Sprint to OFFICIALLY block tethering in 2010!

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Effective in 2010 (a little less than two months to you and me) Sprint has announced they will officially block tethering on all smartphone devices. For those of you unsure what tethering is, it's a way to connect your laptop to the internet by routing the connection through your cell phone. This surprise announcement from Sprint is not winning many friends, and certainly not helping to increase their chances of retaining customers. This change has been confirmed by Sprint executive David Owens.

[Pinstack]

Another fantastic move by Sprint.

Yeah! I thought so too. I have no idea what percentage of their customers are smartphone users/"tetherers" (that's my new word of the day!) but this has to be incredibly frustrating. ESPECIALLY is you just recently purchased and upgraded with a new two year contract.

I sure hope this don't spread like wild fire to the rest of them. :aargh4:

Somehow this seems about right for Sprint. Never did care for their customers!

Wow not a good move on the customer relations front that is for sure.

Well, they'll never stop tethering as there are such products as Shark Modem, PDANet, etc. I see a loss of revenue and an increase in workarounds. Not the best idea Sprint....

Having worked in Advanced Tech SUpport and now a in store tech for Sprint............Alot of my customers talk about using the phones as modems. I definitely dont agree with taking tethering away. Alot of people use that feature. Its going to be a fun January thats for sure

Sure makes Verizon look good though. Even if they nickel and dime you. They still offer services.

Folks,

I work for a school district that uses BB's to tether and as soon as I saw this I contacted my Sprint/Nextel reps. Here's their response:

Tim Donahue is our VP of Marketing. He said a blogger made something out of nothing David Owens said. We will continue to allow tethering on our smartphones. The blogger is misinformed.

To further ease your concerns, we have requested a formal quote to that effect from Mr. Owens.

Later,

Pat

I too work for a company who GREATLY relies on this for Sales Reps and Technicians. My Account Executive was pretty adamant about this not being true.

Edit: Follow-up e-mail I just received.

Quote:

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From:
Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 3:45 PM
To: Arizona Business Sales
Subject: PAM Tethering News

All,
You may have seen the story in the news in the last day or so regarding statements David Owens made about banning tethering on the Sprint network. To alleviate any confusion please understand that nothing has changed for our business customers. The plans mentioned in our previous communication attached below still stand and nothing is changing. The Simply Everything plans mentioned in the article have never included Phone-as-Modem tethering services. So this article is simply stating what is already in place today and has been since we launched Simply Everything plans.
The article states the following:
"Sprint executive David Owens has confirmed that the carrier will ban tethering on smart devices next year as a part of its future smart device development plans. The ban will be placed on smart devices activated on the carrier’s current lineup of Everything plans."

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TONS of our customers at our company user tethering and I mean tons, this is a huge down fall now and I can see us moving carriers. Do you have a link to a official article? Our company gets free tethering and 15 dollar tethering internationally via smart view

The info posted was inaccurate -- the following two articles clarify the situation. Sprint is decommissioning their 2G data network, NOT tethering in general.
____________________________________________

2G Data Decommissioning Causing Customer Confusion

A legal notification was mistakenly mailed to many customers with newer 3G devices and is causing confusion surrounding the 12/31/09 decommissioning of the 2G data network. The letter incorrectly informs the customers to upgrade to a 3G device to continue accessing data.

If 3G device customers inquire about this, use the following talking points:

* Disregard the letter because it is inaccurate.
* They do not need to upgrade to another device at this time.
* If applications are affected on their 3G phone, Sprint will contact them.
____________________________________________

Q: What is Circuit Switched Data?

A: 2G Data is the common (and incorrect term) for Circuit Switched Data or Dial-up Data. Circuit
switched data is the same thing used in the 1990s to access AOL or other Internet Service Provider using
a modem. Customers on the Sprint CDMA network can configure computing devices to use circuit
switched data through their phones and connection cards.

Q: What is circuit switched (2G) data decommissioning?

A: Sprint is discontinuing its 10-year-old circuit switched data platform on 12/31/09 based on a steady
usage decline in the past few years. This means:
* The data function on 2G phones, modems and data cards will no longer operate.
* Voice and text functions will continue to work on 2G data-capable devices.
* Some data applications that utilize this technology will no longer operate (older applications
requiring access using a dial-up number).
* 3G devices that are using circuit switch data will also be impacted, but voice, text and 3G data will not be interrupted.