Wrong USB Cable Silently Caps Tether Speed to 480 Mbps, Even on 10 Gb/s Phones
A developer investigating slow USB tethering discovered that using a USB 2.0 cable forces the entire link to negotiate at 480 Mbps, regardless of what the phone or laptop supports. USB link speed is jointly negotiated between the host controller, the cable, and the device, with the slowest component setting the ceiling. Crucially, no system warning or error is raised when a cable downgrades the connection — the only evidence is a value buried in sysfs. Testing across 45 measurement records and 14 handsets found that 41 out of 45 sessions enumerated at 480 Mbps, including an iPhone 17 Pro rated at 10 Gb/s. Switching to a SuperSpeed cable dropped bus utilisation from 91% to just 3.6% on the same link, illustrating the dramatic real-world headroom difference.
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