You can run an entire apartment block off of a single sim card/phone line. The (technical) problem is that you are purchasing an insufficient amount of bandwidth. It goes without saying that a limited bandwidth integrated over a finite service period comes out to a limited amount of data, so the term is misleading.

If google has no obligation to provide the service tier, then they should stop providing it instead of providing it under false terms.

This is like if everyone in a city decided to take baths instead of showers, so the municpal water supply decided to ban baths instead of properly segmenting their service based on usage.

Service providers don't have the right to discriminate what their service is used for.

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usef- 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I don't think that's an apt metaphor. You bought one general water supply, like an API user. If they sold a "no baths" cheaper option I'd be fine with them banning baths to those customers.

Google's API does let you use any client.

The gemini/antigravity clients are a different (subscription) service. When you reverse engineer the clients and use their internal auth/apis you will typically have very different access patterns to other clients (eg: not using prompt caching), and this is likely showing up in their metrics.

This isn't unusual. A bottomless drink at a restaurant has restrictions: it's for you to drink, not to pass around to others at the table (unless they buy one too). You can't pour it into bottles to take large quantities home, etc. And it's priced accordingly: if sharing/bottling was allowed the price would have to increase.

	▲	apgwoz 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The irony of an ex-Google engineer coining Hyrum’s Law (https://www.hyrumslaw.com/)

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fennecbutt 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Lmao no. You cannot use your common sim card for that. It's for an individual and they will cut your service and justifiably so, if they figure out that's what you're using it for.

If you buy a sim card built for that purpose sure, but then you'll be paying...biz prices!

This isn't really that hard to figure out people. So much outrage in comments on this. Self entitlement to the max from people who really haven't lifted a finger to stop the corporate overlords anyway.

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apgwoz 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

So, if I use my SIM card 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, Ill get banned? Doesn’t that seem absurd? The SIM card is enforcing one voice call at a time. If the apartment building has to wait in line to use it, what’s the difference?

If you deployed it in a way that did multiplexing such that multiple users could use it at once, then sure—-Business time. But otherwise…

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fruitworks 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I can do it pretty easily. The restriction in both cases is so easily overcome it is ridiculous to build your buisness model around it and disrespectful to the customer's intellect.

	▲	Aurornis 37 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> it is ridiculous to build your buisness model around it and disrespectful to the customer's intellect Many things in business are easy to defeat if you’re willing to break the rules. Enforcement is handled through audits, flagging suspicious activity, and investigations. It’s ridiculous to think that because you can temporarily circumvent a restriction that the rules don’t apply. I don’t agree with the excessive enforcement used, but there is a lot of tortured logic in this thread trying to argue that the contract terms shouldn’t apply to service usage because the customer doesn’t like the terms.
	▲	JumpCrisscross an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> restriction in both cases is so easily overcome We’re like one comment away from HN discovering that insurance fraud is both easy and punishable. > disrespectful to the customer's intellect Murder is easy. It’s not disrespectful to anyone’s intellect to then punish it.