Android owners in the US would not be happy about this - carriers have started blocking the apps that enable tethering on their phones. Its a service they charge $15-$20 a month after all, you can not expect them to let you have it for free.
Reports from all over the Internet are coming in saying that AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile are all blocking the tethering apps from the Market (both free and paid ones). Sprint seems to be the one operator that has not blocked the tethering apps.
People who live outside the US might be scratching their heads wondering why you would need an app to do what the OS can do on its own - well, US carriers usually disable that functionality, until you pay of course. AT&T goes as far as locking bootloaders.
You can still install tethering apps though - but you will need to get them from another source or do it on a rooted phone (which is harder to do on a locked bootloader). If you do, you might get an email from the carrier - AT&T for one, has been sending out messages to those who use tethering without paying for it first.
Its the very reason why the latest 3.0 version of the popular tethering application PDA Net now features cloaking to mask the tethering activity from your carrier.
If you are in the US, drop us a comment to say if tethering apps have been blocked for you.
People who live outside the US might be scratching their heads wondering why you would need an app to do what the OS can do on its own - well, US carriers usually disable that functionality, until you pay of course. AT&T goes as far as locking bootloaders.
You can still install tethering apps though - but you will need to get them from another source or do it on a rooted phone (which is harder to do on a locked bootloader). If you do, you might get an email from the carrier - AT&T for one, has been sending out messages to those who use tethering without paying for it first.
Its the very reason why the latest 3.0 version of the popular tethering application PDA Net now features cloaking to mask the tethering activity from your carrier.
If you are in the US, drop us a comment to say if tethering apps have been blocked for you.
