o2 UK - "use phone as modem" - How can they tell?!
 

Hi all,

Firstly, apologies if this has been asked elsewhere. I have searched and I also recall seeing a thread about it, although its entirley possible that I didn't see that thread here!

Anyway, I've just switched over from Vodafone to o2 in the UK on their Simplicity for Smartphones contract as it comes with "Unlimited Data" subject to a fair usage policy. Also, my Voda signal in my flat was terrible and hardly got 2g but o2 gets full 3.5g and I need that as we still don't have internet after 3 months! I'm also told that o2 fair usage seems to be capped around 40gb, so should be alright to tide me over and I get 500kb/sec download.

Now, when I went through the online options to buy the sim, I got the option of paying £10 extra a month to "use your mobile phone as a modem". This was capped at 3gb a month and cost another £10!

My question is how on earth can they tell if I'm using the N900 to access the internet through my PC? I'm connected up with a cable at the moment and was wondering if maybe the PC Suite stored settings are different to those I normally connect to on my phone. Also, I get a good connection using Joikuspot and a Wireless N receiver and that would definitely be connected to the normal access point. If anyone knows anything about this and how o2 could tell etc etc, I'd be really keen to hear!

I kinda thought that in theory, if I surfed the web via EasyDebian (say IceWeasel), it would report back as being a Linux Desktop accessing the net even though it was from the N900, thus not being a breach and as such, how on earth could they tell what's what when I'm using an N900 that is pretty close to a portable computer in itself!

Many Thanks

Re: o2 UK - "use phone as modem" - How can they tell?!
 

They can't for sure. But if they detect a non-mobile user-agent or torrents they will probably accuse you of using yout N900 as a Modem.

I've been using my N900 as a modem in Vodafone Spain for more than 2 month without a problem. Theoritcally I can't do that, but the only complaint i recieved so far was about torrent usage and I stopped that.

Also there's a similar thread about this somewhere...

Re: o2 UK - "use phone as modem" - How can they tell?!
 

Thanks skzo - yeah I know there's a thread that discussed this but I can't seem to find ti!! I'll delete this if I find it though :-)

Re: o2 UK - "use phone as modem" - How can they tell?!
 

Hey guy i had a chat with a nice guy at o2 just last week and he told me they cant (technically) and dont care unless your taking the monkey. if you do they will send you a warning text the first time. then the next time they will look into charging you and then is when they look into type of data used. Based on a chat with uk csr for o2.

Re: o2 UK - "use phone as modem" - How can they tell?!
 

Ahh that's great news to hear. I've changed the user agent on my PC to match that of MicroB just in case, but that's very reassuring. I'll go easy on the downloads but I need my weekly dose of South Park etc etc!!

Re: o2 UK - "use phone as modem" - How can they tell?!
 

There are also some bad practices like TTL=1 and limited concurrent connections but I'm not sure if the operators use them.

Re: o2 UK - "use phone as modem" - How can they tell?!
 

o2 don't actively police the .policy unless you're clearly abusing the hell out of their fair usage limits - The main point of the extra £10 tarrif addon stems from iphone users, as (non jailbroken) iphones don't support tethering unless the operator enables it, so o2 can keep iphones locked from being used as modems unless users stump up for the addon.

Re: o2 UK - "use phone as modem" - How can they tell?!
 

Did you go for the £10 a month 12 month option with the £5 a month unlimited data? It's a good package and the one I have my N900 on.

Re: o2 UK - "use phone as modem" - How can they tell?!
 

I actually went for the £20 with £5 unlimited data as I used to burn through minutes but am going to monitor my usage and might drop down. It is indeed a good deal!

Re: o2 UK - "use phone as modem" - How can they tell?!
 

That's what I have been using for a few years now with the N900 and S60 phones. Never had an issue and I used it quite heavily for periods of a month or so at a time whilst travelling. If you aren't connecting up to file sharing and transfering huge quantities then my experience would suggest that you will be fine.