Tethering an Orange (android) phone - is it available or not?

usignuolo

My OH has a Samsung S3 which he has had on contract with Orange since last November (2012) - this was a replacement for an earlier model Samsung also on contract with Orange (Nov 2010-2012). Both current and previous phone were/are on the same Business Solo monthly package.

Before signing up to his new contract, he had a lot of discussions with the dealership about options and specified that new contract had to include tethering, as he is developing a small app with his friend which needs this as an option. He was assured by the dealership (Get Connected) that his package had plenty of capacity and supported tethering.

In due course earlier this year he and his friend attempted to tether their trial app and it would not tether. A series of inconclusive conversations with Orange support followed, all of which resulted in a promise to connect him " at their end" in 20 minutes and to call him back. Neither happened.

Eventually after about 10 days of this, his call got escalated to someone in Orange who told him that his package was not eligible for tethering, they were unclear what package was. He was told to refer back to the dealership which he did. They said this was news to them. They had sold him the contract in all good faith and Orange must have changed the rules in retrospect. They said they would speak to Orange but also referred him back to Orange.

In due course he got a call from someone at Orange who said they were enabling tethering on this occasion, which happened. However they also told him he was not eligible for it (they suggested the next level of his Business Solo account would be eligible, but we can find no evidence of this) and that periodically the system was "swept" and ineligible users were removed.

Lo and behold, today tethering is not working again. I have had a good look around the various Orange websites and while there is reference to tethering iphones there is very little about androids. But it certainly appears that later packages deals (since Autumn 2011) are eligible for tethering and you simply get charged extra if you go over the bandwidth. There is no indication that you need to be on any particular package so long as it is a monthly contract. Do you think they think he is still on the original 2010 contract rolled over?

Anyone got any useful information or comments to share?

new_owner

I was under the impression that they could not stop tethering on Android.

Under the s3 it should be under "more settings"

I have it on my Note 2.

usignuolo

Yes OH has the tethering option on the screen on his S3, just it will not activate. Or rather it did one time when Orange did something (don't know what) at their end, but it turned out to be only temporary. Not it does not work again.

I think I will post another message asking if there are any S3 users out there using tethering.