it for free. As iOS started feeling more limited, I bought a galaxy phone from Europe because the international phones didn't have the carrier firmware.
Then T-Mobile was the first big carrier to offer free tethering - I switched to them from AT&T. And now more carriers are offering free tethering because it's losing them customers probably.
No it's not just an American thing. On my carrier I can have unlimited data all I want but hotspot is limited to 5GB/month and I have to pay for more or it goes down to 512Kbps basically unusable.
Imagine getting a steam deck and you're out and about and you use your hotspot so you can play a game. Your game needs to be updated. Now imagine you have the $35 plan. You won't even make it to playing your game before you get throttled to 128KB/s.
Hotspots are the new thing they've modeled the plans around. First it was minutes, then it was texting, then it was data, now it's hotspots.
edit: I've been arguing about this with them for ages because we WERE on a grandfathered plan from when they bought out cingular. They got rid of our plan (Kicked us off said plan.) and these are the only 3 options they have left.
edit2: Forgot to mention. The rationale they give for this is that they "don't want people using their cellular data to replace their home internet".
Us vzw customers are almost all on some version of an "unlimited" package now, which includes hotspotting. If you had one of the lower valued plans, hotspotting can still be expensive. Hitspotting can still push you over your "unlimited" data allowance however, at which point your traffic gets deprioritized aka slow af.
Definitely a USA thing since Comcast were mentioned.
Here in New Zealand I have a friend who uses his Mobile hotspot to connect his Xbox to it to play games online at no extra cost from the mobile provider.
It does, or at least did. I'm in the UK, and it used to be fairly common. Over the last few years, maybe the last decade, more and more providers used the lack of tethering restrictions as an advertised feature to show that they were better than the competition.
Now that we've left the EU though, I wouldn't be surprised to see the restrictions come back. We've already lost free EU roaming on a lot of tariffs.
Maybe on carrier bought phones where they removed the feature. If you bought an unlocked Nexus or Pixel and a SIM only plan you could always tether as much as you wanted on any UK plan.
I remember it as well. That's when I started buying unlocked phones and rooting them to get around having to pay. I was pleasantly surprised when I found out there wasn't a fee anymore. I really hope that having to pay for hotspot isn't coming back.
I've heard about this happening and I couldn't believe it.
I don't even understand this from a networking perspective.. Your phone just becomes a router, forwarding requests, so from the ISP perspective it's still the same?
This is one reason why I will never pay for a phone I cannot root if a rootable option exists.
Strangers on the internet constantly tell me I am a fool to root "'cause security", and I just shake my head.
If I pay $700 for a phone, I own it. If I'm paying for X gigabytes of cellular data, I will not be told I cannot use it "for that".
I almost never see advertisements, am blocking tracking and malware at the device level, and impriving sound output quality. I use kernels that are patched up way better than the device default, and have superior battery life, and cpy over-clocking.
I'd go insane if I had to deal with all those restrictions, invasion of privacy, and monetization of my life at my expense.
Perhaps. I'd have to see how it blocks ads and malware. If I can get the features I want, I'd be happy to remain unrooted because I am taking risks if I lose the phone or it is outright stolen.
Out of interest, are there good resources on archiving those optimisations when rooting you would recommend? I'm low key interested in cracking android open when I'll have to buy a new phone eventually but haven't yet looked into the topic.
By optimizations, do you mean the malware blocking, audio improvements, and CPU tweaks?
Most work through Magisk. I flash a kernel from the pixel 6 XDA forum that uses a magisk module to help it work. That has optimizations and I can use a kernel manager to tweak it's settings. And I use adaway which is a DNS level ad blocker. ViperFX4Android is a godlike audio transformer.
Still using xprivacylua to restrict apps' ability to track, use camera and speaker, and get my contacts. I have a tool that stops phone charging at 90% so I don't over-wear the battery.
I use NeoBackup to backup all my apps with data, plus some system data like WiFi hotspots, call history, Bluetooth pairings. When I factory reset or otherwise have to start over, I restore that to get everything back. On older phones, I use TWRP to flash and do nandroid backups, etc. I'm not sure why TWRP is still not available on Pixel 6.
With root, I can do all this, without it I can't even backup the apps, and any ad block I can use makes it impossible to run a VPN to protect my privacy as they use VPN to block the sites.
