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How do Three know?
Orbitalzone
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I got a spare 3 PAYG sim with £10 of calls and 500mb data.... as I didn't need it I stuck it in my Galaxy Tab2 3G enabled tablet which makes voice calls too. After 1 day Three block it saying I can't use it in anything other than a phone.
While I don't really care about not being able to use it, how does 3 tell the difference between a 3G smartphone and a 3G tablet that is essentially a big phone as it makes voice calls etc?
Just curious.....
While I don't really care about not being able to use it, how does 3 tell the difference between a 3G smartphone and a 3G tablet that is essentially a big phone as it makes voice calls etc?
Just curious.....
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so IMEI's can specify the type of equipment then I guess, thanks.
Three are the strictest for obvious reasons. They do unlimited data and don't want people shoving it in a mi-fi and abusing the crap out of it. Other networks may let you get away but they have the right to block you at any time and refer you to a Mobile broadband sim. T-Mobile are already starting to do this as well, as are O2 and giff gaff.
I don't think that's how it's done. They analyse the connection, but I'm not sure exactly how. I don't think it's the IMEI though.
Someone can easily just abuse it easily on there phone turn on WI-FI Hotspot and plug it in an charger. They pretty much on there top plan want you to abuse they promote it.
Giff Gaff still allow this.
It might be worth contacting 3 Customer services to see what they say. The Galaxy tab can make 3G voice calls so technically it should support a mobile sim card.
Well, as it called Tab2, it's a tab.
You can buy a Mi-Fi and SIM card and tether that data to an iPad or PC but you cant take the SIM out and (after cutting it of course) put it direct into the iPad or PC. Yet its the same data, the same limits etc.
A tad silly.
(however, when I had a 30 day rolling Mifi, I used the SIM in my laptop, I just ensured that the access point on the laptop was the same as the Mi-Fi.)
Which gets me thinking.....
Get the access point for the PAYG SIM when its in a phone and use that access point name in your TAB, see if that works ;-)
There is a thing called DPI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_packet_inspection that may be used to identify such as if you were tethering by looking for connections to say windows update.
but i don't see, no matter how closely you looked at the data, even well beyond the level allowed by the law, you could identify the difference between and android phone and an android tablet that can make calls.
Quite annoying knowing I am playing by the rules of the AYCE plan I am signed up to but then being accused of breaking the rules.
Shame as 3 has the fastest and best signal in my village..... double the speeds I can get via ADSL
Shame really as I only occasionally use tethering, but I'm not prepared to pay an extra £5 a month just for the odd useage.
Anybody know if the really do kill tethering off if used for the odd time or two?
I've been told that they can work out if you're tethering from TTL values or something?
The only legitimate way around it is to buy a sim card on "The One Plan" and then tether as much as you want from your phone. I know people who use ridiculous amounts every month and three do nothing because that's the perk of the plan.
Technically they couldn't do anything about it as then they would have to go up against ASA like T-Mobile did. They wouldn't want do that because unlimited data and fast speeds is the major thing of three and reason it's growing as a network.
Pretty sure that's how they do it. A friend had a One Plan SIM - put it in a 3 dongle, it immediately blocks all traffic stating that it needs to be in a phone.
Same machine, same background apps, but non-3 HSPA card - no immediate block.
(other networks use it too to track phone model - e.g. T-Mobile, where if you have an iPhone will say "welcome to T-Mobile iPhone support" if you call customer services)
Apart from that it looks like 3 can/does analyse traffic too - I've seen cases where running Dropbox or using the Mac App Store will cause everything to be redirected to that "stop tethering plz" page, where it can't be the IMEI because it is in a phone.
Virgin have different monthly contract prices for the various different phones. Virgin I would imagine would do the same as three by locking
the phone number to the IMEI to stop people from intentionally making a profit on the phones that were supposed to be used on the contract.
identical s2 from Amazon to use on the contract instead for £205. Then they sell the one from Virgin that they are supposed to be using on the contract for £250.
They are clearly making a profit, but one they should not be making as they will not have paid enough to virgin for the phone portion of the contract.