I have been using HTC Incredible S on Bell Mobility after renewed my 3 year contract a couple of days ago, the apn setup by Bell is pda.bell.ca be default. By checking the online data usage, under detailed usage, all the data sessions used on the phone showed very small amount, something like 0.02 MB or 0.01 MB. That's expected based on what I read on this forum that pda.bell.ca never recorded accurately.
However, there are a few occasions that I tried to test the amazing Wifi hotspot feature and tried to use its data on my iPad or laptop. For these few occasions, I am surprised that the usage is tens of MB!!!
I don't want to guess that they are treated as tethering. because they are not listed under pay per use or roaming. They are just listed under mobile browser. So I hope when HotSpot is enabled, apn is not changed to inet.bell.ca...
I am curious how the Hotspot works when using pda.bell.ca. Is it possible that apn got changed to pda2.bell.ca so the data recording is accurate?
I noticed when Wifi hotspot is enabled and used, there are 3 or 4 concurrent data usage records show in the data usage detail page. Maybe the hotspot used multiple connection to #777 and the other connections are using pda2.bell.ca?
Nobody answered this question. Well, I tried to do some more investigation on this myself. I finally tried to s-off and root my phone, and was able to install some wifi hotspot apps from the market that required root permission. By comparing the external IP from the tethered laptop using the stock wifi hotspot and the other apps, they all show the same IP address. So it seems to me they are probably the same, and probably all using pda.bell.ca. I also noticed that for my account, the web browser data usage is very accurate now after I switched from HTC Touch to HTC Incredible S, the large data is not only recorded from the tethered hotspot device, but also on the phone (if I use some apps like Google Map, it does record more data). But on my wife's HTC Incredible S (she also renewed her plan from HTC Touch to HTC Incredible S), the data recorded under Web Browser is extremely low, so far for half month, she got only 4MB recorded, very strange. But again, as far as both of our data got recorded under Unlimited Web Browser, that's all it matters...
the same thing for me as well, i updated to galaxy nexus from samsung impact. i have the unlimted browser and i have used the built in hot spot, and i was never charged pay per use! the data counter on self serve is very inaccurate, it say on my last bill that i have only ised 58mb which is not true! ive used over 500 mb! i just hope bell wont back charge me in the future!
the same thing for me as well, i updated to galaxy nexus from samsung impact. i have the unlimted browser and i have used the built in hot spot, and i was never charged pay per use! the data counter on self serve is very inaccurate, it say on my last bill that i have only ised 58mb which is not true! ive used over 500 mb! i just hope bell wont back charge me in the future!
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+1. I have switched to galaxy nexus from iPhone 4S and I have NO tethering usage being shown. Plus the phone is much better than iPhone. Loving this switch.
Thanks for the confirmation hepaklulu and lukeiphone. It happened last year that AT&T tried to cracked down the users using wifi hotspot tethering from jailbreak iPhones. The users will have to pay tethering plan if they use the stock personal hotspot from iPhone after IOS 4.3. Some Cydia tethering apps tried to hack it by keep using the iPhone's apn instead of the tethering apn... Sounds familiar?
But anyway, I have heard from some iPhone 4 users with UMB that they used the stock personal hotspot and already recorded by Bell as mobile browser. I guess here in Canada, we no longer get charged for wifi tethering even though Bell can detect you? But if possible, I would still try to use the hacked and non-stock wifi tethering app for this purpose, just in case...
I don't get it. pda.bell.ca is my APN but data is always reported accurately for me, even on-device data.
The data usage from Bell is always a mystery for me. It always had caps for each session when I used HTC Touch, so I never exceeded 10MB for each month. Once I switched to HTC Incredible S and the. iPhone 4S, it has always been accurate now, so I now have about 2GB per month. My wife also changed from HTC Touch from HTC Incredible S, her usage was inaccurate as before for the first month after the migration, but right after the second month, her usage started being accurate all of sudden. It seems like somebody manually fixed it or something.
But anyway, the title of this thread is misleading, it was from my initial guessing, but from my further experiments so far, the data usage tracking had nothing to do with whether we used Wifi hotspot or not...
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Originally Posted by hepaklulu
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