Well my best guess on this is as follows. I worked for Sprint (Long Distance, not wireless) for about 7 years. If Verizon is -anything- like Sprint, they know exactly what is going on in terms of who you are when you connect. They may or may not have a way of telling if you are tethering. All depends. If the phone tattles on you and tells whatever is at the other end of the connection that it is acting as a -relay- ( or NAT ), then you are pretty much busted for tethering in the event they choose to look at the logs and find people that are tethering. I can also assure you that they know who you are when you dial #777 and hit send. Every cell tower, switch, relay, atm cloud, and router between you and the connection point knows who you are too, until you actually get -out- of their network. One of the things you have to have to network is a MAC layer address, and all MAC layer addresses are unique. If they have your MAC associated with your telephone ( which is more or less how they do it, data access or no ), they know who you are. My guess is that the MAC address is sent when you initiate the connection, they look up the account that has that address, determine if they have a data plan, if they are a valid / paid up customer, and THEN they log you in. Don't think Verizon just has an open door if you dial #777 from a phone and hit send.
So basically what I am saying here is that the phone company knows you at each and every piece of thier equipment that your transmission passes through (voice OR data). Are you willing to take they chance that they don't also record the fact that the phone is in NAT mode, and not the actual endpoint for the transmission? For my part, I am going to wait for the official plan before trying this. I know how the phone company is, and I would rather NOT take the chance. You have to remember that phone systems have long been the target of hackers and phone phreaks. The phone company records all kinds of stuff you would never guess they do. Security is a very high priority with them, and as such, there are a lot of things they track that tehy don't publicize, so they can more effectively take down people who intrude on thier network in an unauthorized manner.
CG |