If I can't unlock the bootloader, then when the OS becomes too bloated to be useful, I have to toss my phone instead of stripping the bloat with a degoogled ROM. I get another 3 to 5 years out of it by replacing stock. That's a boat-load of money, right there!
For example, I'm still using my Pixel 2XL as a viable device (minus Sim). That is about 6 years old now. It is on the 7/23 patch of android 13 right now. It might get 14.
My AdAway host lists block over 650,000 known malware and ad sites.
I'm pretty happy with my setup, and have confidence I'm at least partially protected from the crap out there.
Just because most people don't seem to know this: Comcast's wifi service Xfinity is actually mostly fed by the routers Comcast cable customers have in their homes. So as a cable customer, you're paying the electric bill and giving up part of your bandwidth to support Xfinity.
1: that's why I always use my own modem and router
2: you can opt out of this (and I highly recommend everyone does that cares about their bandwidth), though it is shitty it's on by default
3: only paying Comcast customers can take advantage of this. So if other people can use yours, it means you can use other people's when you're out and about as well.
If it's implemented well, it's honestly not a bad idea. Just need proper security and and QoS and that extra bandwidth you aren't using anyways can be safely lent out to others within WiFi reach. On the other hand, I trust Comcast in implement such a feature well? Heck no!
The value is only for Comcast though. You're a paying customer to provide a feature for them. There's no discount to you as the customer, but they really try forcing people it use it and usually try to imply owning your own network equipment is somehow bad (because they can't use your equipment for their business needs).
Those under the Optimum/Altice monopoly should know this as well. Their new modems will try to pull that nonsense too. I just requested an old style modem that doesn't have the wifi capability and use my own router.
If optimum wants to sell their overpriced b.s Internet service they can set up their own wifi network without piggybacking off of the one I pay for tyvm...
I don't know what service this guy is using but we don't have to pay extra for hotspots. None of the major carriers charge for it that I'm aware of anyway.
In America, some carriers disable hotspot on the devices they sell and hold you hostage. There are many ways around this. The best way is to use OEM non carrier phones. Other options include pdanet and several other apps designed to bypass the carrier software locks. My graphene os hotspot works perfectly no matter what carrier I use
Edit: Oh, and you can forget it on iphones. Apple loves sucking carriers dicks and fucking you all over. They go out of their way to ensure the carriers are robbing you before allowing hotspot use
Yep, after finding out about Verizon locking bios I decided to never by direct from carrier again. Plus, these alternative OS options need support. I run GraphineOS, it was quick and easy, never had an issue.
But google probably has been working on making newer versions of android closed-sourced, especially for OEMS. I say probably because there isn't any actual hardcore proof but imo the bios lock is just the start.
I have an iPhone through T-mobile and I don't have to pay extra for my hotspot. Kinda hilarious, though, I only get 20 gigglebytes of high speed hotspot, which my 5g can blow through in as little as 3 minutes 45 seconds as of the latest speed test (712mbps). After that, it caps it at 600kbps. They have no problem with me using hundreds of gigglebytes directly on the phone, for some reason, I don't see why they have to limit hotspot.
With T-Mobile in the States, usually you're not paying extra, but you are capped on hotspot data, even if you have an unlimited data plan. Which is still kind of BS
Because the Republican party wants it this way. They've burned down net neutrality at every possible opportunity because it doesn't affect them; they barely understand how to send an email, much less connect a device to Wi-Fi without calling their offspring to do it for them.
They say it doesn’t affect them, but then they cry censorship when their chud-services are slow and treated like D-Grade refuse by their ISP.
It was annoying hearing all the conservatives arguing against net neutrality with such timeless classics as “Government Regulation only makes things worse” as an excuse to get rid of the regulation that helped protect them.
Other greatest hits include defanging the CFPB then getting mad when the private company BBB can’t do anything about their shady pool cleaning service charging them for services that were skipped.
Here are a few examples that could support the claim that Republicans have opposed net neutrality regulations:
In 2017, the Republican-controlled FCC under chairman Ajit Pai repealed the net neutrality rules that had been put in place during the Obama administration. This allowed ISPs more freedom to throttle or prioritize certain content and services.
Congressional Republicans have generally opposed legislation to restore net neutrality rules. In 2018, the Senate passed a bill to reinstate the rules, but it did not advance in the Republican-controlled House.
