Purely by accident after connecting my phone my virgin unlimited sim £15 gave me an internet connection on my laptop i thought they didnt allow it.
Will they know if i use it in the future?
cheers

They don't allow it in the terms and conditions.

However, they do not strictly enforce this policy and you can tether your phone if you want to.
Just be aware that Virgin reserve the right to block you from tethering at any time if they want to and also that Virgin operate a 3.5GB fair use policy after which your speeds are capped to 384Kbps

Bugger it. 'Tethering' and 'virgin' had me wondering if I'd accidentally wandered into a dark yet enticing place...

Er, my colleague at work was nobbled for tethering and warned off after doing it for a very short period with giffgaff. I think giffgaff do, however, offer a £12.50 deal for tablets that does allow other devices to share the connection.

384Kilobits?!

That's correct.

that was the whole reason I fort and won against them to end my brothers contract on the 9th month of a 24 month contract, they are terrible.

That's ordinary 3G speed and isn't that terrible, in light of O2's 15Kbps cap.

Yes, but virgin advertise and promote their service as truly unlimited. O2 don't, they quite clearly say you have a limit of X amount of data.

So tbh there is nothing wrong with o2 here as actually they're offering what they advertise. Virgin in the other hand claim unlimited but cap speeds after a certain amount.

Thanks ill only use it if i need to then !

Do they advertise it as truly unlimited at or above any given speed though?

It's terrible in comparison to uncapped unlimited plans.

Because there are just so many of them on the market.

That's not the point. They advertise it as unlimited and don't even mention any type of fair use policy. Yet when you hit a certain usage point your speeds are capped quite harshly. I'd understand if Virgin advertised the 3.5GB limit or mentioned in on the tariff page, but they don't. It's hidden away in the T&C and hardly anyone knows about it based on what i've read online on other websites. It's misleading.

It's not really different from other networks though.

T-Mobile advertise theirs as "unlimited" in a way - "always surf and email" were the words or something - yet in addition to blocking everything else, your remaining surfing/email speed is also throttled quite harshly. Although their FUP is a bit more obvious, it's the same practice.

You can look at it two ways.
Firstly, all mobile providers make it clear speeds are not guaranteed (or even estimated) and everyone is expected to know mobile speeds vary drastically. Given they never even say you should expect more than 10Kbps they could give you 10Kbps 24/7 and still call that a service. What speed is "acceptable"? What speed is "harsh"? How is that different from just throttling everyone to 384Kbps and then saying any burst speed you get above that is just a bonus? How's it worse than other networks that throttle all users all the time regardless of usage? What about congested areas that don't get more than 384Kbps to begin with?

On the other hand fixed broadband providers have been slapped quite hard every time they have a throttle or cap on an "unlimited" service, and the standards for them are quite strict about what can and can't be advertised as unlimited - clearly the same requirements don't apply to mobile, but related to above, if it's hard enough to ever deliver a consistent speed to begin with the requirements to do it always are going to be a bit pointless.

That T-Mobile plan doesn't exist anymore. But what i'm trying to say is that Virgin are being misleading by claiming unlimited. I'd understand if say it was speed capped right from the beginning. But to start speed capping after 3.5GB and have no mention of it anywhere except on the T&C page is very sneaky.

At least Giff Gaff and Three do unlimited data right.

That T-Mobile plan? I'm still on it, and it's still advertised on the website.

As for the unlimited thing - I don't disagree it's sneaky, but it's probably technically legal. That said as I mentioned, fixed-line broadband providers used to do that often until the regulators started saying they couldn't. Maybe it's about time the same regulations got applied to mobile, maybe not.

3 used to throttle heavy users too didn't they? And apparently GiffGaff disconnect customers without warning while being deliberately coy and refusing to publicize any limit: http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/201...d-abusers.html or "People have been banned for using around 3gb, but that was obviously done in a short space of time, therefore deserving a ban" or "In addition to those common sense restrictions, there are however additional limits to "unlimited" internet with Giffgaff. It is not know what these are, Giffgaff is not publicising them, and is not warning users, before they reach them. Once a user reaches the secret limits his or her internet gets disconnected by Giffgaff."

From Feb 28th T-Mo discontinued the plan for new customers and upgrading customers. Now you have to pay £1 per day if you go over your allowance. But anyway, the plan you're on isn't advertised as unlimited, it's advertised as say 1GB with unlimited browsing. That's different from saying just unlimited.

And btw Three don't do that anymore, nor do Giff Gaff. Those are old articles. So it doesn't apply now. Hence why i also said your T-Mo plan doesn't apply now.

They seem to be doing something sneaky to existing customers. Previously I could use as much data as I wanted after the limit was reached, it would just be throttled / restricted (no YouTube for example). Now it redirects you to a page where you have to ask for another free 250MB (or something like that). If you use all of that, you have to pay for more.

I haven't changed my plan since I got it over a year ago. It's just another nail in the coffin as far as I am concerned - and a shame since I'd rather be with them than 3.

Still on T-Mo's website:

"Always browse and email

The Fair Use Policy for this plan is 250MB for a day, 500MB for a week, 250MB a day for any seven days or 1GB for 30 days. Watching videos and downloading files will use up your allowance really quickly. We won't charge you extra if you go over but we may restrict your use."

As for the the other networks, it's clear they've all been just as bad in the past, if not anymore...

Link please?

Like i said, T-Mo don't allow you to go over your allowance anymore like they used to if you signed up after Feb 28th as a new or upgrading customer. They charge a flat rate now if you go over your allowance.

There are up to 3 options of internet on your phone to include in your plan: None, Basic and Standard. For all options, you'll need internet coverage to use internet on your phone, check it at t-mobile.co.uk/streetcheck. The Basic option gives you a 250 MB to use each month and the Standard option gives you 1GB. Just remember, you can't use the internet on your phone for peer to peer file sharing and you can't make internet calls ('VOIP').


http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/terms...s/pay-monthly/

http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/mobil...m-payg/extras/

That's the plan I'm on and they're still selling it.

Incidentally does that flatrate mean it's actually "unlimited" if you pay the overage fee? That might actually work out better for me...

Right... that's a mobile broadband tariff. Clearly we were talking about a phone tariff here..... The whole thread is about phone tariffs and the advertising of unlimited.

The thread's about using an "unlimited" internet connection on a laptop. But that aside T-Mobile used to do that on many tariffs, I said they still do on my tariff which you said doesn't exist.

Does it really matter though? They still evidently offer such a tariff.

Do you somehow think advertising of "unlimited" implicit or otherwise should have different rules for different SIMs?

Yes, because i thought you were talking about a phone tariff.

The mobile broadband tariffs that T-Mo sell have always have different rules. Just like how other networks have different T&C and priorities for broadband tariffs over phone tariffs.

Besides, T-mobile go out of their way to show the small print on the tariff front page. So consumers know they're getting an unlimited browsing tariff with a fair use policy. Virgin mention this nowhere at all except the T&C and consistently use the word unlimited to describe their service when it's the least unlimited package out there. Yes, i know that technically it's unlimited but like i said before it's very misleading.

But they haven't, that particular rule was always the same between the broadband and phone tariffs.

The new rules are also all the same, except for on that one tariff which hasn't changed.