If you're using mobile data with a VPN, T-Mobile will count that toward your hotspot data and throttle you once it's all used up. They do not mention this anywhere in their Terms and Conditions. (I use express VPN)

VPN
1

If you’re using mobile data with a VPN, T-Mobile will count that toward your hotspot data and throttle you once it’s all used up. They do not mention this anywhere in their Terms and Conditions. (I use express VPN).

2

It’s an android esim bug, when you enable VPN (unless it’s very specifically aware) it outputs TTL63 instead of 64, triggering hotspot detection.

The use of TTL to detect hotspot is easily abused for this exact reason, though.

3

Are you using an eSIM? This doesn’t seem to be intentional behavior but rather an unaddressed bug for eSIM Android lines.

4

I use a VPN on my iOS device with eSIM and it does not affect my hotspot usage.

It did on a Samsung device I used to have, though.

It’s not intentional.

5

They really need to fix this. I have had a ticket open for months

6

Does not at all happen to my 7 lines. 6 iOS, 1 Android.

7

I use WireGuard a lot and it does not count on my iPhone 14 Pro Max.

8

I want to say there’s a lot about hotspot that T-Mobile doesn’t really mention or clarify in their terms and conditions. I had to upgrade my plan to go plus 5G just to get an adequate hotspot speed.

9

Yeah no issues here with an iPhone using PIA VPN.

10

It doesn’t happen on my galaxy s22 and I use nord every day. But mine is through my physical sim line, not my esim.

11

interesting…i don’t see this behavior on my end. using Airvpn (on multiple devices including PC)

huge fan. one of the last to be truly logless (has been raided and authorites left empty handed) and continues to support port forwarding.

you usin an esim?

12

Haven’t noticed that although I use wire guard and tail scale 24/7 on my s23 ultra. Using esim. Throttling I see on the home Internet side all the time…until I run the new FFC app to test the speeds…then magically my network speeds go from dial up to over 300 mbps down and exactly 200 mbps up. It’s like voodoo magic even when they tell me the network is congested as hell. I think that is underhanded as shit they don’t want to lose that federal money for us in the rural Missouri area. I have yet to see throttling on starlink though…sure it’s only a matter of time there.

13

This hasn’t happened to me.

14

But what if you don’t have hotspot on your account

15

Good thing I use a ROM based on Lineage OS. Motorola is a good line of unlocked and unbloated phones. I use G7 power.

16

This hasn’t been my experience using Proton VPN. 0.00 Gb of hotspot data used this month.

17

Unless I’m not seeing what you are seeing, no hotspot usage for us. Old Sprint converted Military Unlimited plan with 100Gb hotspot on 1 line and 50Gb on other.

18

But no problem on Mac And iPhones?

19

I’ve seen this a lot over the years. Here is a post from 6 years ago. It was a bug introduced in this VPN and fixed. Most VPN’s don’t cause this behavior.

20

Your phone thinks you are tunneling the connection to trick it into thinking you are not using its hotspot for a PC. Physical sim might fix the problem if not use a more popular VPN unless you are using a work VPN or home VPN.