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iPhone owners urged to consider O2 dongle deals instead

Posted 9th June 2009 at 12:59pm by Jonathan Leggett

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Significant savings are on offer for consumers who opt for a mobile broadband dongle deal with O2 instead of using the third-gen iPhone as a USB modem.

Under the contract terms revealed today for the iPhone 3GS, buyers will have to pay an additional fee of £14.68 or £29.36 per month on top of the headline monthly rate to tether the device to their laptop and use it to get online.

The monthly charge of £14.68 offers 3GB of usage per month. This means that over the term of a 24-month contract, a customer would pay £352.

However, consumers who instead choose to go for an O2 mobile broadband dongle deal would pay significantly less due to the generous introductory terms on offer, whereby those on a 3GB package pay just £9.79 for the first four months.

This cuts the total payment over the course of the contract to just £332.76.

Jonathan Leggett, staff writer at Top 10 Broadband, said: “O2’s decision to impose additional charges for using the new iPhone as a tethering device has proved a controversial one, to say the least.

“But with savings on offer on dongle deals, we think that is clearly a better option for potential iPhone 3GS buyers.”

As well as contract mobile broadband deals, O2 also operates a pay as you dongle offer. This is priced at £7.50 per GB of usage.

More news on: O2, Mobile broadband

1 comment

  • 1

    Jemima Ogbuigwe, 9th June 2009.

    I think the cost is on the high side. On that price margin, they would isolate most iPhone users and hence not make any money from tethering. They should include the cost of tethering in the contract and this would also expand the market of iPhone users and introduce more clientele for O2.

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