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.

[Damundai]

Everywhere! OTR truck driver here. If you mean a different carrier, I'll have to look into each option.

[PAHelper]

I use USMOBILE as they include hotspot and use all three carriers so you can have same coverage if you want.

[Damundai]

I am currently on an old "Legacy" plan thru Verizon, which never included hotspot originally. Thru the unlocked phone, it allowed me to access the hotspot and use it anyway. After talking with Verizon support, they offer it, but on a new plan, and even then it's still limited before throttling back the speed. I am an OTR truck driver and use it all over the country for TV, laptop and GPS.

[Robin621k]

It is not Samsung, it has always been your carrier that allowed and allows it.
Samsung never gave gave you free hot spot.

There use to be an app that would trick your carrier into thinking that it was you phone using data instead of hot spot.

[realaud]

So, they caught up to you using the hotspot even though it was not on your plan. So you got away with theft of services for years, and now you are upset they are making you subscribe? How much monthly data is their plan offering before throttling?  Some carriers allow more than others.  It's possible the amount they are offering would be sufficient for your needs. You know your phone keeps track of how much mobile data you use, and you can see how much hotspot data you use, so you can keep track and see if the plan is sufficient for your needs.  When you go to the mobile hotspot settings it will tell you how much data you shared "today". you can keep track for a few days and extrapolate from there (even if daily usage varies).  You can even set a data cap so the hotspot will cut off when you use the allocation. You may actually be using less data than you think you are.

[realaud]

Why would you even think that hotspot data is not a carrier thing?  You can't use mobile data without a mobile carrier and the hotspot is part of the mobile plan. T-Mobile, for one, specifically says mobile hotspot is included.  I believe all carriers throttle how much high speed data is allowed on the low and mid range plans (it's just a matter of how much they allow before slowing the stream), but if you want no throttling, you would pay for a higher end plan. I am not sure any carrier offers unlimited high speed hot spot data.

[Robin621k]

My Verizon plan offers 200gb of mobile hot spot.

I have unlimited, unlimited!

I travel a lot, so I get unlimited data outside of the US.
Google maps uses a ton.

[realaud]

I get unlimited data outside the U.S. on T-Mo, but the hotspot is limited to 5 GB of high speed and unlimited normal speed.  I've never even used 2 GB of normal mobile data, even though I have unlimited, probably because I'm connected to wi-fi 90% of the time. I don't normally have other devices connected to my hotspot, so the point is moot for me.  When we travel, my sister usually carries her mobile hotspot, so neither of us has to use our phone's hotspot in case we have an issue.  Really, the only time I use my mobile hotspot is if my internet (rarely) goes out at home I connect my computer to it.  

[Robin621k]

I use it all the time on my tablet outside my home.

I travel with my Sonos Roam and my Google TV for hotel rooms.

[meself]

Trying to figure out how samsung is at fault your carrier provides network i.e connection Hotspot etc.. samsung provides the phone to which functions with the carriers the fact you have a old plan isn't anyone's fault but yours