Beware the Costs of Internet Tethering

Internet tethering is a great bit of technology which allows you to share your phone's 3G internet connection with a desktop or laptop computer.

I found myself trying this out the other night, when we had a power cut at home but still had a 3G signal on the iPhone. I connected the phone to my laptop, using the USB cable, went to the phone's Internet Tethering settings (inside Settings: General) and turned it on. There was a warning about getting charged for it, but I went for it anyway.

Here is how much I ended up paying, as shown on my vodafone bill:

Mobile browsing + data ACCINT 2.844MB £4.167

So I paid £1.50 per MB. That's really expensive!

You can pay for internet tethering on a monthly basis and pay a much lower per-MB rate, but this will only be cost-effective if you use the service regularly.

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