Is it really true that you can only do this through one certain company (Sprint) with one certain phone?
What is your definition of unlimited?
I don’t want them to say “oh you’ve used up your supply, now here’s an extra charge for you if you want to keep going.”
PDANet will let you tether Android Verizon phones (and some others) to your notebook and use the smart phones as wireless modems using the phones built in data plans (Verizon’s is hypothetically unlimited) . This is not something Verizon likes as they want to charge (IIRC) $ 30 a month for the option of tethering with a much clunkier (trust me) software interface, but as the intermediate notebook interface is invisible to the wireless carrier using PDANet there’s not much they can do. The only way you would out yourself is doing something stupid like DLing massive amounts of data via the modem. Browsing and the odd DL should not raise an eyebrow.
30 day free trial. It is the bomb!
edit: once per month charge ok.
It’s also kind of a gray area in terms of whether Verizon is and will remain ok with it.
For their regular tethering service, they charge an additional fee and limit you to 5GB a month. PDANet on Android phone gets around that by using the phone’s regular unlimited data plan, which Verizon can’t be too happy about – especially once they launch their upcoming official $30/mo tethering plan.
Use at your own risk.
if anyone can confirm the unlimited tethering for monthly flat rate works with Sprint that would be nice too.
and if you could list the phone that does it that would be even better.
links also appreciated.
I have no idea if it does or not, but right now data plans are in or going to be in an industry state of flux. With AT$T’s change in their rates, it leaves the door open for the rest of the carriers to change their plans. Sprint may have had such a plan, but will it have said plan in the future is now in doubt.
Declan
I use T-Mo and have a FlexPay account - I get a rate plan, insurance, etc, but I’m not locked into a contract. I could go at any time. I use a Blackberry Curve 8320 to tether and I’m literally online all day long. I don’t know how much data I use, but I’ve never once been throttled or charged for an overage in the entire year I’ve been using it like this.
You do have to have the Blackberry internet package, which is something like $35 a month, but it comes with unlimited messages, so all you’d have to worry about after that would be minutes…and to be honest, TMO is still on the EDGE network, so the Blackberry speed isn’t that great…but it is unlimited tethering.
I had a look at PDANet to see if I could use it to get around the “clunky interface” of Blackberry Desktop Manager (required to tether, but it runs quietly in the background), and PDANET looks like a Desktop Manager for smartphones of the non-RIM variety. You’re going to have to have some sort of interface, no matter what you use.
Were you looking to buy a new phone, or use the one you have already? Have you considered an aircard or USB modem? A lot of companies offer them now, with 3G connections (4G where available for Sprint coverage area)…what’s available depends on where in the country you are…