Major broadband providers like Comcast and Verizon have historically donated more to Republican politicians than Democrats. Republicans have received criticisms that these donations sway their positions against net neutrality rules.
Here are some sources that could counter or provide an alternative perspective to the claim that Republicans uniformly oppose net neutrality:
The conservative advocacy group FreedomWorks supported the 2017 FCC net neutrality repeal under Ajit Pai. However, they opposed a bill in 2012 that they argued would have given the government too much control over the internet. This illustrates more nuanced positions.
Former Senator John Thune (R-SD) proposed net neutrality legislation in 2015 that attempted to find a middle ground. It would have banned blocking and throttling but avoided heavier utility-style regulations advocated by Democrats. This demonstrated a more moderate Republican approach.
Polls indicate Republican voters are nearly as supportive of net neutrality protections as Democrats and independents. A 2018 poll by the University of Maryland found 86% of Republicans opposed the FCC repeal. This suggests public opinion within the party is mixed.
As for your last point, you act like any of those dinosaurs know how to.
Definitely sounds like a USA specific issue. In Australia we pay for GBs data, it's up to us what we use it on. I'd be appalled if they tried to pull that bullshit here.
Most carriers include 'unlimited' data, usually broken up in XXXGb at full speed, then unlimited data at much lower speeds.
They did pull that bullshit here though. Personal Hotspot on iOS was a paid extra feature in most cases when it first launched back in iOS 7 (can't speak to the Android side of things personally), assuming you could get it at all. It didn't become standard until later. It's generally standard these days thankfully but it wasn't always.
Basically the same here like I have 20GB at full speed and then slows down a lot. But at least Verizon requires a data plan with any smart phone. I'm only away from wifi maybe 4hrs a month, I only need call/text not data.
My understanding is call/text goes thru the internet now so they force the data plan.
the second point feels highly suspect as most internet traffic is encrypted these days, and all ISPs could analyze is the domain you're talking too, and the amount of traffic to each
The hardware isn't restricted, anymore at least. It's usually restricted at the network level. The hotspot uses a different connection. I've been on plans where I can use hotspot, but it just redirects all traffic to a page telling me it's not on my plan, or like on Visible where hotspot traffic is throttled to 5mbps. This also causes hotspot traffic not to go through a VPN if you tried.
Edit: if you're rooted you can bypass this with VPN Hotspot which lets you pass your hotspot through whatever VPN is active
The "pay for mobile hotspot" is more of a carrier thing than an Android thing. iPhone users suffer as well.
On Android you can at least use apps like SecureTether. It's a bit clunky, but it works on my Pixel 6a.
What I don't appreciate is Google completely turning off the ability to create a hotspot WiFi network even if your mobile data is off. In college we would connect multiple laptops to a phone hotspot and play LAN games.
Don't you just go into your normal android settings, go to connections, mobile internet hotspot, toggle it on? When are you ever prompted to pay for anything? Why do you need a separate app??
In the US, the service provider can control if that feature is available. If you try to enable it it will ping the service provider to see if you paid for that ability. This is done because the data usage goes way up when you start using hotspot.
It started when unlimited plans first became a thing. Prior to that, you paid for a specific amount of data up to a cap, then paid a premium if you went over, so they didn't care how you used it. When US companies first started offering unlimited plans, they excluded teathering, or added an extra charge for it, because you can use so much more data that way. Many companies have dropped that - I know my Verizon plan let's me teather - but some still have it.
Yup, they tried to enforce that here in Denmark as well with the unlimited plans. Luckily, they lost the case to our Ombudsman and they were forced to allow hotspots
Yeah, any carrier that sells a bespoke physical hotspot device would try to milk more money out of customers by disabling it on software in their phone's ROM.
I haven't renewed my student unlimited data plan since 2011. It lasted through a company merger and a pandemic. I'm never renewing my plan. My first born will inherit this plan when I die.
When I went to university I got my first phone contract. I got it through groupon which got it down to something like £10 a month, £150 cashback at the start of the contract and a free (shitty) phone. Hardly any minutes, tiny amount of data, but unlimited texts. I was locked in for 2 years, but it was still hard to see how they would make much money off me. Then I got my first bill and I knew they definitely wouldn't make ANY money off me. They messed up the groupon discount and instead of being charged £10 a month they were actually charging me 43p. The phone I got with it died in a couple of months, so I bought another phone with the money they gave me and used that for a couple years until they got bought out. When that happened the new owners fixed the price 😢 I had a good run though!
my pixel 7 with grapheneOS let's me use a hotspot and USB tether. the USB teathering is way faster I've found. I don't pay for teathering and I quit getting my phones through the carrier just because they lock them down and put a bunch of crapware/Spyware on them. You remove it and it magically reappears, they get paid to put these dumb apps on the phone. Just feels like when you buy the phone through the carrier you don't own it.
