(Updated to reflect responses from O2 and Three)
I currently seem to be spending too much on communications related stuff.
I have O2 landline and O2 broadband at home; an O2 iPhone contract and two 3 contracts: One for a USB modem and another for an iPad. That's three mobile contracts in all which somehow feels like too many.
The least used is the USB modem, but if I'm out of the office and away from home, I need some kind of Internet access for the laptop to get serious work done.
So how about using the iPhone with tethering as an alternative to the USB modem? Sounds like it should work.
O2
Starting with O2, a search for "tethering" on their website brings up a page that tells me I need the Internet Tethering "Bolt-On". This sounds good because in addition to Internet access through the phone, it gives access to The Cloud's WiFi hotspots, and (it says), BT's Openzone's hotspots are to follow. Quite when this will follow, though, is uncertain - these's no date on the mentioned and the content of the page isn't dated.
So I follow the nice link to "Buy an iPhone Internet Tethering Bolt On". Result? "File Not Found". Thanks, O2.
I'm an O2 customer already so let's try a different approach. I can log into "My O2" and see my current tariff and select from a menu of "Bolt-Ons". There's a nice selection of them, but not one mentions tethering and there's certainly not one called "Internet Tethering" which is what O2's website has told me I need.
OK, O2, you've had your chance. Let's try elsewhere.
Three
I currently use 3 SIMs in both my USB modem and iPad and I'm generally impressed. Their 3G coverage seems more extensive than O2's and while attempting to maintain a working data connection on a moving train appears impossible, the mobile Internet appears accessible when I'm stationary - even in out of the way places like Lochinver way up in the north west highlands of Scotland.
Same approach: Let's try searching for "tethering" on 3's home page. "Your search results", it proudly tells me: "0 Results for tethering".
Well, at least that's straightforward. I guess they want me to buy a MiFi box instead but that's one more piece of stuff to carry around. No thanks.
Orange
The same search on Orange's web site pulls up an interesting list of links.
There's an explanation of what tethering is, a good description of what you need to use tethering and a useful explanation that says "to enable tethering you must have subscribed to a tethering bundle, or an iPhone tariff that includes tethering". Cool.
So let's look for a "tethering bundle". Oddly, the "Orange Shop" doesn't talk about bundles at all. Perhaps the new word is "Plans", so I try those. No mention of "tethering" in the maze of the Pay Monthly "Dolphin", "Panther", "Canary" or "Racoon" plans that I can see. (What's with the names? Am I supposed to identify with one of those?)
I'm not really interested in Pay As You Go plans but I take a look there as well. That adds "Monkey" to the bizarre zoo but is still unhelpful when it comes to tethering.
I'm getting tired at this point, but a quick look at SIM only plans for iPhone shows no information about tethering either.
Bye bye Orange.
T-Mobile
There's no search box on the home page. That's novel, at least. How about "Help & Support"? A search on that page brings up a list of links which tells me about tethering but fails to convince me that it is something that T-Mobile actually offers. A scan through tariffs does nothing to change this.
Vodafone
At last.
A clear explanation of how they support tethering and how they charge for it. Vodafone FTW. Who'd have thought it?
STOP PRESS - O2 responds
After posting this on August 11th and tweeting about it, I had a couple of responses. The first was from O2 who pointed me at their "latest tariffs". These indicate that tethering is included in their "Data Bolt Ons". For £3.00/month, you can get tethering along with an extra 100MB data. There are other bands at £6 and £10/month with successively more data.
However, there's still an inconsistency in the price list:
The pricing table shows the £3 month tier (unlike the £6 and £10 tiers) does not include UK Wi-Fi, though oddly enough if you click on the "More info" link, you are told that "all our tariffs come with unlimited Wi-Fi through The Cloud and BT Openzone".
Three
A colleague tells me that he uses 3's "personal hotspot" feature successfully. I tried searching for "personal hotspot" using the search feature on 3's homepage with no results, so it is a little hard to know how this works.
STOP PRESS 2 - Three responds
Turns out that Three includes tethering. Kudos to Three. And boos to their website. They have a blog post describing tethering.
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