iPhone tethering: Greedy O2...

[Anonymous]

So you think it's a good idea to charge your customers extra to tether an iPhone to their laptop?

I think any customer with sense would rather just jailbreak their phone than pay an extra £15/month for a service they are already paying for...

Any reason for this outragous charging scheme, or is it just for the hell of it?? Worth a try??

Have you been living in a cave recently and not noticed that the general public aren't that happy with greed (see recent MP expenses scandals)?

[Anonymous]

you can tether on an O2 contract with most other Phones, why do we have to pay £15 more for an Iphone !! ( its even cheaper to get a broadband dongle from another provider) greedy O2, ive been with them for 8 years, this will be my last contract.

[Anonymous]

I saw a link on Twitter this morning about this (not sure where the article was though). O2 were basically saying that they would hunt down anyone trying to use free tethering (presumably that includes jailbroken iphones) and either charge them for the data use or terminate their contract. The article did question how O2 would be able to tell the difference between ordinary iphone use and checking the occasional email or sending a couple of tweets. O2's reaction to tethering does seems to be a bit extreme, sure, if I was spending every afternoon downloading/streaming films I might agree that I was taking unfair advantage of their "unlimited" offer but I still think they should allow a certain amount each month for tethering much in the same way that each MMS uses up 4 texts from a monthly allowance.

[Anonymous]

"O2: We'll disconnect 'free' iPhone tetherers
Don't try to bypass tethering charges, warns network"

http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and ... 2#comments

Are you an affected O2 customer ? Call Ofcom on 0300 123 3333 and tell them you're not happy with this and that you believe this to be an unfair charge

[Anonymous]

Funny... I noticed one person in the above link (on techradar.com) saying that the T&Cs don't preclude tethering as they state 'use via your mobile phone', which tethering is, and also 'SIM card not to be connected to any other device including modems', which is not strictly violated as the SIM card is not connected to any other device, it's still connected to the iPhone.

I have expressed the same opinion many times on this forum about tethering on other handsets... namely that the wording of the T&Cs don't preclude it if taken literally. Of course in every attempt I made, people jumped with their interpretation of the T&Cs to say they DO prohibit tethering... I'd like to hear your opinions now that mindsets are polarised with the iPhone tethering debate... Do any of you free iPhone tethering supporters agree that the current wording of the T&Cs does not strictly preclude tethering? (unless they changed the wording of the T&Cs today, as I haven't checked yet :mansurprised: )

[Anonymous]

Add to your points thaht the iPhone tariff includes "unlimited UK data" I think O2 would have an extremely difficult time disconnecting anyone.

What o2 should have done is put data caps in, e.g. 1GB with the tariff, then you can buy 3GB, 10GB or whatever, that way customers and O2 know exactly whats' being sold.

This idea that you can use one device and charge twice for the same service is just bunk, and I'm surprised no-one has gone to the advertising standards authority about it.

[Anonymous]

Personally, I can see why O2 want to charge. However this does not cater for those who want to tether only occasionally. I think that it would have been a nice gesture on the part of O2 if they were to give say, 500MB-1GB as free usage to all iPhone customers for those that just want to send a receive their emails. By not having an option for "occasional tetherers" then it just looks like greedy profiteering. We're in a recession, and since Telefonica's profits are soaring, then I think it's time for them to show some appreciation to customers that are still paying very high prices.

[Anonymous]

How can you be an affected customer when you didn't have the service in the first place?
Regarding the way in which O2 can tell, I believe that the ip address/access point will change so they will know if the posts on the iphone forum yesterday were to go by. There is probably something in the OS 3.0 API that allows carriers to do this.

Nonsense, x2

[Anonymous]

@ sheepdog

Tethering has always been unofficially possible on the iPhone, but only now do o2 mention something about it because Apple has thrown them a money maker, official tethering.

But, no where in our contracts that we originally signed does it mention anything about tethering or what our unlimited data usage can be used for, it states we use our data usage on our phones, and thats what we're doing, that's what tethering is.

Customers arent being greedy, they're Apple maniacs, and know that if it were Apple, it would be included in the data allowance.

Whatever.

[Anonymous]

Ok, I'll always ask for sources and reasons to your comment.

Nonsense #1:
"How can you be an affected customer when you didn't have the service in the first place?"
Reason: We do have the service (already, and we're paying for it...
Source:

The Web Bolt On allows you unlimited use of Telefónica O2 UK Limited's Edge/GPRS/ 3G networks (as applicable to your handset), for personal internet use via your mobile phone. All usage must be for your private, personal and non-commercial purposes. You may not use your SIM Card:
o in, or connected to, any other device including modems;
o to allow the continuous streaming of any audio / video content, enable Voice over Internet (Voip), P2P or file sharing; or
o in such a way that adversely impacts the service to other O2 customers.

Nonsense #2:
"Regarding the way in which O2 can tell, I believe that the ip address/access point will change so they will know if the posts on the iphone forum yesterday were to go by."

Reason:
Using safari browser on my iPhone and a web browser on a tethered laptop in the same session, the IP address was identical.

Source:
http://whatismyipaddress.com/

(I was going to post screenshots of both browsers, however I'm not convinced that this information wouldn't lead you to finding out my account details, since you appear to be an o2 employee or at least getting some sort of benefits from them as could be perceived from your continued stance on this whole issue )

[Anonymous]

I guess that perhaps o2 might think you were being derogatory towards them if you think it's offensive to suspect that you worked for them? Anyway, I apologise if I have caused any offense, it was not my intention.

The APN is the same for both tethered and built in data access. If you look at the iPhone settings menu (in Settings, General, Network, Cellular Data Network) you can see it's now set to idata.o2.co.uk

The APN used for tethering in the mobile config profile that everyone has "aquired" in the past day or so is also idata.o2.co.uk

The only way I can see that o2 could detect usage is by looking at the MAC address in packets to see if it matches the MAC address of the iPhone, but of course it will since it's the phone that's doing the sending and receiving of packets...

I'm no expert, O2 will maybe work out a way to differentiate between "legitimate" and tethered IP packets, but they should have thought about this before they thought about their pricing plan!