Google yanks all tether apps from Market.
In a move to apease big T, Google has pulled all the tether apps from the Android Marketplace citing that T-Mobile doesn’t allow tethering.
Seth Lemons, a contributor to the tether app “Wifi Tether for Root Users” has this to say:
This raises some interesting questions about this “open” platform. Android phones are supposed to be released for other carriers in the future, right? Does this mean that apps in the Market have to adhere to the ToS for only T-Mobile, even when other carriers sign on? Will all apps have to adhere to the ToS for every carrier that supports Android phones? Why is all of this enforcement Google’s job, in the first place? If T-Mobile wants to force people to pay for broadband plans in addition to their phone data, it’s their job to either make that attractive to users or strongarm them into it by, say, instituting data caps. Playing cop for cell carriers doesn’t really seem like the ideal way to establish credibility as a promoter of free software and a strong development community.
Aside from the issue of “authorized carriers,” there are some otherwise valid uses of tethering software which users are now being denied. One of the apps banned was for tethering Internet over Bluetooth. With wifi tethering, the Internet has to come in from the cell carrier, but Bluetooth tethering allows a user to connect their phone to a wireless router and then share it with a device that has Bluetooth but no wireless card. This use, by definition, can’t violate the T-Mobile ToS, since it doesn’t require their data plan at all. And that’s not even to mention phones which have been set up to use other carriers who allow for tethering.
To add to the irony, one of the folks who helped develop the initial tethering scripts works for Google, I’m told. Another Google employee has forked Wifi Tether, added Bluetooth support to it, says he and his office-mates use it on their commute, and has even given us a patch we can merge in when we get the time. I know they’re not any more responsible for this policy than I am, but it just makes me giggle to know that there’s an underground presence inside the machine. Hopefully they (and you) can help us push for a really open Android instead of the same greedy corporate power plays we see from other mobile platforms.
We hope Google gets the message that Android Market isn’t T-Mobile Market.
Drallcome
June 29th, 2009 at 11:15 am #
So this is why I can not tether my Rogers branded HTC Dream…I am rather disappointed in Google. T-Moble is not the ONLY market in the world guys. I have the tethering added to my 6GB plan from rogers, I am paying for it while I wait for the root access hack so I can hack my phone to use a service that I pay for!