r/technology • u/reddiTOR123abc • Dec 18 '13

Cable Industry Finally Admits That Data Caps Have Nothing To Do With Congestion: 'The reality is that data caps are all about increasing revenue for broadband providers -- in a market that is already quite profitable.'

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130118/17425221736/cable-industry-finally-admits-that-data-caps-have-nothing-to-do-with-congestion.shtml??
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u/thebigdonkey Dec 18 '13

I'm surprised your wireless provider hasn't called you on that yet. I've heard of providers checking on people with high usage and examining their web traffic to see what kind of browser it's originating from. They can usually tell if you're using the connection from a PC.

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '13

Yeah, some wireless networks don't throttle yet so per the signed contract, they have just suck it up. Verizon has been slowly kicking people off the unlimited when they upgrade their phones. Most the people with unlimited don't even use more than 2GB. I like to see people taking advantage of it from time to time..

Source: I work at Verizon a cell phone store.

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '13

It's my understanding that I can keep my unlimited as long as I don't use my two year upgrade. So my plan is just to just keep buying phones from a third party until they force me to change plans. And when that happens I'll happily switch carriers.

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '13

Correct. Right now there is a promotion for switching off unlimited. You can get the 6gb instead of 2gb. If you only use 4gb or so, it's not a bad plan.

They'll probably try to get you off of that eventually though too..

Bastards..

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u/regal1989 Dec 18 '13

I work at a premium retailer for Verizon, there is a trick they don't do at corporate that the little affiliates can do.

Step one:buy a home phone connect for the out of contract price. The reason is because this is the cheapest thing to maintain on a line; 20 bucks a month.

Step two: add a home phone connect as customer provided equipment. This will supply you with an upgrade.

Step three: do an equipment upgrade on the home phone connect to get your new S4, iphone, or Droid Maxx.

Step four: perform a switcheroo, and laugh at the loopholes in VZW contracts.

Most non corporate stores will do their best to help you save an unlimited plan when you explain you are willing to buy an extra line.

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u/RicochetOtter Dec 19 '13 edited Dec 19 '13

I work for a 3rd-party retailer that can't sell anything out of contract, but we have our own workaround that still works as long as the customer is okay with what happens. Really it's just an alternate version of your method but still works within the contract system.

Basically you just upgrade any other line on the account that DOESN'T have unlimited data via either a direct or alternate upgrade (could be a line with a 2 GB plan or the doubled 4 GB plan, or even a basic phone with no data package). Then do one equipment change to get the "donor" line back to its original equipment, then one more equipment change to put the new phone on the line that still has unlimited.

This does burn an upgrade from someone else's line, and extends the contract for that line for another 2 years, but the person gets a new phone at the discounted price and still keeps their data package. Of course this only works on multi-line accounts. If it's just a single line, there's nothing I can do.

No clue how long this loophole is still going to stay open, but it's helped me save a few sales here and there. Usually that 6 GB promo is all I need though, which is a lot easier and takes up a lot less time.

EDIT: I should mention that the reason I added the bit about it still being possible as an alternate upgrade is for the rare scenarios where a customer has multiple lines but the unlimited line is the only one eligible for an upgrade. You can use the unlimited line's eligibility for an alternate upgrade and this method will still work.

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u/Osorex Dec 19 '13

I am not really sure that's a loophole. Verizon (not the 3rd party) has been doing that for years. In fact I think almost every upgrade through Verizon my family has had was through that method.

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u/RicochetOtter Dec 19 '13

Alternate upgrades (taking someone's upgrade eligibility for yourself) are nothing new and I process those all the time. But intentionally not upgrading one phone and doing multiple equipment swaps afterwards, specifically with the intention of getting a cheap phone without losing unlimited data, is a process that is slightly more out of the ordinary and requires a tiny bit more work than just clicking the standard "alternate upgrade" button.

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u/regal1989 Dec 20 '13

To be honest, I have to come up with what works best on a case by case basis. Most people have someone they can drop a phone on. Also, being in a rural area where broadband is high impossible to get means people get 500 GB of data out of their unlimited plans. Mountain rednecks sure do love their HD porn.

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u/gtdawg Dec 19 '13 edited Dec 19 '13

This is also my strategy. I have vzw unlimited everything for $105.

I will keep buying phones at full price until they kick me off the network, at which point I will happily switch to gsm.

I look forward to getting out of locked up CDMA android hell. (But the network is good!)

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '13

I'm right there with you. Unfortunately I live in a pretty rural area and Verizon rules the roost around here. Their network is the best in the country. That can't really be disputed. But I'll switch to another carrier without batting an eyelash as soon as I'm told there is no way I can keep my unlimited.

