[public_defender]

This analogy is no good. Plans have data limits. It is not an all-you-can-eat buffet. Tethering restrictions are an attempt to paywall features which the device can do without harming anyone else on the network.

A better analogy is a gas station which charges more for gas that goes into sports cars than gas that goes into minivans.

[imiric]

I agree with you that it's a bad analogy. But to be fair, all-you-can-eat buffets are not really all-you-can-eat, and will kick you out if you try to consume more than what they calculated a regular consumer does. All service providers do this when they falsely advertise "unlimited" anything.

Where ISPs cross the line is by trying to also enforce _how_ I can consume the data I'm paying for. Having plans that restrict tethering is consumer-hostile, plain and simple. Whether I'm tethering or not has no relation to how much data I consume. They can continue to restrict bandwidth and data limits if I go overboard, but I'll be damned if I allow them to tell me how I can use it.

So if we're going with the buffet analogy, then it's like them saying I can only use a fork to eat, as someone mentioned above.

[Spooky23]

Yeah, they do. Big V8s usually require premium gas.

Premium gas costs more. Race cars need race gas — that costs even more.

[public_defender]

Does the gas station check what car is pulling up, or do you choose based on what you think works best for the engine?

[Spooky23]

Depends on the business model. A New Jersey gas station will deny you the freedom of putting diesel in your Civic.