Carriers Cracking Down on Wireless Tether Applications
There is a reason why carriers charge add-on fees to enable devices for wireless tethering and data sharing: they don’t profit off of something that can easily be accomplished for free. It was only a matter of time, then, until carriers started to crack down on the many applications available in the Android Market that turn your phone into a mobile hotspot. Our friends over at DroidLife were tipped off that Verizon had blocked the application Wireless Tether on devices tied to their network. Doing a bit more investigating revealed that the app did not appear on the Android Market for devices on VZW, T-Mobile, and AT&T. Attempting to go through the Android Market webstore revealed the app was indeed blocked.
The move follows a warning issued by AT&T earlier in the week chiding customers using tethering without an accompanying service plan and informing them their accounts would have the extra charges added to their account. Looks like other carriers took notice and followed suit. Say goodbye to the days of free tethering.
[via DroidLife]