O2 announced their pricing for iPhone-tethering recently.
Bolt Ons for Pay Monthly
3GB – £14.68 a month (minimum 30 days)
10GB – £29.36 a month (minimum 30 days)
I don’t mind paying for tethering. But as I’m already paying £45 a month minimum (and some bills have been MUCH higher) which is meant to include unlimited internet, I’m a little cheesed off about this one.
Now, consider this.
My internet usage on O2’s network, for the last TWO years of owning an iPhone on an unlimited internet tariff has been…
So, really, asking me to pay an extra £15 on top of my contract when I’ve been pretty much an angel anyway rubs me the wrong way. Add to this the carrier-dictated restrictions on using Skype, SlingPlayer or having large downloads come down over 3G and you can begin to see why I’m not entirely pleased with my O2 Experience.
Is tethering worth £15 to me?
Frankly, no.
*cough* jailbreak *cough*
It’s a joke. The tethering option actually costs the same (or more) than the standalone mobile broadband packages. I’d rather buy a mifi (which should be available soon here) from a different operator…
Might find this useful – no jailbreak required…
http://www.jellysms.com/blog/enable-internet-tethering-with-your-iphone-in-2-minutes-on-o2-ireland-with-30-gm/
Imagine buying a sandwich at a Pret-a-Manger shop, walking down the road and sitting in a park, opposite a different branch of Pret-a-Manger, whereupon the manager comes out and charges you for a panini… because having already paid for it in one branch, you deny the other branch your custom.
This is the business model for the O2 tethering charge.
The tethering charge is not for a service delivered (after all the connection between iPhone and laptop is YOUR network, not theirs, and you’ve already paid them for the data delivered to your network), but rather its a ‘punishment’ fee for now not needing an O2 dongle for your laptop.
Which is why the monthly dongle charge and tethering charge are much the same.
By all means pay for a service delivered, I’ve no quibble on that, but tethering is not delivery of a service, it’s a device for grabbing revenue share in a monopolised micro-market.
I’m sitting here in Starbucks, reading this over the official O2 tethering, so for all my moaning I’m actually using it. I went for it because it compares well to what I have been paying 3 through their PAYG dongle.
But I feel a bit miffed about paying it, all the same. It just feels expensive.
One thing that has bugged me: after you go past your included 3GB or 10GB, the overage is a hefty 20p per MB. I have found no easy way to track data usage when tethering. O2 say the meters in the phone don’t include tethered usage, and even if they do that’d hardly be a practical solution unless you only used data when tethering. O2 also warn that the usage tracker on their website may be up to 48 hours behind for data consumption, so you could conceivably spend two days paying 20p/MB without knowing. Yikes.
I’d be less unhappy if there was a simple, reliable way to track data consumed. I find it a bit cheeky to charge overage like that without providing a way to see if you’re using it :-/ (I did phone and ask, but got no help.)
I’m sure there are very good technical reasons why O2 can’t keep your data usage up to date, or text you if you over over a certain amount. And that reason is that they are greedy fekkers and there is no current legislation to stop them. Only when there are laws against this kind of theft – double charging, hiding the amount you use – will they change their ways. Start a petition, bring it to your MP.
I actually spent £15 to try it set it via the web and after 48 hours phoned to ask if it was set up as I was still awaiting the email. They told me it was set up a few hours after I filled the form in and an email was sent. “I didn’t receive the email” the reply was “Sir we sent the email…” they then read it to me in the vain hope it would jog my memory. I checked all my folders and told him again I didn’t receive it, to which he said “You should check your O2 email address” My What ?
Anyway, the reason I phoned was I didn’t want it to go ahead as I found wireless internet at £3 an hour or £8 a day across the road where they incidentally served beer.
It was too late. After a few hours of agony, I found it dropped out frequently I went back to my beer drinking wifi activity.
I phoned O2 to ask if they would consider the ability to spend £15 on 4GB with no time limit. “Not at this time”
I think your post demonstrates how ridiculous the pricing is. This added to how bad the O2 3G coverage is makes the 3G Dongle with no expiry the best option. O2 are taking the “we have you by clinkers/iphone lock in” confidence too seriously. Customer relations are not good, tethering and no reward for loyalty (referring to 1st gen iPhone upgrade customers having to pay the same as new).
Time they started to think what would happen if Apple and Palm offered the handsets to all providers !
Isn’t this an entitlementtard argument Matt?
@Gaz – ever think of NOT trolling?
I’m not demanding anything, I’m not saying I’m entitled. I’m saying I choose not to buy.
This may have been a troll, but if you are claiming the FUSION post is trolling, you really have lost it!
Thing is, Gareth, it doesn’t matter what your employer did about FUSION, I have the goods from the horses mouth. I work with IntertradeIreland almost every day – they’ve also been a funder of some of the programmes I’ve run.
An NI company employing someone through the FUSION programme would not be able to employ them North of the border without LYING. That reduces the use of FUSION to companies looking globally. The costs of recruitment and employment are still not the same as actually getting a grant.
Absolute cock. Just pure cock – in my class 80% of people worked in the north and linked to southern unis.
Just ABSOLUTE shite, maybe intertrade Ireland should vet employees better?