O2 is offering iPhone customers free home broadband when they sign up for its tethering add-on, as the long-term UK iPhone carrier looks to steal a march on new rival Orange.

Under the terms of the promotion, new and existing Pay Monthly O2 iPhone customers who sign up for the 3GB Internet Tethering Bolt On before December 31st will get O2’s home broadband service for no charge.

Tethering is the technology which allows consumers to use their handset as a mobile broadband dongle. O2 has dubbed the bundled contract option that allows customers to do this and which provides a free home broadband connection Total Connectivity.

Peter Rampling, Head of Consumer Mobile at O2, said: “This is a brilliant deal for people who want tethering and home internet.

“Effectively you get both for just £9.79 a month. Total Connectivity means our customers will always be connected, at home and on the move.”

O2’s Total Connectivity offering has been launched on the day that Apple mobile phones finally land on the Orange network in the UK, having been exclusively available on O2 for the last two years.