Very true on all of your points. And I honestly don't know how Verizon handles it. I know AT&T's "Unlimited" plan is sold as unlimited with the thought that you're only going to be doing certain things on your phone. So they've build out the infrastructure to support so much bandwidth. It is unlimited, but it's really not for that reason :) That's why they force you to go to a capped plan when you enable tethering. I just assumed the other carriers were doing similar things.<div>
<br></div><div>I wasn't clear about what I meant with increasing throughput. Tethering does increase throughput, not because of the amount of data you can pull, but because of the amount of data you want to pull. Think about streaming video - on a phone running at 900x300px, you're pulling much less data than streaming 720p on your computer over 4g on your phone. That's the point I was trying to make :)</div>
<div><br></div><div>You are right though, that 99% of the smartphone users out there don't use any bandwidth at all.</div><div><br></div><div>Cool about adb. I hadn't realized it existed - only way I knew of doing it was to root the phone or purchase tethering.</div>
<div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 1:09 PM, Billy Crook <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:billycrook@gmail.com">billycrook@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
Heavens! My last message must have gotten corrupted somewhere...<br>
Allow me to repeat.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
>> your carrier can not distinguish your computer's usage from your<br>
>> phone's,<br>
<br>
</div>The quantity you use may increase when you begin tethering. If you<br>
weren't tethering from the start.<br>
<br>
My unlimited plan is not 'sized' it is, unlimited. Again, this is<br>
Verizon. Who knows what the others do.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 12:16, Nathan Cerny <<a href="mailto:ncerny@gmail.com">ncerny@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> Most carriers won't allow unlimited data with tethering. With unlimited<br>
> plans, they're sized to assume a maximum throughput that the phone can<br>
> provide. Tethering drastically increases that throughput.<br>
<br>
</div>No. It in no way decreases increases throughput. It actually<br>
decreases it, if anything because of the overhead associated with adb,<br>
and the usb interface. It's not too big a deal though. It's fine for<br>
normal human stuff. I wouldn't try updating all the software on my<br>
laptop over it, but I have installed various software from the repos<br>
through it. 3G speeds and latency are complete garbage compared to<br>
the physically anchored connectivity available to me, so I prefer to<br>
use the wired Ethernet or 802.11 access if available.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> Yes, you can root your phone to get around it, but i don't think the<br>
<br>
</div>You do not need to root an android phone to use adb. Enable USB<br>
debugging, install the android SDK on your computer, and you are done.<br>
It's not ideal in that it requires "special software" on your<br>
computer, but it is Free Software. And the install is trivial.<br>
<br>
There is no change to the phone. This requires absolutely no software<br>
to be installed on the phone other than what was on it the day Verizon<br>
peeled the screen stickers off, and sat it in your hot little hands.<br>
<br>
Bring any Android phone in to the next LUG meeting, and I will demonstrate.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> carriers will look kindly on that, and I'm pretty sure if you exceed the<br>
> maximums they'll notice. So even though it's "unlimited," it's really not.<br>
<br>
</div>I have never had a month in which I used less than 5GB. I have on<br>
several occasions exceeded 20. I have NEVER heard a peep. The only<br>
fluctuations on my bill are those approximate $1 line tax charge crap<br>
fees.<br>
<br>
I imagine the reason they don't care is that 99 out of 100 android<br>
phones today are in the hands of people who think facebook is the<br>
internet, use yahoo mail, and don't know what a browser means, but<br>
they want their tweets. The proles don't even know what a GB is, so<br>
the carriers are making a killing off them, and don't mind as much<br>
when they actually deliver the service a subscriber is paying for.<br>
</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Nathan Cerny<br><br>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
</div>