I just saw this over at ZDNet, and I’m sorry, I just can’t keep my mouth shut.  Verizon Wireless is going to charge users $20 a month, in addition to their $30 unlimited data plan, for the iPhone’s wireless hotspot feature. That sucks.

Its also something that needs to stop – Wireless carriers are, and quite honestly, have been forever, double dipping on data charges to customers.  Currently, on T-Mobile, I pay

• $30 per month Unlimited Data
• $10 per month Unlimited Messaging

Its bad enough that I have to pay T-Mobile an extra $10 bucks to send text messages (text is data, after all), but adding Wi-Fi Hot Spot is also an additional $10 bucks.  I’ve already got unlimited data for $30 bucks a month.  Why T-Mobile (or any of the wireless carriers, for that matter) won’t allow you to use the data you’re already paying for without an additional charge, is beyond me. 

I just recently saw that AT&T is going to allow wired tethering with a 4GB data cap for $45 per month.  Verizon Wireless is going to offer an identical program, and recently throttled the top 5% data hogs on their network to help make room.

While this seems to be the standard mod of operation, its really double billing…well nearly so. In my example, I pay $30 bucks for data, $10 bucks for texting and $10 bucks for hot spot, all of which count against my data allowance.  While that may be “unlimited,” there are bandwidth caps, and if you cross them, you get throttled.  What really chaps my hide is that I’m already paying for unlimited data.  Why I can’t use that data the way I want to, is beyond me.

I know this is an OLD argument, but with more and more people using smartphones as well as other connected, data dependent devices, at some point, you gotta cry foul and get someone to listen…

But I’m just sayin’…