Tried Tethering on Straight Talk and got a prompt to visit att.com..what?

[5150 Joker]

Anyone else try to turn on connection sharing while using straight talk? Why would it prompt me to go att.com/wireless? Did ATT make a deal with ST to block it somehow? The same sim card worked fine with tethering on ST with my old Note.

Solution: http://forums.windowscentral.com/no...ed-way-make-tethering-work-1520-rm-937-a.html

 

[kevm14]

Straight Talk specifically forbids tethering. Generally, tethering is allowed when you don't have unlimited data. On T-Mobile, the unlimited data plan specifies that tethering is capped to 2.5GB. I can't speak for what you were able to do before except it isn't allowed, and you could have your service terminated for it.

 

[xandros9]

because your phone has ATT firmware on it and blocks tethering by default.

 

[5150 Joker]

Straight Talk specifically forbids tethering. Generally, tethering is allowed when you don't have unlimited data. On T-Mobile, the unlimited data plan specifies that tethering is capped to 2.5GB. I can't speak for what you were able to do before except it isn't allowed, and you could have your service terminated for it.

Well whether it's against their TOS or not doesn't explain why an ATT prompt pops up.

because your phone has ATT firmware on it and blocks tethering by default.

Nope, my phone is the RM-937 which has nothing to do with AT&T.

 

[crav4speed]

Straight Talk piggybacks onto AT&T's network. Even though Straight Talk is your provider, you're still on AT&T's network and under their mercy.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Straight Talk piggybacks onto AT&T's network. Even though Straight Talk is your provider, you're still on AT&T's network and under their mercy.

This is correct. From Wikipedia: "Mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) in the United States lease wireless telephone and data spectrum from major carriers such as AT&T Mobility, Sprint Corporation, T-Mobile US and Verizon Wireless for resale."

 

[5150 Joker]

Looks like my only option is to grab a t mobile sim and do a hard reset. Hopefully that fools it into unlocking the tether.






Sent from my RM-937_apac_hong_kong_222 using Tapatalk

 

[trooters]

Looks like my only option is to grab a t mobile sim and do a hard reset.

Perhaps keep your Straight Talk SIM, and try a foreign SIM card instead? I made this post the in 920 forum. It might work for you with a 1520 (but I haven't confirmed).

http://forums.windowscentral.com/no...other-will-tethering-enabled.html#post2256990

 

[sonus]

Hey Joker, please update the thread if this works. I'm having a similar issue with my International Lumia 925.

 

[Microsoftjunkie]

Grabbing a T-Mobile sim won't do anything. If the phone is flashed to allow tethering, you won't have tethering.

 

[dropofdreams]

As mentioned above, the SIM and the actual provider are going to play very little into the experience your having. In fact, it's going to count against you. Based on the message you're getting, I'll assume that you have an AT&T variant of the device. As such, the firmware installed is calling out to AT&T to make sure that you're provisioned to tether. This will be disabled in many cases for for people that have unlimited data plans. They'll often tack on additional cost to provision data in this regard. For those that don't have unlimited data, I believe the law states that you can use it as you please and so generally, said additional fee does not apply. As you're not actually using AT&T (despite it being an MVNO) you're going to find that the device can't handshake to determine which category you fall in.

EDIT: I just read that you have the international version. That's odd indeed that you're experiencing this. It has to be on the carrier end then and not the device itself. I am curious then if your APN refers to AT&T/Cingular at all.

 

[5150 Joker]

The internet data apn is att.mvno while mms goes through Cingular. That's from a custom apn I added for Straight Talk. The phone also has an ATT apn it created by default when I put the ST sim in it and that apn can't be deleted, just inactivated.


Sent from my RM-937_apac_hong_kong_222 using Tapatalk

 

[dropofdreams]

Very interesting. To the best of your knowledge, does Straight Talk offer tethering to their customer base? If so, you might want to call and ask for them to make sure that your line of service is provisioned for it/Updating the registered IMEI on file. I am betting they are using a tool called Telegence (TLG for short) and it's as simple as adding the feature to the line, power cycling, and then using it. This is something that is capable of restricting service(s) based on IMEI (or lack of identification therein).

 

[sonus]

The internet data apn is att.mvno while mms goes through Cingular. That's from a custom apn I added for Straight Talk. The phone also has an ATT apn it created by default when I put the ST sim in it and that apn can't be deleted, just inactivated.


Sent from my RM-937_apac_hong_kong_222 using Tapatalk

My assumption is that the ATT/ST sim adds one of 2 things.
1. A hidden tethering APN that we can't reset b/c we do not have access to the registry, nor to tethering APNs
2. A flag that tells the phone to check with ATT's servers to see if your phone number is recognized before tethering

The proposed solutions that I have seen are to flash a foreign keyboard, or trooter's method of using a foreign SIM to reset the APNs. Both of which have been successfully used by people who bough ATT phones and are using them internationally (the opposite of our issue). This weekend I may try some ROM flashing to see if on some whim I can get anywhere with a different ROM and one of the two hacks mentioned above. What really annoys me however, is that I hate Android exactly b/c it NEEDS to be tinkered with and maintained for the phone to work properly - so having to go through this on my WP is very annoying. If it weren't for the fact that Android's UI is a complete reprehensible mess with no attention to user experience, and a lack of hyperlinking w/in OEM applications such as being able to access call history of a contact from a text message, I'd probably just switch back.

I don't know what Telegence (TLG) is, but both the OP and I were able to tether using international Android devices on our networks. So unless Telegence is activated on the phone side, it should have also restricted our non-ATT Android phones from tethering as well.

 

[dropofdreams]

Telegence is the tool that bears your line of service profile with the carrier. It would be what dictates tethering availability on the carrier end.

 

[5150 Joker]

Yeah clearly AT&T is involved somehow due to the default AT&T APN created by the phone. I'm guessing Nokia put it in there to create the APN anytime the AT&T network is detected and it probably triggers a registry key to switch tethering off. I may try the T-mobile sim trick later on with a hard reset to see if I can re-enable tethering.

 

[kevm14]

Very interesting. To the best of your knowledge, does Straight Talk offer tethering to their customer base?

Let me try again:

7. STRAIGHT TALK UNLIMITED PLANS CANNOT BE USED FOR: any applications that tether your device to a laptop or personal computer other than for the use of Wireless Sync

Terms and Conditions

 

[5150 Joker]

Let me try again:



Terms and Conditions

Yeah so? It still works even if they don't officially sanction it and the last 1.5 years I've been with ST, they never cared to do anything about it. Maybe because I only ever use it when I'm at work and need to tether quickly to retrieve data. And this thread isn't a discussion about ST's TOS.

 

[kevm14]

I was answering another poster's comment, which I quoted in my post.

 

[James chop Walker]

I was answering another poster's comment, which I quoted in my post.

Get your hands on an old optimus V...on virgin mobile . it runs froyo and a 35$ a month plan will give you 300 minutes unlimited text and web and most importantlly...a free wifi hotspot...with no xtra fees! It is only 3g but it works flawlessly.