4G Cards

[Billy Crook]

Heavens!  My last message must have gotten corrupted somewhere...
Allow me to repeat.

>> your carrier can not distinguish your computer's usage from your
>> phone's,

The quantity you use may increase when you begin tethering.  If you
weren't tethering from the start.

My unlimited plan is not 'sized' it is, unlimited.  Again, this is
Verizon.  Who knows what the others do.

On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 12:16, Nathan Cerny <ncerny at gmail.com> wrote:
> Most carriers won't allow unlimited data with tethering.  With unlimited
> plans, they're sized to assume a maximum throughput that the phone can
> provide.  Tethering drastically increases that throughput.

No.  It in no way decreases increases throughput.  It actually
decreases it, if anything because of the overhead associated with adb,
and the usb interface.  It's not too big a deal though.  It's fine for
normal human stuff.  I wouldn't try updating all the software on my
laptop over it, but I have installed various software from the repos
through it.  3G speeds and latency are complete garbage compared to
the physically anchored connectivity available to me, so I prefer to
use the wired Ethernet or 802.11 access if available.

> Yes, you can root your phone to get around it, but i don't think the

You do not need to root an android phone to use adb.  Enable USB
debugging, install the android SDK on your computer, and you are done.
 It's not ideal in that it requires "special software" on your
computer, but it is Free Software.  And the install is trivial.

There is no change to the phone.  This requires absolutely no software
to be installed on the phone other than what was on it the day Verizon
peeled the screen stickers off, and sat it in your hot little hands.

Bring any Android phone in to the next LUG meeting, and I will demonstrate.

> carriers will look kindly on that, and I'm pretty sure if you exceed the
> maximums they'll notice.  So even though it's "unlimited," it's really not.

I have never had a month in which I used less than 5GB.  I have on
several occasions exceeded 20.  I have NEVER heard a peep.  The only
fluctuations on my bill are those approximate $1 line tax charge crap
fees.

I imagine the reason they don't care is that 99 out of 100 android
phones today are in the hands of people who think facebook is the
internet, use yahoo mail, and don't know what a browser means, but
they want their tweets.  The proles don't even know what a GB is, so
the carriers are making a killing off them, and don't mind as much
when they actually deliver the service a subscriber is paying for.