This is a thing that I think only happens in the US.
I moved to Brazil from the US and my wife found it super weird that I asked her how much would they charged me after she asked me to activate my hotspot.
The day (North) American people realize: they live just to feed corporations' greed, lobbying is just legal bribery, their government doesn't give a flying fuck about them, most developed countries' offering and protection is miles further away from what they have... they won't do shit. Because the system works as it's intended to. Maybe ask to bring American freedom to America? 🦅 🇺🇸
Not anymore. Now you have to change the packet time-to-live on your PC to match it for your phone, and that's not fullproof. Google put code into the OS to snitch you out.
How do they detect that you are using a hotspot? Isn't the phone using NAT internally? Like, with NAT they don't know whether a request comes from your phone or from the hotspot
The carrier can look at the packets TTL and assume if it's not what they expect then it must have originated from another device via the hotspot. Verizon did, or maybe still does, use this to throttle hotspot traffic but not data originating from the phone.
This is correct. I pay for the unlimited plan with Verizon, but it only has 5GB of hotspot data. I use an iptables rule to increment the TTL by one, giving me unlimited data on my laptop.
T-Mobile used to work the same way when I used it back in 2016.
it depends on the carrier; (ime) most of the ones in north america use some kind packet encapsulation technique to find out if you request originated from a phone and auto reject it.
This has been a thing the mobile carriers (AT&T in particular) have demanded of handset makers- that they give the carrier the ability to lock down the tether feature so they can sell an upcharge on your plan (or a piece of hotspot hardware they can charge you a whole separate line for) so that they can un-cripple it and pretend they didn't take that away to begin with.
This ought to be regulated like the taking-away-of-the-feature-in-the-phone-you-paid-for that it is.
When net neutrality was the law you could do that and the phone company couldn't charge you. The company branded phone could just not support it. Before that it was ridiculously expensive, and now it depends on the company. Most post paid plans take it out of your fast data with no extra fee.
Wireless carriers were not allowed to throttle or block packets during the net neutrality era. That made them not be able to block tether device traffic. They could sell you a piece of shit device that didn't allow you to tether but if you had something reasonable you got free tethering.
So I figured out a while ago there there's an app called PdaNet+ along with Foxfi. It let's you use your phones mobile connection instead of a hotspot to connect your external devices. It's worked wonders for me and although I haven't had to use it much due to unlimited data and access to wifi where I am, it's useful if you aren't in that situation. I believe the app key unlocker is about $8 but it's worth it for the features it offers.
Long time ago, but it’s entirely dependent upon carrier.
Mint for example doesn’t have an extra fee for hotspot. Mine didn’t work after setting up service and I had to chat them, but they fixed it and it works fine. Cricket didn’t charge for it for a long time, until they did, and I no longer use them as a result.
You just need to find a carrier that includes it for no fee. At least you can vote with your wallet on those things. And when they ask why you are canceling and porting your number, be honest it’s because of their hotspot policy, and other carriers don’t charge for it.
Since never, unless you live in the corporate hellscape - most sensible parts of the world have regulations about this, but I guess not being ripped off is un-american or something?
Yup, I can stream 1080p videos all day long on my phone, use tb of data, no issue from AT&T, no throttling, no overcharge. Switch on my Hotspot and go above 20gb on my laptop? That's a paddlin!
The US carriers have been fighting the battle for years between expanding the networks providing high speed data and competing with other carriers to provide it more cheaply.
If you're sitting on a plan that's 5 or 10 years old you could be sitting on a 30 or 60 gig plan where you can do whatever you want with those gigs.
Or you could be sitting on a brand new super cheap plan that blocks you from tethering altogether if they can.
Or you could be sitting on one of their top tier unlimited plans where you can tether up to 20 or 30 gig.
The numbers features and prices seem to change with the wind and they're not often in the mood to kick you out of your existing plans.
