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aniki ,

This is why I love Google Fi. I go anywhere on earth, and I have coverage. Unlimited everything. Never worry about nothing, ever, and has carrier bonding for when you're really out there.

MrJukes ,
@MrJukes@lemmy.today avatar

Google Fi will throttle you after you hit a limit depending on your plan. I unknowingly hit mine after using my phone for a hotspot, watching a few hours of soccer and I think Windows downloaded a bunch of updates too. It was towards the beginning of the billing cycle so the rest of the month really sucked. Might want to double check your plan.

aniki ,

Its like 50g on the unlimited plan.

BaroqueInMind ,

TMobile provides literally the same services, beat-for-beat at a lower price.

KevonLooney ,

People don't think these things through. Google can't possibly be cheaper than a wireless carrier because they don't own any towers. Wireless carriers will make sure Google doesn't sell cheaper than they can sell it themselves.

Also, things like Metro PCS (before T-Mobile bought them) just have lower network priority. So "cheaper" just means crappy service. Good luck making a phone call at a sporting event or concert.

bus_factor ,

They absolutely can, several carriers who use other carriers are cheaper than who they lease service from. They won't be paying consumer prices to use those towers.

It all depends on what margins they have, what extra services they provide, and whether they have other ways of monetizing you. They might even be reselling at a loss to boost their initial market share. In Google's case, it's safe to assume they want your data and sacrifice some margins to get it.

KevonLooney ,

Which ones?

bus_factor ,

I can't be bothered to research every plan to answer this question, but Mint Mobile was dirt cheap while using T-Mobile service. They probably still are, but it arguably doesn't count anymore since T-Mobile acquired them.

aniki , (edited )

tmobile doesn't do free international data anywhere on earth. when I travel I have service before the airplane touches down. also, google fi uses carrier bonding so i will jump to us-cellular when I am up north which is extremely valuable for me as I am in the mountains constantly.

BaroqueInMind ,

I also have GFi and currently still use Fi, and I'm telling you Tmobile is better in every single way, including international carrier bonding. I haven't switched over due to Fi VPN being very convenient for me (and there's better VPNs out there anyways so I'm not married to it at all).

bus_factor ,

This is the Unlimited Plus plan. Their Simply Unlimited plan throttles you after 5 GB of hotspot usage, but phone data is unlimited.

aniki ,

I never said I wasn't on the unlimited everything plan.

bus_factor ,

I never claimed you did. I just clarified which plan you were on, and added how their other plan works. This could be nice for others to know. I don't know why you'd take that as a personal attack, but I certainly didn't intend it as one.

ChaoticNeutralCzech ,

Some or all major mobile providers outright BAN hotspots in their ToS. However, they don't enforce the rule as it would be very unpopular.

And we still have pretty much the most expensive cellular data in the EU. The triopoly sucks.

ThrowawayPermanente ,

TTLMaster was what I used to fix this a few years ago

AFKBRBChocolate ,

I'm sure this is an unpopular opinion, but I kind of get this one. Unlimited data on your phone is constrained a bit because it's your phone. If you make your phone a hotspot and the whole family is using it to watch videos and stuff (and not paying for their own data plan), that's a pretty big difference to the infrastructure needs.

nogooduser ,

Yeah. You have unlimited data but they don’t want you to actually use that.

They take the risk that you’re not going to use more than they want you to from your phone but it is very likely that you’ll use it from your computer or if you connect multiple devices to your phone.

I find the idea to be reasonable because they can’t actually supply everyone with unlimited data but they really shouldn’t be calling it unlimited if there are any limits.

AFKBRBChocolate ,

Yeah, it's unlimited for you on your phone, and they have estimates and ranges for what that amounts to for people that they use to determine pricing. But if not it's not just you and your phone, but multiple people with multiple uses, those estimates aren't sufficient.

Shimitar ,
@Shimitar@feddit.it avatar

At home i have a FWA over 5G (mobile) with 1Tb/month of traffic cap. That can be raised by 200Gb if needed. Cost 24€/month.

On mobile I have 150Gb capped 3G/4G/5G (whatever works) for 7.99€/month.

Not bad deals in comparison with what I read here.

woelkchen ,
@woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

Oops

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/8bf155c6-7096-418d-9328-5ed1a09c4552.jpeg

PatFussy ,

Were you downloading more ram or was that all BaNano faucet

woelkchen ,
@woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

Downloading games from Steam and binging through a few TV shows because I had a free trial of Apple TV+.

