Yup. Verizon won’t let me tether my smartphone to a tablet without paying a $20 monthly fee. I mainly want it so the kids can watch Netflix on long rides.
I have a Verizon "Grandfathered" Unlimited Data plan, and I received a message last month informing me that I was in the top 5% of data users, and they were going to start throttling my download rate. So much for unlimited...
It was Netflix. It works great, until they catch up with you.
Root your phone and you can tether all you want for free.