No No, they charge for the tethering
service using their application. But, like mobile TV and GPS etc where they also charge for Verizon handling the service, you can go to 3rd party and do the same thing. FYI I use PDANET and it works great. I have the software loaded on my phone and the computer. Actually, I have the software loaded on 4 of my computers. I was away on a family mission last Spring and used PDANET for 5 weeks to sling my dish network to my remote location. I hit nearly the 5GB limit during that time and it was mostly slinging video every evening using PDANET to my desktop computer. It worked great giving me an average download of 1.6 Mbs. which did great running sling at full screen on a 24" monitor. When I upgraded my phone to the TP2, I simply reloaded the software to my TP2, entered my ser number and it now works on that phone too.

I don't recall what PDANET sold for but I think it was $20.
Verizon makes these features available for a price which is fair game in business because there are many who just prefer to buy their service from the carrier. But that doesn't mean you
must buy it from them. Just don't expect them to provide you with tech support on 3rd party applications and service.