AT&T cracking down on Tethering

Check the story here. But it looks like AT&T has finally deployed technology which allows it to detect who is tethering when they do not have a tethering plan. It is most likely a combination of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) combined with data usage profiles as it is much easier to use LOTS of data when tethering vrs just doing stuff with the phone itself.

Pardon the rant... but this one really chaps my @$$. I currently do not utilize the jailbreak methods to use tethering by this method but I have in the past and I did so with a clean conscious. I pay for unlimited data and even so I always stayed within the loose guidelines of what was determined a reasonable amount of data usage and in fact my usage is not anything insane. For instance I have never threatened the 5gb soft cap assumed to exist for AT&T iOS device unlimited plans. While my TOS has verbiage to the effect of trying to create a distinction between data that is relayed to my computer it is not one that I feel can withstand any real legal scrutiny as a realistic split. It is troll under the bridge stuff at its finest.

AT&T has ZERO right to judge what I do with the data I receive it from their network. Once the data hits the phone it is no longer their business what I do with it. In order to enforce a ‘no tethering’ clause AT&T is determining what I (or you) do with the data after it reaches my phone. This is none of AT&T’s business. Their control over the data ends once it reaches my device and concludes our service transaction... that of access to the mobile broadband network. To say I can’t tether is no different from AT&T saying I couldn’t transfer a photo I downloaded from the web from my Phone to my laptop. IE save image in mobile safari then blue tooth file transfer the image to another phone/tablet/laptop etc... ZERO difference from tethering in terms of the data being retrieved by the phone and sent to another device. Yet most people understand that AT&T trying to do that would be considered INSANE. But because the terms of service says ‘No Tethering’ many believe they can stop you from doing exactly that by the specific method of Bluetooth PAN connection.

I hope that sooner rather than later this issue gets a legal hearing. The terms of service are not ambiguous on the limitation. I am of the opinion that it does not matter. And there is plenty of precedent for ruling insane TOS clauses to be un-enforceable or just plain outright illegal. This is a growing consumer rights issue and I hope it gets resolved sooner rather than later.