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LTE Hotspot Tethering Performance?
- Thread starter fiksegts
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- Model S User Interface
As of a few years ago, neither iPhones or Android phones even existed. Your information is sorely out of date. The last 3 versions of the iPhone support Wifi tethering.
It depends on your definition of "a few years" I suppose. The iPhone came out over 6 years ago now.
PwrOutage
Member
Correct in all ways. My def is 3-4yrs. Sorry, when I say didn't support tethering, I meant for free. After some research it's only been a year since the FCC ruled that tethering has to be available in 3rd party apps which means the carriers no longer charge for it either. This was not always true and that's where my information was out of date.
Of course now the carriers charge a ridiculous amount of money for data so not much has changed.
Wow, time does fly though. Six years since the first iPhone, wow.
Merrill
Merrill
So if Tesla decides to take away connectivity, I assume you will lose navigation along with Internet access. Do not know much about technical info, but learning slowly. Can I then tether my iPhone to have access.
jvonbokel
John VonBokel
This sounds like a solid estimate based on your math. And with map tile caching also enabled in 5.0, the map should use little to no data long-term. (I'm assuming/hoping it will do periodic tile updates overnight while connected to wi-fi).
bluefuego
Member
Not sure about this... in my initial testing monitoring usage while tethered on my husband's phone, I observed a 3MB download per song. I need to try this again to confirm data throughput, but from what I saw and assuming a 3 minute song length, 30 minutes of slacker a day (10 songs per day) for 30 days (300 songs) would add up to 900 MB per month (and yes, I do a lot of skipping to the next song - that's not even factored in). I will have to give this a try with the lower quality slacker setting.
I would be interested to know how well tile caching is working. It seems like every time I leave my garage and switch over from wifi to 3g, there is a significant amount of time where I have no map at all (save for 3 or 4 tiles). It's an odd behavior that seems to be related to how far away from the house I can go with a weak wifi signal before 3g switchover. Slacker also will not play for the few blocks that I drive after leaving my garage. Kind of annoying.
My guess is that's the sort of thing reported by early users that will be fixed in subsequent 5.0 updates. Wifi shouldn't make things worse.
bluefuego
Member
I, too, have been grandfathered into an unlimited ATT data plan back from the days when iPhone was initially launched. I have been warned that if I were to make any changes to my plan (even adding to my plan such things as more texts) I would immediately lose my unlimited data plan. I have NEVER once come close to using enough of my data on a monthly basis to justify the increased cost that I pay for the unlimited; but I kept it for the sake of having it. I suspect that if you were to 'legally' turn on tethering on your iPhone through ATT, you would likewise lose your unlimited plan. Now, you could jailbreak it (not that I am nec. advocating that) and get around that. But be aware that even though you have something that says it is 'unlimited', I believe ATT introduced the right to throttle your usage after a certain threshold (prob 2GB). You will still have data, but it will be at Edge speeds.
I suppose it never hurts to ask?
Throttling begins at 3GB; ATT did that to me once. I know you can jailbreak the iPhone to enable tethering, but at one time ATT could detect the tethering by examining the data stream. Is that still the case, or has the jail break tethering programs been revised to simulate the data stream of the phone?
bluefuego
Member
It makes sense that they could detect possible tethering usage via examining data streams.. but I would think that they would only do that to heavier users. I do not know if modern tether jailbreak solutions can hide their data streams - if not, that is certainly a good idea.
I do find the whole extra charge for tethering to be annoying as my usage is limited to the abilities of my phone, it's not like I can actually get anymore data than I am allotted without paying for it or suffering SLOW speeds. When I first heard about the whole throttling being introduced, I would turn on Netflix and stream movies while driving around just to use up my data as my very small and insignificant act of protest. But then I got lazy and even after a few days, I never came close to the throttle point.
bluefuego
Member
Yes, 5.0 installed on my MS. I just re-verified ~3MB per song (3:00+) at Best quality setting. Dropping to Medium quality setting drops it down to just over 1MB (for a 3:00+ minute song). In my 15 or so minutes streaming songs (and skipping to the next song) I used almost 41MB of data (again, both at Best and Medium quality settings, but mostly at Best).
I hope that some find this helpful. I have been struggling to figure out what my best option will be when the connectivity plans are revealed. I currently have an iPhone 4 on AT&T. I am looking to switch to TMobile so that I can at least save a little on my monthly bill, but the possible addition of tethering or another mifi type of device (and the amount of data that I will require for all of my devices including the MS) has my head spinning trying to figure out what my best option will be.
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Electric Machete
P#3820
I have the unlimited plan from AT&T as well. I called and the only way to tether without jailbreaking is to change to a tiered plan with a minimum of 5GB per month. I don't think they will let the unlimited plan stick around too much longer anyway so I'm considering making the change.
sublimaze1
8Dec2012 / Leeroy Jenkins
I have two jailbroken phones - a 4 and a 4S. Sadly, neither are LTE. Both have unlimited data plans One is a corporate phone (on a $150K/mo account) and the other is my personal phone. Observations:
(1) the personal phone gets throttled down at 3GB just like you say.
(2) the corporate phone does not notice throttling.
(3) I have pushed over 10GB/mo twice on the personal plan. I make no phone calls (okay, maybe one or two every six months) from that phone and I text rarely. So if there is any phone that ATT is going to ID as jailbroken, that is it ... I have been doing this for two years. No intervention (e.g. billing, phonecalls, emails) from ATT whatsoever
(4) jailbreaking your phone is not illegal, so there is no fear of legal reprimand
(5) I used redsn0w on the corporate phone, but recently upgraded it to absinthe (I think - it's been a while) and the home phone has redsn0w still on it - since I do nothing but stream data, I don't care about some of the functions that absinthe has overcome.
FWIW
Depending upon how much you drive, this may make the Tesla plan worthwhile.
AT&T's tether-eligible 5GB plan cost is $50 absent any discounts you may receive via employer, supplier, etc., with $10 for each GB. If every 2.5 hours of driving generates just under half a gig, you could be in for a wicked surprise if you relied upon tethering. This is not to mention the loss of 3G availability when you're not in the car (unless you simply buy a mifi point).
Unlimited plans from other carriers + a tether device might make a separate plan + tether worthwhile...
For me it will depend upon what's included. If remote app access depends upon having the connectivity plan, that pretty much decides it for me right then and there. If Tesla were to commit to tethering off the car's connection, that too will be a big factor.
hans
P631
Not sure you would want to share a 3G link with more devices than just the car and console. This makes more sense when combined with a 4G/LTE upgrade of the cars cellular data connection. I think that is how Audi does it for their WiFi hotspot feature.
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