I don't play online games, so I don't care for low ping and the speed is usually fine.

spiderman ,
@spiderman@ani.social avatar

https://ani.social/pictrs/image/21b1c539-5fc6-47e3-80aa-cbaa1225bbb9.webp

Oops!

woelkchen ,
@woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

You also have a ventilation pad for your phone to keep it cool while it's serving that data traffic?

spiderman ,
@spiderman@ani.social avatar

Lol, surprisingly my Xiaomi doesn't heat much even when I have my mobile hotspot turned on.

woelkchen ,
@woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

When I'm downloading a big game off Steam, mine gets pretty warm. I bricked the WiFi module of an older phone through that. Better safe than sorry.

shani66 ,

This is one of those 'innovations' people mean when they say capitalism drives innovation. Not the hotspot, the pointless extra charge for something your phone can just do on its own.

BilboBargains ,

Use a VPN. ISP are being disingenuous when they claim a data connection is unlimited at the point of purchase and then slug us with restrictions when we try and use it. If they can detect a tether, the VPN should obscure it.

the_third ,

Start the VPN from the phone though, otherwise the TTL-trick will still work for them.

jordanlund ,
@jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

Your data is unlimited, the SPEED of the data is not. ;)

alphacyberranger ,
@alphacyberranger@sh.itjust.works avatar

That's like trying to download 1 TB on a dial-up connection. It'll never be done.

Etterra ,

Oh no I can assure you it'll be done. It's just so slow that by the time you finish not only will your modern be teetering on the ruckity precipice of death, but you'll have already upgraded to a neutral modem for direct-to-mind augmented reality. Remember to get an ad blocker and VPN for your cerebrum.

CrayonRosary ,

Get EasyTether for your phone ($10) and you can USB tether to any PC that has the companion app installed (free).

Even a Raspberry Pi works. I have a Pi configured to broadcast as a WiFi AP, so I just plug in my phone via USB and I have instant WiFi for all of my devices. Takes a fair amount of configuration to do that, but there are tutorials online. Much easier just plugging your phone into a laptop for internet on just that laptop.

Or maybe a laptop can act as a WiFi AP, too. I do know Windows can share internet out a free Ethernet port very easily.

I use a VPN so my wireless provider doesn't see Windows update or Stream downloads, etc.

Jimmycrackcrack , (edited )

Around about 2009 or so I had a mobile plan with Virgin that did that same trick (I think this was plugging your phone in to a computer as a modem as opposed to wireless hotspot but same thing anyway) and it was limited to 5 MEGABYTES after which they wanted 15pence per KILOBYTE I couldn't believe what I was reading. I never ran afoul of it because I checked this out first when buying the plan and made sure never to use that function but it just seemed literally unreal. I've been shocked at how much things cost before but that seemed more like a mistake or something, I just can't imagine they ever actually made anyone pay for that, the negative press would be too bad. It was not unheard of at the time for people to have excess charges on limited plans waived because it was a shock and they were unaware or unprepared for those charges accruing so the idea that someone might have checked emails, read a news article, checked Facebook and possibly a web video having not read the fine print and ended up with tens if not over a hundred GBP of charges just doesn't seem feasible. Really fucking crazy.

HauntedCupcake ,

So that works out to £150 per Megabyte?! Holy fuck that's a scam. With average webpage size being ~2MB that's £300 a page

phoneymouse ,

Visible has an unlimited hotspot

Semi_Hemi_Demigod ,
@Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world avatar

I'd have a lot of fun trying to get around it. For example, if the phone and the computer were on the same non-Internet-connected wifi network, and you set up an SSH server to send outbound requests through the 4G modem, would they be able to find out you're using the hotspot?

wander1236 ,
@wander1236@sh.itjust.works avatar

There are a ton of methods carriers use to detect hotspot traffic, from the device itself handling the categorization, to TTL values attached to requests, to other very clever network sniffing strategies.

JDubbleu ,

Every method I've encountered in the past was thwarted by a good ole VPN. This was all on unlocked or rooted phones though so YMMV work carrier phones.

CanadaPlus ,

I'd just try to disguise the traffic as coming from something else. Someone further down says just switching to an OS that doesn't actively snitch does the trick, but if you really wanted you could make your requests look like just about anything, given added volume is free.

Uranium3006 ,
@Uranium3006@kbin.social avatar

the reason is wireless network carve outs from network neutrality and them wanting to abuse their monopoly status to upcharge you for every little thing

FlyingSquid OP ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Remember when they charged 10 cents a text for data that went through the cell tower in the same way a voice did?

brbposting ,

Almost wish they still did but only if it meant more of us were using Signal.

Who am I kidding though, we’d be using What’sZuck like our European & LatAm friends. “WhatsApp: At Least It’s Not WeChat”

bigMouthCommie ,
@bigMouthCommie@kolektiva.social avatar

not to be a shill, but i have xfinity mobile, and they gave me unlimited tethering. there is service degradation at some point, but i haven't ever hit it or if i have i haven't noticed it.

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