Verizon late Thursday confirmed that it would add tethering to the Motorola Droid but clarified its plans. Contradicting a prior statement, it now says tethering when ready will cost $30 in addition to the phone's existing voice and data plans. It will also have a 5GB bandwidth cap before overage fees begin, though the tethering rate will be separate from the Droid's regular data.

The rate is comparable to that for AT&T, which also charges $30 and institutes a 5GB cap. A handful of users that subscribe to the National E-mail plan, which omits web access, will pay the previously stated $15 but will be rare given the Droid's heavy emphasis on the web and online apps.

The news negates a possible advantage of the Droid over the iPhone and is compounded by Verizon's timeframe for tethering, which now only has the feature being available sometime in 2010. AT&T has alluded to a similar indefinite timeframe for the iPhone. Verizon spokeswoman Brenda Raney explains the delay in a similar manner to AT&T's iPhone delays and explains that tethering is being tested separately from regular mobile data, although data congestion is not considered a potential risk.

"It is not uncommon for us to introduce the phone and continue to test the service and offer it later," Raney says.