Tethering works via USB or Bluetooth with the iPhone, the hardware and software Apple produce is fantastic, it's a shame that the deal put together with O2 is so appauling! Can o2 tell if the phone is being used for tethering? If not then there must be a way round this issue.

Olly, London,

Why would you want to add tethering anyway. It runs on bluetooth at less than 1mbs.
Get a dongle, pay less and get hsdpa+ at 8mbs.

The iphone is a great piece of kit but you need to be savy to stop yourself getting embroiled in the hype!

Phil, Manchester, UK

Tethering removes existing Unlimited Web!

I just tried to get a tethering bolt on and was told that if I do so it means my unlimited web service will be removed.

So it's even worse that just having to pay out for tethering, they actually take away what we already have.

Rory Hamilton, London,

from day one in the life of iphone Apple made major mistakes in going with an exclusive partner and in choosing O2 as that partner. I have enjoyed using Apple products since my first Mac in 84 and I have bought more of their products since - except the iPhone. All because O2 is useless. Ripoff O2!

andy, high wycombe, uk

o2 have a monopoly plain and simple. Does Labour do anything about this - of course not - they can claim monopoly prices on their expenses accounts. The iPhone is over hyped and a waste of money if you have to have it on 18 month or 24 month contracts with o2. But who said the masses were smart?

Alexander, London,

So Googling around to day i found some settings on the net which you download and install 02 profile setting for tethering and once installed it bypassed the tethering activation promted in settings > general > Network,

I'm fully using tethering right now and my iphone is not jailbroken

Dan, Tamworth, staffordshire

I really love my iphone, it's easy to use and easy to learn. Having used windows mobile, nokia and motorola's cube I can say Apple have a great product. It's just a pity that O2 & Apple have decided to bleed me dry, I won't forget this and will find a way around it.

john, Liverpool,

I think its an absolute outrage that O2 have been allowed to get away with this, other phones and deals offer interent tethering as part of the overall cost to the users package - WHICH IS USUALLY FREE.

The iPhone will now sadly fall behind competitors due to O2's poor tarrifs.

Jay Hughes, Barnet, Hertfordshire

It's ridiculous that O2 would charge £15 for the cheapest tethering. Dongles from several telecommunications companies to plug in their laptop are cheaper than that, or, you could jailbreak your iPhone and tether it for free! Plus, don't we already pay for an UNLIMITED DATA PLAN? Screw O2!

Upset O2 customer, Norwich, UK

utterly disgusted

andy, manchester,

3GB via usb (free) modem + unlimited wifi=£9.79.
3GB via iPhone tethering + nothing else = £14.68.
Only on O2 :o)

Andre, London, UK

Apple and 02 exclusive deal ! Where's the Monopolies Commission when you need them ? What ever happened to competetion ?
Eamon London

Eamon Toman, Watford, Herts

I hate the pricing of the new iPhone altogether. In the US, it costs $199 - aound £120 for the 16GB, and $299, around £180 on contract. What's more, an article in "inGear" , The Sunday Times - 14.06.2009, claims that the iPhone 3GS may be obsolete by christmas.

Luke, Workington, UK

The truly appalling thing about this is the arbitrariness of their pricing. Sign up with their monthly plan and download 10 Gigabytes, about 10 movies, free. Hop over to France and it will be 2.94£ times 10,000, or £29,000. Will they warn you? Doubtful. They can just send the debt collectors.

Carl Rosenberg, Austin, USA

Love the iphone, but hate O2 and apple for this pricing- I don't just blame O2, apple are getting a share of all revenues as part of the contract! Think this upgrade is a lot of song and dance about nothing as these features, video, MMS etc have been standard on most other decent phones for years

John, Newcastle, UK

If you're an existing iPhone user, you get a free upgrade on the improvements (so I was told by the man in the O2 shop) so although you keep your handset you don't lose out on the new bits.

Janey, Windsor,

@bill k
How O2 quite know the difference in tethered data packets vs 'normal' ones, i don't know. But there is an application called PDAnet for the iPhone which turns it into a wireless router, so it looks to O2 like 'normal' data usage :-)

Chris J, Birmingham,

People are seduced by the flash design and hype surrounding the iPhone. I was tempted, but left 02 and joined a rival company that supplied a Nokia E71 smartphone. With a little research I found I could 'tether' my phone to my laptop. Result? Unlimited 3G internet access for £20 a month! No brainer.

