Verizon Nuked Froyo's Hotspot, Built-In Tethering

It works on mine, has for months

That kind of business attitude drove me from Verizon to Cingular. Little did I know back then that the "freedom" was short lived as they were acquired by AT&T who has the same philosophy as Verizon in that regard. Oh well, so I guess this article is nothing more than business as usual.

What a bunch of bull****. This phone can support tethering and Verizon knows it, this is just a bunch of crap spewed out as an excuse. I'll have my droid update to 2.2 ONLY if I can find a decent app that allows tethering, even if I have to root my phone to do so. I got a droid to allow it to do what I want it to do, not what someone else tells me I can do with it (yes I understand that Motorola and Google didn't restrict me, Verizon is restricting me, and it's their network anyway. I'm just mad and being cranky).

Its pretty much prevalent in just about ALL US based carriers. They are so stuck being stingy with any innovation the rest of the world must think we're from the stone age with hugely expensive plans, and in many cases, feeble features.

Call it a throwback to the days when the phone monopolies didn't want anything to do with ISDN/DSL, just selling businesses their $3000/mo T1 lines.

Maybe if the FCC is given some back up and tells carriers, "Compete on service, no more locked in contracts, no more locked in phones." we'll see a bit better service.

I'm glad Tom's did an article on this. I get my Android news from Phandroid, and they did an article already, but the more media coverage the better. Media is the only thing keeping companies in check these days. Good work, Kevin.

I mean, Verizon's a business, and we all know they're trying to make a buck... and you can't please all the people, all the time. However, when you pull crap like this, you sure as hell can piss off a lot of customers.

I have been using PDANet for ages. So to say that it doesn't have the hardware to support it is BS. I don't think they realize just how much more business they would get if they didn't keep trying to limit everyone and rip them off.

Why doesn't Verizon just speak the truth. what's it going to hurt? "We disabled tethering and Mobile hotspot because our app on the Droid X doesn't work on the Droid, and we charge for such services."

And what ever happened to the phrase "Under Promise - Over Deliver"? It seems forgotten in todays companies. Everyone's so bent on over promising just to get in their initial customers and then they don't deliver, screwing over the same consumers who are now locked on contract phones, 12 month tv services, etc.

Why don't they say: "We would like to make more money with our MiFi device so we're going to disable these features from Android 2.2. We're a for-profit business so deal with it."? They know they're lying and we know they're lying so why not just drop it and gain a tiny bit of respect for telling the truth? How is it profitable to insult your customers' intelligence like this? Of cource the DROID has the hardware to support these features.

There are numerous Apps out there that will let you tether your Droid. I use PDA net and it works great (rooting is not required though my phone does happen to be rooted. As to needing software on the PC, that is only needed for Verizon to collect money for it. When you plug in your Droid with 2.2 with a USB cable and enable USB tethering (which is in the build of 2.2 I have - not the official Verizon release) it does connect to the internet - the only problem being that you cant browse anywhere except to a verizon page where it tells you what the fees are for their data plans.

What! Verizon perfect and AT&T is horrible!
/sarcasm off in 5, 4, 3...

ATT has blocked EasyTether from the APP MARKET. But to get around it you only need to turn off the ATT radio and enable wifi. Then you get the default App Market. Easy Tether is crap though compared to Samsungs "PC INTERNET" button. Just plug in USB and press that and you now have a new network connection.
I can't understand why ATT would block all the tether apps but leave the easiest one to use built into the phone. I don't get charged monthly for tethering either. I just use my $30 unlimited data

Not one bit surprised. Still disappointed though.

LOL - "the next generation of doesn't"

What a joke.

I've been a Verizon customer for years, but this is the kind of bald-faced lie that will have me considering a different carrier when my "new every two" term is up next month. If I buy a Droid [X], I want it to have the full capabilities Motorola designed into it, not some artificial subset of those features intended to extract maximum revenue.

LIES LIES LIES! ALL LIES! I've had my Droid since December and have been rooted, rommed, and WIFI tethering since February. This phone is more than capable of doing it. I don't even have an ISP at home I used my Droids tether exclusively. I even share the connection with my PS3 and play online games with it. It shouldn't surprise us though. They should just be careful, as the saying goes, "if you'll lie, you'll steal. I you'll steal, you'll kill.

Of course they would. For mobile carriers they are not going to lose there biggest cash cow when it comes to data and raping consumers with overcharging for bandwidth until the FCC or FTC steps in and clamps down on all carriers. Hell the guy who was accredited for the SMS text message on phones did so with the idea of it not having ANY impact over normal carriers systems, yet we still get charged $20 for unlimited half-kilobyte messages and or $.10 per message over your "cheaper" plan. How many billions do those overcharges bring in for each carrier per year?

If the wireless cell network wasn't meant to handle all the data knowing what consumers would be throwing at it then they shouldn't have even built it in the first damn place. Sorry but these damn Data and SMS price gouging and half-assed justifications for it are getting so damn old and down right childish for the big wigs to think we should actually believe them. We may have been dumbed down but we aren't complete idiots.

