Talk:United States/@comment-26415680-20151017153433/@comment-26674008-20151101102940

AT&T definitely has advanced technical capability to detect tethering, but as far as I know have only used such methods against tethering on their old "unlimited" data plan that is no longer available to new customers. I think more frequently, MVNOs block tethering by simply not providing the tethering profile, which really only stops non-jailbroken iphones. I do not know if AT&T cares to strictly enforce their MVNOs tethering restrictions or not.

Indeed on prepaid accounts, their recourse against tethering is limited. They can cut the account off, is likely the worst thing that could happen. But it seems strange to me that anyone would cuts a paying customer who is within their data limits.

Personally, I do not have a very positive opinion of MVNOs in the USA. On the AT&T network, the best rates always come via "family" or "share" plans with multiple lines which are only prepaid if you use Cricket, they are postpaid directly with AT&T, but even with AT&T directly are cheaper per line than MVNOs charge for one line. The only problem is assembling enough people to share one bill, and if you go with AT&T having a credit check for the postpaid account.

I don't know about the APN's. When I have used AT&T in the past I just plug the SIM in and go without any additional configuration.

I think part of the cost of mobile in the USA is how difficult it is to cover such a wide area as people are much more spread out than elsewhere in the world. So, I understand why it would cost more. Also, I suspect the government there makes substantial revenue from auctioning wireless spectrum. So the networks are passing a lot of that cost onto you.