Today, while using a native feature of Android, I received the following text message from AT&T: "AT&T Free Msg: Did you know tethering your smartphone to a computer requires a tethering plan? Pls call 1.866.975.0002 for detail or visit att.com/dataplan."

AT&T basically wants to charge for a feature that comes NATIVELY with your Android phones Operating System. Tethering (or "hotspot" as mobile carriers call it) allows you to share your phones internet connection with your computer, game console, or other WiFi enabled device.

The snag here is that AT&T went into the source code for your AT&T Android-based smartphone and EDITED the software to where you, the customer or user, has to pay to enable a feature, that AT&T edited on purpose, on the phone that you bought and legally own. I, for one, do not view this as a friendly or good business practice.

Most of us, AT&T smartphone customers, are already paying twenty or thirty dollars a month for two or three gigabytes of data. Tethering should be included in this plan at no extra cost by AT&T. The reasoning for this is that the data, wether you use on your phone or you use you phone to get the data to your computer, has to pass through the same cellular GSM (or LTE) modem on your phone. AT&T wants to charge you, the customer, an extra fee because your phone can act as a WiFi router for your own personal device.

Tethering usage should be included in your data pool each month at no extra cost. Please sign this petition if you feel that AT&T should include tethering, at no extra cost, in our data plans.