The carriers all have pretty bad capacity issues in urban and rural areas were they either have too many people or not enough towers per square mile. They're all trying to expand but every time you have a local power outage and everyone tries to use their cell phone at the same time nobody gets through anywhere for data.
Kiwi here. This seems so foreign. All the carriers in New Zealand provide unlimited data for about $USS60 per month, and you can do what you like with it (hotspot etc).
If you have an Android download pdanet which lets you hotspot count as phone data. Also if you get a small hotspot but unlimited phone data you can turn it on and set the TTL or connecting devices to 65 (I think look it up) and it will think it's the phone connecting. Happy pirating
Some service providers lock that feature, because it's tied to much heavier than normal data usage. I have Verizon, and while they don't lock mobile hotspot, they do give me a different hotspot data restriction than my phone.
They definitely used to lock it behind a paywall; back in the early 2010's the ROM they shipped had the option greyed out unless you paid for the data tier that supported it
The most recent plans included using a hotspot but now they are trying to unbundle everything on their new plans to 'save' you money by letting you only pay for what you want. Using a hotspot is costs $10 more a more now if you switch to the new plan.
If you actually turned on everything that was already included you'd be paying more than now so you not even really saving anything either.
It is a thing on iPhones. I didn't have to pay extra, but activating it on my mom's iPhone required contacting the carrier. Such bullshit. Also, wasn't an iPhone bought on a contract, it's not even a thing where I live, you buy phones in normal electronics stores
No clue if this will work for you or not, but there are a few things you might try.
Increase the TTL for packets on your computer from 64->65 or from 128->129. It makes it harder for them to tell that the traffic isn't coming to the phone.
If you can live with USB tethering and also do #1, I have had zero problems. And got much better speeds than with any hotspot.
If the OS is blocking this then... yeah sorry... join the Free World and get a custom ROM.
This is the reason I was forced to use android and root my phone. I used a custom ROM to bring back the tethering option then connect to a VPN and used the rooted terminal to mess with the iptables and routing to mask the fact I was tethering.
Uuuugh, I don't miss those days. Luckily the market changed in my country and went the other direction so I don't have to deal with this anymore.. Still have the old shell scripts saved tho ;)
Find your IP address on the network you just connected to (the hotspot on other device) - it should be in WiFi settings, when you click on more details on the connection. Alternatively you could find it in output of ip a in Termux.
Open Android Proxy Server app and optionally adjust settings to your liking. (IP address to bind to - should be your phone's on the hotspot, port, authentication)
Enable the proxy server that you want to use. If you're connected through VPN, it will go through it. I use HTTP/HTTPS proxy.
Connect to the proxy server on your other device using your phone's IP and the appropriate port. In Firefox go to settings, scroll down, click on network setup.
I use this to circumvent the 1 device limit of free ProtonVPN. Also on school network (with authentication enabled) to go through VPN and use NextDNS.
Good solution but some network providers look for Windows / Mac exclusive traffic, headers or some-such shutting down your connection immediately. I had some success tethering Linux machines tho :P
Modern Windows likes to phone-home imminently upon establishing an internet connection, not to mention windows updates and a whole host of windowsness. The anti-tether developers were no doubt spoilt for choice with the amount of flags windows sends!
Okay, so note that this script is over 8 years old now but if you google some of the lines or ask in a Linux / Android board they may be able to help you get this working if it doesn't as-is:
So, connect to your vpn on your phone and activate hotspot. Before connecting to it simply type these lines into the terminal (Think I used to use the Terminal Emulator app). You'll have to run the "su" command first to get root access:
That should be all you need.. Unless something's changed in later android versions. I saved the above as a .sh script so I didn't have to copy-paste every line every time
It's insane that they get away with this because it's digital. Imagine if you were doing some handiwork and your hammer was like, "Our policy has changed. If you wish to continue hammering nails >3in, please subscribe for $30/mo."
Slightly different topic, but I'm just waiting for the day when all the major music companies stop allowing their artists to appear on Tidal, Spotify, etc and instead launch their own exclusive apps and streaming services. So you'll need a Warners subscription, and a Sony subscription and a Geffen subscription and an EMI subscription...
If it happened with TV and moves, it could happen with music too.
Thats insane, in Australia at least it's still just a data plan - buying a cheap prepaid SIM or mobile plan for data is a common thing since our Internet infrastructure is shithouse. I hope no aspiring telco middle managers cotton on to this.
