Even though you may pay for inclusive data on your iPhone plan, Optus feel it's ok to charge an EXTRA $49 a month to allow you to use your iPhone in a manner that all other phones have been able to function for years. Here is the news article reported in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Scroll to the bottom to read how to avoid this ridiculous and unfair fees.

Optus is slapping an extra $9.99 a month charge on their iPhone customers who want to use their phones as tethered 3G modems.

The new pricing was released today and is effective from Monday, June 22. That's just days ahead of the local launch of the new iPhone model, the 3G S, which goes on sale on Friday, June 26. It coincides with today's release of the iPhone 3.0 software update which, for the first time since the iPhone was released in 2007, enables tethering. The feature allows the phone to be used as a modem to connect a laptop or PC to the internet using either a wireless Bluetooth connection or a USB wire.

It's a feature that has been commonly available, without charge, on other 3G phones for several years. Optus says the service will not be available to customers on pre-paid plans. The $9.99 fee unlocks the phone's tethering feature and allow customers to use the data allowance on their iPhone plans to access the internet from a computer. Optus has also announced a range of new data plans ranging from $4.99 a month for a 25MB "starter pack" to a $44.99 monthly charge for a 6GB allowance.

Telstra has not yet announced its tethering policy while Vodafone customers are reporting that they have already been able to use the function without additional charge. Meanwhile, the recently merged telco Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) has announced that it has inked a deal with Apple to bring iPhone to 3 Mobile Australia. The phone has been carried by Vodafone since the launch of the iPhone 3G last July.

The deal means that the iPhone will be available on all of Australia's major mobile carriers.

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