Now required to subscribe to Hotspot services on unlocked phone

[Damundai]

For so many years, I have been buying retail "unlocked" phones so that my carrier, Verizon, could not add bloatware or interfere in what I did with my phone. Until now...

One of the best features I enjoyed was the hotspot feature that an unlocked phone provided. The ability to enable this without paying another bloated price to Verizon was a bonus, as they want an "arm and a leg" to use this feature. As I am a OTR truck driver, most everything in my truck from the TV, to laptop, to the GPS relied on the hotspot connection to operate for work or entertainment purposes.

I'm just curious why Samsung bowed to Verizon on this feature, now checking the system to see if I had the feature enabled through Verizon before allowing me to turn it on.

Unfortunately, the current phone I have, S22 Ultra, will be the last Samsung phone I own for this very fact. Just wondering what Verizon payed Samsung to enable this "check". Granted, there are other workarounds, but I'd rather not go through the extra steps to be able to use my UNLOCKED phone for something that was a feature of the UNLOCKED phone in the first place.

Congratulations on losing yet another customer for not standing your ground, Samsung.

[LongHiker]

Hotspot has always been part of your carrier plan. It sounds like your carrier provided it as part of your plan previously so it seemed free.

[Damundai]

My current plan NEVER offered hotspot, but the unlocked phone allowed me to use it anyway.

[LongHiker]

When you turn on Hotspot, it always sends a query to your carrier to check if it is allowed. Unlocked devices never got free data from a carrier.

[Damundai]

Under One UI 5, it never checked. Under One UI 6, it checked when hitting the hotspot button, but setting up a routine to turn hotspot on/off didn't, so still usable. Now with One UI 7, it checks using both methods. So, yes, it used to work, now it doesn't.

[LongHiker]

If the check is approved quickly, you will never see an indication of the check. But it still happens.

[3Fees]

It's unlocked have you checked other carriers like t-mobile or the host of other carriers to see if hot spot is free from them? I have hot spot wifi from xfinity and rarely use it. It comes with my cable

Cheers
3Fees

[Damundai]

I'm afraid going to another carrier is my only option at this point, but only if they offer unlimited hotspot with NO throttling.

[3Fees]

Sounds good.

Cheers
3Fees

[Robin621k]

Where are you going to go?