> This has always been the domain of the carriers, not Apple.
Maybe in the US. In Europe carriers never had any say about what functionality a mobile device offered.
All they provided was a SIM-card for that device.
Maybe in the US. In Europe carriers never had any say about what functionality a mobile device offered.
All they provided was a SIM-card for that device.
Source: read the fine print on an offer from my provider, Bouygues Telecom.
My regular plan has 40 GB, which I can use on the phone or tethered. This summer I was spending a lot of time at my parent's and their land internet connection was spotty. At the same time, Bouygues ran a campaign where I could get an extra 20 GB for next to nothing, so I was considering that. Read the fine print which basically said "the allowance doesn't apply to tethered use". I didn't care enough to challenge them on this so I passed.
Edit: Just checked the available options, this is still the case. Can't give a direct link for some reason, so here's a screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/rQgoz0m
Basically this is an option for "unlimited internet on the weekends". The originally hidden disclaimer says, among other things, "except for modem mode".
We’ve never had carrier-branded phones. Not one. Only thing sold has been generic phones which accepts a generic SIM.
And that’s how the market is supposed to work. Free competition on devices. Free competition on service. Customers can combine as they like.
Granted you could buy carrier-locked phones rebated through a contract, but the carrier lock was time-limited and reversible and the phone was a generic, international model.
Carrier-branded phones was definitely not a EU-wide phenomenon.
If anything the introduction of the iPhone in Europe (launched using the very confusing US carrier-model) was what started pushing carriers into attempting to making new restrictions on how people were allowed to use their (formerly unrestricted) subscriptions.
So you got it pretty much 100% backwards.
In the UK there were DEFINITELY carrier branded phones, tethering was disabled by many carriers, and you couldn't even use a regular SIM card in a non-phone device - you needed a "data sim".
I travelled around Europe for 2 years using local SIM cards - and also encountered carriers which disabled tethering.
There were even android apps specifically to work around these tethering restrictions, by making the phone act as a proxy.
The answer is money. Tethering was usually not allowed but you could buy in. You get phones for free, but only if you pay 40€+ a month for the next 2 years for something you actually don't need. E.g. some unlimited services (streaming) while your general data is capped.
I haven't been in the market for such contracts for quite a few years, this has changed a lot in recent times due to "contract-less" cheap providers gobbling up the marketshare. And these packages always disappeared over time and became standard. I don't think tethering is not allowed anywhere anymore.
Not so, unfortunately. I tried putting a phone SIM into an iPad, and soon got a message from the mobile company saying the SIM card wasn’t intended for this use and would be disabled until it went back into a phone.
(This was in the UK a few years ago with a Three PAYG SIM).
They used to proxy all traffic and the only way to get out of their stupid slow proxy was to go to the shop with ID to get on an "18+" list.
They said it was because of some UK law but I was in Ireland. So not applicable. And other UK based providers like Vodafone didn't have this stupidity.
not really. a few years ago, before the eu roaming was made cheap, i bought a sim from wind operator in italy, and it was blocking my tethered traffic. i had to "fix" my ttl for it to work