*sigh* I was looking forward to getting a droid next year. Luckly i can still tether on my iPhone 3g on 3.1.2. Damn phone companies penny pinching everyone.

On Verizon in the pre-final 2.2 versions, tethering was there, worked; however, recently it would drop the user to the Verizon page saying that they must pay the additional $25 fee for tethering.

(Which is the same page that has been around for a while for some phones like Blackberrys when they were tethered.)

As for it NOT being able to do it, lie and lie.

Just wait for a rooted version of their release with the functionality turned back on and grab anyone of the free utilities that turn the droid into a WiFi hotspot. (If you are willing to root, you don't need to buy PDANet, etc.)

I'm sure it has the hardware for tethering.

@bison88

This is what happens when basically two carriers control 99% of the coverage. The Verizon/Alltel and various other mergers should never have been allowed.

If you work and travel, you can't even depend on ATT because of the horrid non-3G data service you hit when you get 5 miles outside of any city.

So for people like myself, Verizon is the only carrier that offers 3G in enough remote areas and they know this and as long as they keep in collusion with ATT, the prices will get worse, and data restrictions will continue to grow as their networks struggle to handle the data.

I was considering getting the Droid with Verizon come February when my iPhone contact ends, because my girlfriend just got one, but EVO for sure.

Funny, I'm on verizon and use wifi hotspot and usb tethering with my omnia. Of course I had to install a rom to use it and went from WM6.1 to WM6.5 all on my regular data plan, no extra charge.

Hell will freeze over before telco companies actually stop pulling this kind of crap-ola. At least we've got dedicated hackers and programmers who develop these root-kits and what-not that allow us to take back some control on OUR devices.

Sorry to hear about your issues Droid guys and gals. I have an iPhone 4 with the Flash light app that has the easter egg that allows tethering and it works perfectly. I also have the unlimited AT&T plan as I upgraded from the 3G, which means that I don't pay extra for tethering. I know this is not the norm, but I am only commenting to say that it doesn't matter which network you are on, they will shaft you somehow, some way, and that the idea of freedom is an illusion.

Apple did same thing with iPhone's bluetooth and copy/cut/paste function and yet people did nothing...

at most, people will complain but won't do anything to reverse Verizon's decision....

Sad to hear that Verizon is back to their old habit of disabling features only so they can charge extra for them. With my old Motorola W385 phone, they disabled the cable outlet so that the only way to transfer photos from the phone to a computer was by E-MAIL, for which they charged 25¢ per photo. (I went out and bought a real camera, never used the one in the phone.) What a bunch of greedy cheapskates.

I've been tethering on my WinMo phone since I got it over a year ago, and I'm still only paying $20/mo for the data with ATT...

I just got a call a few weeks ago from my old company asking me how to do what I do with my phone. Apparently they're rolling out Verizon Android phones there, lol.

My friend with a Nexus One says that he can tether just fine on T-Mobile. I haven't seen it with my own eyes, but I don't see why he can't.

Solution: Just spend the extra money and get yourself an unlocked phone and grandfather it into your account and you're all set. I've been doing it for years and I've been called crazy on numerous occasions, but these same people that call me crazy are now asking me for help, lol. I can't help but laugh and say sorry, can't help you.

It made sense in the past, but now a days I can never understand how people can stay loyal to a particular brand. I can understand preferring to stick with a company you may like, but not to the level of some people (you all know the type I'm referring to) that blindly cannot accept the fact that they're getting fleeced.

That being said, it boggles my mind even more how people can be so blind when it comes to cell phone carriers. I read the comments of ATT bashing and praising of Verizon and I think to myself, Verizon is no better. Tiered pricing on ATT based on usage... just wait until everyone moves to Verizon and their network gets clogged...

I think the best thing anyone can do when it comes to things like this is to just use what works for them. I use ATT. I don't people to use ATT or try to convince them that ATT is better because it's not. It works perfectly for me. Everywhere I go I have a strong signal but that's just my own luck. I stay with ATT because I can grandfather phones onto my cheap plan and do whatever I please with my phones.

If Verizon had a tower near my house, I may have never switched. Since I never buy into contracts, if ATT suddenly does something stupid, I just move. The beauty of not getting a carrier phone though, is not only the freedom to do whatever you want, but also the fact that they can't push any updates onto your phone.

Verizon supports the Mobile Hotspot feature on my Palm Pre. Are they actually trying to convince people that the Droid X is not as advanced as the Palm Pre????

Regardless of my thumb rating, this just has to be said:

You guys that are complaining about this sound like a bunch of spoiled kids. Verizon's network (or ANY network for that matter) CANNOT support that kind of bandwidth that tethering adds to it's network for free. NO amount of complaining, arguing, badmouthing Verizon, or temper-tantrums will change that.

This move should come as no surprise to anyone who follows this kind of stuff. Yes, Verizon wants to make more money off of tethering (like every other cell phone service), but the main reason they can't add tethering is because it would utterly destroy their network if everyone could do it. When people have to pay extra for it, not nearly as many will use it.