I have Verizon. The "unlimited" plans are a huge scam, even if you can get your hotspot on, it's basically unusably slow. But if you can swap over to a pre-paid plan, which is a huge pain in the ass, you'll get ~15 GB a month for the same price and you can use it however you want. I don't know why they make it so damn hard to use their service.
I can vouch for Visible. AT&T was too expensive. Mint (T-Mobile) didn't have signal at my office. Red Pocket cut my service off for using too much unlimited data. Visible is cheap and unlimited. The signal is excellent too. I don't need anything more.
I had to switch plans a couple of years ago and investigated a lot of options
Your best bet is prepaid, most of them don't have that bullshit.
I went with AT&T prepaid because it included data in Mexico in Canada, I pay $100 for 3 months of service (there's also $300 for 12mo), you can get prepaid cards discounted at target most of the time so you don't pay full price and it's supposed to be 8GB only but I have been over that data so many times and they never throttle down my speed
I worked for a mobile device manufacturer for a few years and prepaid plans combined with an unlocked phone are definitely the most cost effective choice. You get several gigabytes of mobile data for about $25-30/month and combined with a lowish end device (~$300), I spend less in an upgrade year than some pay per month for their postpaid phone service with the financed phone.
I had one lady once send me her >$1000 monthly Verizon bill because she thought that would work for a receipt. It was about 20 pages long, had 4 financed devices with 5 lines. It was an insane window into how some people live
Mobile providers have always tried to charge for hotspot service. Since I started buying my own phones, not through the provider, I haven't had a problem with it turning on, and I haven't seen any additional charge for using it (just normal consumption of the data). I don't think that most providers can tell the difference in traffic natively from the device and from something on its hotspot, so restrictions are likely phone specific. If you have Android, install a custom ROM (I'd suggest anything AOSP), and for iPhone, IDK. Maybe do a complete reset to the official version from Apple (not the carrier specific version of the firmware).
Restoring your files and apps is the most difficult part of the process and generally takes a while (usually a few hours of setting up accounts on different apps, but it should kill off your carriers control of your device in regards to hotspot limits
I understand the frustration, 100% I do. I'm equally angry about the state of things, fact is, there are things you can do about it, like buying your devices unlocked, non-carrier specific from trusted endpoints. This is easy to do with Apple and Google, as they both allow end users to buy their products right from their website or in stores (if such stores exist). But other manufacturers will only sell to distributors, like your carrier, who screws with the firmware before you get your hands on the device. Avoiding such distributors is the key point here. Being unlocked doesn't mean much if you're still running the carriers firmware which disallows the feature unless you do something like pay them.
It's not a nice solution, since most people have, or are purchasing their devices through carrier contacts and discounts, and generally for untampered devices, you need to buy them all at once, up front. The only saving grace is that a lot of manufacturers are now putting the untampered version of the phone firmware online, and you can typically find a way to wipe the device completely and install the manufacturers untampered version with enough time and effort; it's gotten easier, but I wouldn't say it's easy. Just that it's possible...
Easiest way to tell if you're running a carrier version of the firmware is if the carriers app comes pre-loaded and won't allow uninstallation. Only "revert to factory version" and disabling the app are possible (this means it's in the protected OS space on your device). If you can fully uninstall it, or it is not present when you factory reset the device, you're probably running a clean version.
Of note, you can still run their app, the presence of the app as a default application usually means it's tied into a root-level service that restricts access to features and/or spies on you (probably both). The app itself is likely fine, but the underlying service is generally the troublemaker. The service may install with the app, but as long as it doesn't have root level permission, it can't stop you from using the features built into the phone.
Some really stingy providers remove the hotspot option from their customised Android ROM, and on iOS they throttle packets not originating from the mobile device itself
The ToS for whatever phone plan the customer picks usually covers this from what I've seen
Idk, but here in the Philippines we don't have any law that prevents telcos from doing the same, yet literally every telco allows mobile hotspot usage without restrictions or extra charges. Same for almost every other things American telcos do to fuck up their customers. America probably needs more telco company competition.
In the meantime, you can try TetherFi and see if it works for you.
This was an issue when hotspots first came out on Android (for me in the UK). Carriers were charging £5-£10 p/m to let you use your own data allowance faster.
In the past, the workaround for me was to Root the phone and run 3rd party hotspot software instead of using the build in Android OS hotspot feature.