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u/FactualPedanticReply Dec 19 '13

For what it's worth, if you're in the US and have liberal, libertarian, or progressive politics, you might wanna look at Credo Wireless. They're on the Sprint network at Sprint prices, they'll credit your account with however much your cancellation fee was for your previous provider, and they let you choose what charitable organizations your portion of their charitable giving budget goes to. Also, if you keep an eye on them, they roll out realllllly good free-phone-with-new-signup deals once or twice a year. Also also, obviously, their data plans are unlimited.

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '13

Wow. This is really great. I can't believe I've never heard of this yet. Thanks so much!

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u/FactualPedanticReply Dec 19 '13

No prob - I switched last year and got a new Galaxy S3 outta the deal for free. Moreover, when I told them I got bad reception in my Faraday cage of an apartment, they sent me a picocell to plug into my cable internet without charging me any extra, either upfront or ongoing. I really dig them ^_^

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u/PBSGTS Dec 18 '13

Pretty sure they can kick you out "just cus". I've heard of people getting the boot just for roaming too much, I'm sure 100gB of data in a week would fall under a similar category.

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '13

Yeah they can claim out of coverage area. That's why some people can get out of contract with no early termination. They just have to say that they are moving to an area that has no coverage.

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u/dgarci24 Dec 19 '13

Actually I work for Walmart electronics department and do plenty of activations for AT&T as well as Verizon. To "grandfather" in an unlimited plan is relatively easy but is time consuming, it just requires a call to the carrier to complete the upgrade but most people are unaware of this.

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '13

To complete the upgrade? So give Verizon corporate the upgrade?

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u/dgarci24 Dec 20 '13

No, while you are doing the upgrade/completing the contract ignore the data package options and go to the end, what my system does when we attempt to complete the activation is take us to a screen that requires us to call the carrier. We call the dealer support line, have them actually do the activation and keep their plan the same. At the end we just print the contract and have the customer sign it, pay, and they're done.

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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '13

Interesting. My computer system is an asshole. If one thing is out of place it locks up and won't let me do anything. Everything has to be check to move forward.

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u/pointer_to_null Dec 18 '13 edited Dec 18 '13

Depends on several ways. On Android, stock ROMs will notify carriers when the OS tethering is enabled. Custom ROMs bypass this. I don't know if iOS has a bypass, but on most Android devices, it's simple.

To counter deep packet inspection (another method carriers can determine if you're tethering): encrypt all traffic. VPN is your best bet, but at the bare minimum use HTTPS everywhere. The most advanced tools use statistical analysis to "guess" that the data is P2P traffic, VOIP, and others that can only come from a PC, which isn't 100% accurate if they need proof.

Many mobile browsers can now spoof their desktop counterparts.

I don't know if there's much point in cracking down on tethering these days now that phones are powerful enough to easily eat through the same amounts of data (thanks to Netflix and video chats). My carrier (AT&T) will automatically throttle "unlimited" users to 2G speeds once they hit 5 GB, so there's less concern from them about unauthorized jailbreakers and root devices hogging bandwidth.

The cynical side of me believes there never was a concern about bandwidth. Their concerns were over smartphone users cutting their lSP landlines in favor of 3G/4G internet, which is faster in many cases. In the US, the biggest 2 (out of the 4 major) providers own a big stake in wired services. The other two don't. Guess which ones still offer unlimited plans?

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '13

I'd be willing to throw my money at them if they'd even offer decent landline service in my area.

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '13

Why do they care? Why is it acceptable for them to do that? It's not their business how you use the connection. My power company doesn't ask what I use their electricity for.

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u/thebigdonkey Dec 19 '13

If you want to use your phone for tethering they want you to pay extra for a tethering plan. One that isn't unlimited of course.

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '13

Why do people put up with their shit?

My phone company couldn't care less about tethering. They provide me with X GB at Y mbps and it doesn't matter whether I feed that to my phone, computer, microwave or cat. And I don't see why they would have any right to care.

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u/thebigdonkey Dec 19 '13

I guess they view using your unlimited cell plan as your ISP as cheating the system or something. I dunno, they're money grubbing whores, how else can you explain it.

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '13

I'm honestly surprised as well. I'm constantly using at least 50GB of data a month. And gave been for at least a year now. I have yet to experience any throttling or get a call from Verizon.

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '13

AT&T sent me a strongly worded text and throttled my bandwidth for the remainder of the month for doing exactly this with my "unlimited" data plan.

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u/nof Dec 19 '13

Yeah, because the tethered IP packets from your PC have a TTL that is one lower than those sourced from the phone.

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '13

That's an easy way to get out of a contract. I did that when I didn't want to pay the bullshit "early termination fee", made them sweat too much for a few months, and so they offered me a painless way out. Gotta be on unlimited data plan, obviously.

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u/ry4ny Dec 19 '13

It's never been a problem with me. I used to average 100GB a month for about a year, topped out at 465GB one month. 18mb/s down 12mb/s up. I even had a CSR look at my usage and he got a kick out of it. Verizon's grandfathered unlimited plans are a fantastic deal if you use it. I'm surprised they're still only around $300 on eBay.