[HTC Rezound] Marine6680:
They don't have to provide the feature... Google added it to the OS, no carrier intervention needed. If Google had not added the feature, an app maker would have. (and has)

They only added the feature as a lure to get you to pay more for something the OS is capable of doing free, or an app you pay for once can do. It would be like charging you a fee to use the built in alarm clock app, or calculator, or even Google maps...

It is simply a way to make more money. I do not have a problem with someone making money, but I don't like being forced to give money when I have options to give another my money for the same thing, or I can find a way to do it free. Do not take that as me saying that stealing is ok. Walking out the door of a store with an unpaid product is still wrong. Illegal downloads fit into that as well. By free, I mean something along the lines of... I can pay someone to come dig some holes in my yard so I can plant some trees, or I can pick up a shovel and do it myself for free.

As far as the data service... I don't get your train of thought there.

Even if the data is "their" data, you have payed to use it correct? Payed to use X amount. (unlimited, 2gb, 4gb, etc) That means you get to use it for that amount. How you use that amount is of no concern of theirs. They can't tell me what websites I visit, why can they dictate the other aspects of how I use my allotment of data? If I reach my allotment, then they can charge me more if I wish to get more allotment of data, that is fine.

Its like renting a piece of heavy equipment to do work around your house and paying for a full day of use. You do not own the equipment, its just renting (just like you do not own the data service, you just pay for a set amount of use) Then finishing your work at home, in only half a day, and then the rental place telling you that you can not use the last half day of your equipment rental to help the guy next door do some work around his home too.

"I'm sorry sir, I know you paid to use the equipment for a full day of use, and only needed half a day to finish your work at home, and as you were aware, we do not offer refunds for early returns. But I am sorry sir, you can only use the equipment on your own home property. You can not use it to help your neighbor. You will need to pay an extra multiple location fee to do that"

Or lets say you rent a car...

"Here are the keys to your rental sir. Just one last thing, you can only use this vehicle on local roads. If you wish to be able to drive this vehicle on the interstates or highways, you must pay an additional fee. Oh, and if you wish to have the ability to use the parking brake, you must pay for this special parking brake handle.... yes sir I understand the vehicle already has a parking brake built in, but you are not allowed to use that, you must use our special one..."

Or rent a movie...

"Yes sir, I know we have a two night rental on all movies, but you can only watch the movie once. If you felt the movie was so good that you watched it twice during that two days, then you surely feel that it was worth paying the multiple viewing fee... Oh you watched to movie with your spouse first and then your children watched it the next day? So no one in the household saw it more than once? Well I'm sorry sir, you should have watched the movie as a family if you wanted to avoid the multiple viewing fee... Well sir the movie does have a rating system to allow you to determine if it is appropriate for children of certain ages... Well I am sorry that you have personal or religious reasons to find some subject matter objectionable that others may not, and that the rating system is not enough for you. But the fact remains that while we allow you to keep the movie in your possession for 2 days, you are only allowed one viewing of said movie, so you must pay the extra fee."

Another example. Your home internet connection...

"I'm sorry sir, we must charge you an extra $15 mobile device access fee. I know you already pay for internet connection, and that the connection is basically unlimited, but the connection is for devices without built in network access. Because your mobile device has a built in cellular radio and has the ability to access the internet on its own without the need to use our broadband service, you must pay an access fee to use that device on our network."

You would rightfully have a fit over such conditions to your paid for services. Tethering is no different. Tethering does not allow you to steal more than what you already pay for. If you pay for the 4gb data plan, tethering will not suddenly allow you to use more.

Charging for tethering is like a restaurant charging you $20 for a dinner, but then charging you a fee to take home any leftovers.

"Here sir, we put the rest of your dinner in this container, that will be a $2 fee... no sir, we are not charging for the container itself so offering your own from home will not waive the fee. We know our food is so good that we charge a $2 fee to enjoy the leftovers at home. Look at it from our point of view sir. These leftovers could serve as another meal for you, a meal in which you stay home instead of coming back to our restaurant and paying for our fine meals again, this means we are loosing a potential sale by allowing you to take home leftovers. So we charge a fee to recoup those potential losses."

Just because someone calls something stealing does not make it so...

If I pay $25 for tickets to a concert, then when I go to leave all the security guards are there forcing people a $5 exit service fee to leave/use the exits, and I find a way to sneak out... is that stealing? A good argument could be made that yes, it is indeed stealing. At a technical level, that would be right, it is stealing, as I avoided paying a fee for a so called "service". That does not make the practice right.

I can tell people that they must pay a fee to breath in my home, and that doing so without paying is stealing, but that does not make it so, or right to demand the payment.

No more than taking your leftover food (that you paid for) home from a restaurant, is stealing from the restaurant.

But yes, this is the reason carriers are resistant to rooting... extortion is a good racket. Force someone to pay for something when they have already paid for it once, or have other options is a good way to rake in some extra cash.

Plus, they was making a killing selling those mobile hotspots to people and businesses. Now every smartphone purchase has the potential to deny them a further sale.

One last example... for the potential sale part...

It would be like a car dealership charging you an extra fee on the price of the vehicle to use a crew cab (4 door) pickup truck to drive the family to the movies, a restaurant, or anywhere else not related to using a pickup as a work vehicle.

"We are sorry sir, you can only use this truck for work related people transport. If you wish to use the extra interior room for family related transport, you must pay a $5000 premium to the sticker price. We feel that you buying a crew cab truck instead of a regular cab truck means that you can use this vehicle for both work and family related transport, and we feel that denies us a potential family car sale. So we must charge extra to recoup the loss."

Did any of that sound like reasonable fees and charges to you?