Paul, Worcester,

I've been waiting for Apple to fix the basic things that did not work on the iPhone 3G e.g. no MMS, no video, no cut and paste, no SMS forwarding. Now that they've fixed it, O2 go and double the price of the phone and introduce this ridiculous charge. I think I'll be sticking with Nokia

Kieron, London,

People should blame Apple, as it was them who cooked up these exclusivity deals, which I believe should be made illegal. They are anti-competitive and put the consumer at the hands of a manfacturered monopoly. The EU has a responsibility to stop such actions.

Ben, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Its a joke....and a bad one at that, the cost of the phone has also doubled and if you look what your being charged if you want to upgrade from the older model its a total joke.

At least Dick Turpin wore a mask..!!

Can the last Iphone user on O2 please turn out the lights before they leave..

Nick, Bristol, England

Unbelievable, we pay a premium for iphone that is only just catching up with other phones - android, n96/97 etc... who seem to offer an unlimited internet plan. i.e you can use your phone for the internet. Isnt it false advertising to say free unlimited internet then charge for it if you use a lapto

Mike J, Leigh,

Why blame O2 ? They simply outbid all other networks for marketing rights of iPhone from Apple. Now they are recovering their investment. Its Apple that allows networks to have exclusive rights to their products as they make more money upfront plus the sale of each iPhone. Dump the iPhone, I say !

John Smith, London,

In France Orange had the I-Phone in an exclusive deal and lost this right during a court case with the other mobile providers this year. the I-Phone is now available in ALL mobile phone shops and the prices are coming down. Only competition can bring prices down!

Gary Lawrence, Montpellier, France

I have been 'tethering' with my N95 for over 2 years now! O2 want to sell it to me? Surely unlimited data should
mean exactly that. They will find a backlash of apple community developers eager to break this one...

b kill, London, UK

02 have absolutely lost me now. Rolling onto Android just as soon as I finish my contract.

Rip off merchants

Chris, Portsmouth,

I think the iphone is a good product,but O2 are milking this one .

The E71's a good halfway house between smart phone and going full blackberry. It's really come into it's own as I've been travelling a bit recently, and includes unlimted 'tethering' on tmobile.

G, Wilts, UK

O2 isn't a monopoly. There are plenty of other operators.

Take your business elsewhere if you don't like them.

This is, after all, just another phone.

Si, READING,

To charge for tethering is a scandalous move by an already loathed monoply operator. O2 simply does not provide a good service to me and I would be delighted to see this monopoly abolished.

Don't charge for this - look for ways to add value! Not something that O2 begins to understand!

Martin Dean, Reading, UK

O2 are laughing! Apple should have never given then exclusivity, the who apple thing is having a product the way you want it, i want the iPhone i certainly dont want to be bent over a barrel by a phone operator, why not just sell the phone unlocked and let people decide, O2 i hope youlosethecontract

Dominic, London,

This is a luxury item, therefore people should expect to pay a premium. £15 per month is the industry standard for 3 gig of data, and the profit on this handset is not realised for months as it cost so much to begin with.

If you 'must' have this phone, do not moan about the recession.

Jim, Ripley, Derbyshire, England

O2 are a joke. I have been with t-mobile (web'n'walk) dongle customer for 2 years now and they (now) charge me only £5 a month to keep me as a customer, I do not get charged extra when I go over my limit. It is disgraceful to charge £15 for a useless 3GB. I will upgrade, but tethering? Only for £5!

Mark, Battersea, United Kingdom

To everyone saying "I can already do this for free": yes, but O2 have a business model that relies on most people not doing that. It's either that, or they have to charge *everyone* 30 quid a month. Ever heard of "tragedy of the commons"?

Matt Westcott, Oxford, UK

Pretty disgusted with this shamless attempt at milking yet more margin from 'high value' iPhone consumers. Even Apple have recognised there is a recession by revising their pricing model for the new OS system. Do O2 not realise people are looking for more value from their service providers? Tara O2!

Barry, Northampton, UK

O2 have got some nerve attempting to charge people an extra £15 per month for something you can already do. There is an app you can download on a jailbreak iPhone that already allows you to use it as a modem, and it's unlimited aswell. I've used it for ages, o2 can't do anything about it.

James, Lowestoft, United Kingdom

I've had the original iPhone and now the 3G and haven't minded the pricing structure but to charge for the tethering is disgusting in my opinion. Had no problem with o2 up till now but will be leaving o2 ASAP.

