In response to our story a couple of weeks ago, Pocket-lint has been contacted by Vodafone, who confirms that tethering is now part of its new contract price plans, launched yesterday.

That means that instead of having to pay an additional fee for a tethering-specific data plan, customers can use their existing data allowance - as long as they sign up to one of the new plans.

Existing customers can switch over to the new plans with no penalty on commitment as long as the new plan is priced at the same amount or more than their usual monthly contract. That means that a customer with just eight months on their existing plan will not be forced to sign a new 12, 18 or 24 month contract.

"If customers are on one of our new price plans, launched on 1 June 2011, they will be able to tether using their standard monthly data allowance," says Vodafone.

However, the company warns those who are considering tethering a device that their current data allowance may not be enough for excessive use, or else they could get a nasty surprise at the end of the month: "Customers who tether their device tend to get through their data allowance faster, therefore we would always recommend that an additional data bundle is taken out to make it easier to manage costs and avoid bill shock."

Additional bundles suggested include a £5 bundle of extra 500MB of data per month, or for heavier Internet users, £15 per month for an extra 2GB.

The new contract price plans are now listed on Vodafone.co.uk.