O2's launching a shared data plan for families and multiple devices

O2 has launched two new sharing plans so customers can either spread their data allowance across multiple devices or give it to family members to use.

The new Sharer Plan will allow you to share data with up to 10 other devices providing you're on the O2 Refresh tariff. You'll need 1GB or more of data on the plan and it'll cost you an extra £6 a month. O2 is limiting this feature to monthly tariffs, so Pay & Go and Business devices aren't supported.

The amount of data being chewed through by these extra phones and tablets can be monitored through O2's My O2 app for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone. O2 will send you a text reminder when you, or your friends, have used up 80 per cent of your data allowance for the month.

Meanwhile, the Family Sharer Plan acts in the same way as similar plans from Vodafone and EE: you can take out one plan with a data allowance of between 1GB and 8GB and can then add up to nine family members.

It'll cost £6 extra to add each person to the plan and £15 if you want to include unlimited calls and texts.

• Meanwhile, TalkTalk has ditched Vodafone in favour of O2 for delivering its 4G package.