This weekend, a Sprint Blackberry 8330 user
posted an unfortunate experience to the EVDO Forums. The user explained that Sprint had removed the
tethering (aka "phone as modem") feature from his Blackberry without notice, and upon calling Sprint, he was told that he could not reactivate the feature as it was now only available to corporate-liable customers (accounts set up under a federal tax ID).
After doing some research, EVDOinfo has confirmed that this is indeed true.
As of 4/10/2010, Sprint no longer allows "individual-liable" consumer accounts (any account set up under a social security number) to add the tethering feature to their phone. Per Sprint, existing individual-liable users who had the feature active on their phones should see a notification about tethering no longer being available to them in an insert that comes along with their monthly bill, and the feature is automatically being removed from these accounts. We were able to confirm that customers whose accounts are set up under a federal tax ID and business name
do still have access to the tethering plan (with the appropriate plan and feature set, of course), however - if your Sprint account was set up under a federal tax ID, this change should
not effect you.
Mac EVDO