James, Lichfield,

The simple fact that O2 is the only carrier that can officially run an iPhone is the real joke here....still the joke will be on O2 when as soon as those ridiculous 2 year contracts are up everyone will be unlocking their phones and putting cheap sim-onlys contracts on them from other carriers.

louis, Nottingham, UK

All you need do is jailbreak your iphone, and then you can use any network provider you want.

Alastair, Alicante, Spain

This is outrageous, not only that they are also not passing on the price cut to for the 3G Models. How can they charge twice for essentially the same service.

jumax, London,

anyone who pays extra is super rich and kinda dumb most other phones and networks do it for free only apple ipod can fool silly dumb people into paying for something that is otherwise free, t-mobile an n95 is free you tube all day and no extra cost, to normal internet tarrifs no extras. Dont Pay It!

john, redding, uk

Shocking! £5 might be justified but at that price I'll be paying Virgin or Sky £15 a month instead, providing me with broadband that my whole household can use, instead of one computer running at sub-broadband speed whilst draining my iphones (tiny) battery life. Idiots.

Edmund Armstrong, Bath, England

I was actually about to switch from Vodafone to O2 and get the new iPhone until I read this. I've been 'tethering' my laptop to my 3G phones for years without incurring a charge.

Emperor's new clothes!

Ben Robinson, Brighton, UK

I think the contract deals are outrageous. come on yes the new iphone is coming out but the deals should be better or cheaper hence what people do on the iphone

harvey, manchester,

This is not fair on existing iPhone users and I bet o2 may loose all their iPhone customers by doing

Harry, Luton,

Typical corporate piracy of our accounts. They have no shame.

Simon, Bath,

Whilst I dont agree with this, problem is operators are not making money on data services with the bundled deals they are desparate for ways of adding premium service charges. Expect to see harder control over FUP, bandwidth reduction at busy times, extra costs such as for VPN etc in months to come

Nick, Oxford, UK

£14.68??!! You might as well take out a dongle contract. They're only £15 / month and you get a free dongle for your laptop. I'm currently with T-Mobile and get free internet ono my phone as part of my contract and only pay £5 to use my Nokia to connect up my laptop.

James Roth , Birmingham, UK

Existing Iphone users just remember this day and when the exclusive iphone deal lapses. Leave O2.
Don't get mad. Just get even and remember revenge is best served cold.
O2 believes that their iPhone customers are nothing special, well O2 that cuts both ways. You are toast.

Bruce R, Plymouth, UK

The tethering plan is on a price by price comparison with the other UK phone networks at around the £15 mark

however the overage costs are astronomical.

orange charge just 1.42p per Mb overage, compared with O2's 19.6p
vodafone are in the middle at 12.5p per Mb

Stu Wilson, Hartlepool, UK

My iPhone will be the last product of its type I ever buy.

Apple's new 3.0 software is being greeted with a song and dance when it's simply functionality the phone should've had in the first place (and that every other phone has had for years). Not to mention the bunch of clowns operating it at O2

Alex, Hartlepool,

You've been able to tether your iPhone to your computer for ages (using iPhone bandwidth). Google it.

Ed, London,

Far too expensive for my liking. However, I'd really consider it if the iPhone were on the Orange network. Orange Wednesdays + iPhone = win.

Sam, Bristol,

Vote with your feet - don't buy the phone and I absolutely guarrantee that 02 will lower their costs!

Why do we constantly have to put up with US charges being so much cheaper (and fairer)? Time to make a stand...

Dean, Manea, Cambs, England

Whilst O2 have a monopoly on the iPhone they can do what they want.
What is needed is for the iPhone to opened up to the whole market so that there is some true competition on rates.

Peter, London,

A friend who is an Apple junkie mentioned to me "have you seen what the Iphone can now do?". Like many others he has just heard of Tethering.
Surprised when I told him I have been doing this with my Nokia free of charge for the past 2 years.
Iphone users = victims.

Andy, London, UK

Its a monopoly - They can do what they like. Dont suppose the Pre will be any better either (please dont let it go to O2)

On the plus side, O2's 3G net is so feeble, it wouldnt be worth buying anyhow.

And by the time I escape the shackles, who knows - the O2 exclusive bit may have passed

Fishy, London,

I wanted an Iphone but was going to lose too much leaving orange as i get a fantastic deal as an existing customer.

the HTC Touch HD is so similar, a fantastic phone and i been using as a modem for my laptop on my tariff for 6 months since i changed from my N95 which did the same

JimmyPirate, Portadown, UK

Wow, only £200/gigabyte past your (minimal) allowance.

Use it abroad and it's £3000/gigabyte in the EU, double that outside.

