AT&T to crack down on users who tether without a tethering plan

August 5, 2011 By Mike Dunn

AT&T officially announced it will start taking action against iPhone users who tether their phone without the $20-per-month service plan.

This has been a rough week for AT&T’s customers with “unlimited” data plans. On Monday, we reported that user’s with unlimited plans will start getting throttled due to heavy usage. On Thursday AT&T confirmed that it will start taking action against iPhone users who use unofficial Jailbroken tethering apps. AT&T offers an official tethering service that users can pay an additional $20 for, on top of their already hefty bill.

We reported in March that AT&T was contacting Jailbroken subscribers who were tethering. At that time, AT&T just let the users know that it knew they were tethering, and that they should stop, but took no further action.

AT&T recently informed a few customers who tether that if they don’t stop by a certain date (which depends on the user) that they will automatically place them into a 2GB data plan with an included tethering plan, for a total cost of $45.

An official AT&T spokesperson confirmed the new policy, and said that people who tether will have three options. They could stop tethering, they could proactively contact AT&T to change plans, or the company will change the user’s plan automatically. AT&T says that it is taking this action because it is unfair for the majority of its users. Currently, many customers are paying AT&T for the right to tether their phone, and AT&T wants to level the playing field.

In theory, the tethering and throttling announcements go hand in hand. It is safe to assume that the users who tether their Jailbroken iPhones are the same users who use excessive amounts of data. Now that Jailbroken users can no longer tether or use the iPad version of the Facebook app, why even Jailbreak anymore?

Showing 3 comments

Bob Inmo at 9:10am 13th August 2011 Verizon has also announced similar plans, so it's not just AT&T.
Ryan Taylor at 11:29am 5th August 2011 I purchased the ipad wi-fi version and own a jailbroken iPhone 4. I have had an unlimited everything plan since being with AT&T. I pay approximately 230 dollars a month for my phone along with an additional family plan with 3 phones. When I use my ipad and turn on tethering I use it for very low bandwidth apps like email. This is a joke and just another reason to leave AT&T. Honestly, if I receive the call I am going to go nuts. Nickel and dime, nickel and dime. This is clown shoes!
1. Mike Dunn at 12:58pm 5th August 2011 Hopefully you don't use it enough to show up on AT&T's radar.I'm in a similar boat, I have a wifi only Xoom cause of wifi tethering with my Nexus S on AT&T. I might only tether once or twice a month, but it's still tethering.