Can a carrier block your use of hotspot if you bought the phone from a 3rd party? Isn't this the case that when you get a carrier subsidized phone they mess with it to keep you locked to the carrier?
Oh I still remember the outrage when Android added support for allowing Carries to block this a few years ago. But the Google folks just said „works as intended“ and proceeded.
I fucking despise fanboys. Apple or Google, they are both just cocksuckers that just excuse any bullshit the corp sends their way. Then they are shocked when the company fucks them in the ass.
I know with Verizon in the USA, they recently changed their plans to remove the hotspot as a feature from their lowest tier so they can sell it back to you as a feature, or get you to upgrade to a more expensive plan.
Many years ago I switched from iOS to Android specifically because android allowed you to circumvent carrier restrictions on hotspot functionality (at least unofficially). I guess Ajit Pai has bent the knee to telecoms now.
Are you trying to connect up to a computer? Look up "USB tethering" in your settings - you should be able to plug your phone into your computer through a USB port and share its data connection no problem. If you're only using one device, it's actually better than a mobile hotspot. You can also do it over Bluetooth if for some reason you want lower bandwidth. YMMV as I'm across the pond, but I get stats from my telecom company about my usage and it doesn't list anything USB tethered as hotspot related so I think it should go under your company's radar.
But also like, what the absolute fuck man? How? Why?
I have a "legacy" unlimited plan and they are now adding $3 per line per month to my bill because of mobile hot spot access. 2 of the 3 phones on my plan are pixels that don't even have the ability to be a hot spot.
It all boils down to companies refusing to let ANYONE have anything for "free". Even though you're already paying for a service, you're potentially trying to "share" it with others who may need it but arent paying for it! But if they may NEED it, shouldn't they also be paying separately for it??? Fucking disgusting double dipping backwards companies.
It happened with some companies in recent years I think due to more people working remotely and they decided they might be able to try to capitalize on such capability as an "extra feature" but I think there are some plans that include it in their package (as it was previously, before being decoupled)
A lot of company are doing that, in Canada or USA. It's completely disclosed, e.g. https://prepaid.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans check the Domestic mobile hotspot line entry, depending on your plan there's a limit in speed or GB.
Paying extra for unlocked is the way to go. I can easily switch carriers at anytime and I'm sure to let customer service know that when I see prices increase or things I don't like. They are usually accommodating as to not lose your business
That isn't how that works... Your phone doesn't determine the cost for hotspotting - your provider does. That's like saying Samsung gives you unlimited data.
I didn’t know they still locked this feature behind a payment, it’s scummy they can also tell you how much data you can use this way too. I remember there being a program that tunneled the stats a certain way to bypass it but you had to use usb or Bluetooth PAN. I think it was called easy tether.
I have been using smartphones forever and have never had a plan that did not charge extra for this feature... Granted I have always used verizon, so maybe its a verizon thing?
It's not a service you pay for. It's part of your phone's operating system. If you're using a vanilla version of Android or iOS, it's a standard feature.
its a feature on the OS yeah, but cellular carriers throttle the mobile hotspot speeds to shit if you dont pay for it. On T-Mobile if I mobile hotspot I get like 0.5 mbps
I don't know. I have never tried to use my hotspot for YouTube videos. If my internet goes out, the only thing I'd use the hotspot for would be working from home if that was needed. There's other things to do in this world that don't require internet. At that point you bitch at Comcast and get them to fix your shit and get credited for the lost time.
Bitching about the mobile provider that you knew the terms of the service when you signed up is misguided when the issue is that your home internet provider is not living up to their end of the agreement by not providing you with the service for which you're paying. If you don't know what is included in your own phone plan, that's a you problem. Find a new provider.
It's fairly straightforward to do this on a Raspberry Pi. You connect the pi to the internet via ethernet or wireless and then follow the instructions for creating a wireless access point.
Technically, if you have taken out a contract on your phone and are paying it off. Its not your phone. until it's paid off.
And its not your data, the carrier can set the terms of what its used for since you are technically borrowing it from them and paying for your use at the end of each month.
At least im pretty sure thats how it works
Edit: why is this getting downvoted? Is this not how it works? Would no one care to correct me?
Why would you run such a gimped operating system on a device in your own house? Or like... can't you just get a phone with a normal system? Why does the ISP even have a say in this? Or do you have to pay them to use your own toilet too? Because that is equally as absurd