How would I do it though? I get the warning that I have to call Verizon to set it up on my account when I try to use it. I called Verizon before when I first say the ruling and they told me that I still had to pay. I argued with them about the ruling and they said no way. I don't see anyway to do it without jailbreaking my phone.
You can't do it unless you jailbreak your iPhone. That's how this discussion got in the jailbreak section.
Verizon's position is that they are not going to provide functionality on your device that allows you to tether if you have unlimited data. That is fine and not in violation of their block c licenses. They don't have to. They instead ask you to pay another $30 for that functionality. That is fine for them to ask, but I don't have to take them up on their offer.
And while Verizon can ask you to pay another $30, what Verizon can't do is stop you from using an app that will let you tether and not pay the $30 - that, as the consent decree shows, is a violation of their block c open access restrictions. Problem is that Apple won't allow apps like that in their app store so to get them you have to jailbreak your device. Also, I am sure that Apple's iOS wouldn't allow an app like that to run so you would need to jailbreak not only to get the app, but for the app to function.
Google allows these types of apps in the playstore and in fact, that is what the consent decree was all about - Verizon telling Google to take those apps out of the playstore. Unequivocably, Verizon is not allowed to do that and was fined $1.25M for doing that. BUT the latest Android OS, Kit Kat, patched the exploit that the apps use so you have to root to be able to do it on Android Kit Kat. Moreover, the more Google implements Selinux in the Android OS, the harder it will be to root without unlocking your bootloader.
So while it is still possible to do this, even Google is moving towards securing their OS to the point that you will have to have an unlockable bootloader to do it.
Please understand that only Verizon (the licensee) is under the block c open access restrictions. Apple and Google are not and neither are the Android phone manufacturers. So whatever Apple, Google, Samsung, etc. do of their own accord is not relevant to the block c restrictions. But Verizon cannot pressure them to do things that violate this provision:
47 CFR 27.16 said:Licensees offering service on spectrum subject to this section shall not deny, limit, or restrict the ability of their customers to use the devices and applications of their choice on the licensee's C Block network, except:
(1) Insofar as such use would not be compliant with published technical standards reasonably necessary for the management or protection of the licensee's network, or
(2) As required to comply with statute or applicable government regulation.
That is what the consent decree was about, too. It is not just that Verizon can't do it themselves; they can't ask Google or Apple or the Android phone manufacturers to do it, either. But nothing stops Google or Apple or the Android phone manufacturers from doing it on their own because they aren't the licensee of the block c spectrum.
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