Andrew, Edinburgh,

Oh well. Looks like more users will be going down the 'jailbreak' route in order to use their iPhones as 3g modems at no extra cost. Can't believe o2 would try and charge for tethering, let alone charge that much!

Bob Dobalina, Lazytown,

Can already do it on my Palm with o2 for free so why is Apple forcing the extra charge?

Kevin Laughlin, London, UK

There is no such thing as a free lunch with Apple. The tethering fee is a serious rip off and will send me back to Vodafone when my contract ends in September.

Clive Yearsley, Leatherhead, UK

O2 will be the new iPhone killer.

Welsh, Mac Boy, Wales

I don't know how they've managed to come up with a deluded conclusion that it's ok to charge customers twice for the same data. Absolutely hopping mad I am.

There's a Twitter petition already up (tagged #o2fail :)).

Tadhg Kelly, Surbiton,

Way too expensive. i will put off my iphone purchase and find other alternative phone. O2 is a joke.

xiaofei, Cambridge,

O2 are just mad. it is ridiculous they should charge an additional 15 pounds a month just to use the pre-paid bandwitch with a laptop with further limitatios. If they want to do the right thing, put the iphone contract on a 3GB fair usage policy and who cares how the bandwidth is used (laptop/phone)

Tom, London, UK

The whole philosophy of the Internet is that it should be device independent. This is madness. Not that this concerns me - I've been using my Nokias to do this since 1999 on Vodafone!

Stuart, Chichester, UK

Well, Well, Well, I think this is the begining of the End for O2 and the iphone. For one its too Confusing. Its just nor the Mac way. We Mac follows choose the brand for one main reason.
Ease of use with Style. Not what 02 have done. Bad 02, bad 02. sit.

looking forward, Leeds, uk

If you don't want to buy that much, buy a different phone.

NotAnnoyedInTheSlightest, PragmaticsVille,

i think its time i changed my phone to something with a better tariff
i like the iphone, its had its faults but still not bad.
lot of the faults have been fixed with the new iphone but at a cost not sure its worth it anymore

Gary Matthew, colnbrook,

O2 will end up regretting treating existing and new customers this badly. Surely treating customers better will ensure they will remain with them in the longer term. This current short-term attitude will put off new customers, (including me), and will drive away customers onto rival networks

Billj, belfast, uk

Wow! way too expensive! I certainly wont be buying the 3GS.

I cant see why they cant allow something small like a 100Mb allowance for teathering within the price plan. I'm never going to buy a stand alone dongle but would like to check email on my laptop very occasionally.

Rich, London,

I was waiting to buy this model but with current pricing / plans a pre is looking better!

Richard Scott, Carlisle, EN

Whats worse is that the pay monthly tariff is suppose to come with "unlimited UK data and wifi"... how can they sell an add on which limits the amount data?

Al Sutton, Maidstone, UK

what a joke. I hope that 02 loose exclusivity and it goes to a network that will do something decent with it.

Ian McArthur, Nottingham,

O2 you're a joke!

Simo, London,

In Australia, it only costs me A$74/mth for the current 16gb model. Im guessing thats close to 30-35 pound. I get 1 gb for that, which is rubbish but its around $15/mth for 10gb extra.
The UK is getting ripped off, so badly. Poor you.
As for tethering, crack your iphone, install pdanet. cant monitor

gray, perth, australia

This is scandalous !

I for one will NOT be upgrading my iphone to the new one with hidden stealth charges like this coming to light .

What an earth are O2 thinking ?

They are for sure not thinking about value for their customers.

Paddy , Leeds, UK

I have not yet bought an Iphone is because of backwards / expensive price plans from O2 in the UK.

Charging an additional £15/month for 3 gigabite tethering is absolutely appalling.

Also, the lack of affordable/sensible data roaming plan when abroad is another shocker. Wake up O2.

Ngrand, London, UK

FFS too expensive, why can't these greedy networks give us a break!!!!, oh and top marks to the hacker that bypasses it !

Annoyed , Bogoff, Uk

I think this is indicative of the mobile operators having too much power, and OFCOM being utterly useless.

You are paying the operator for a voice/data connection. Why should you have to pay the operator extra to connect a computer to your phone? Subject to the same bandwidth/quotas of course.

Marcos Scriven, London, UK

I have a credit score of 700
I have been using T-Mobile for 5 years - they auto charge my credit card - I have never been late.
AT&T would not let me open an account for the iPhone,
I have to go back to the store and make a deposit or something.
Welcome to AT&T -

Dan, NY, 10002