O2 apparently locks up UK iPhone deal, pays through nose
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Sep 17th 2007 12:02AM
posted Sep 17th 2007 12:02AM
So at one point or another, we've heard nearly every European carrier mentioned as the likely frontrunner for Apple's European iPhone rollout. On the one hand, you can chalk that up to the ugly nature of the rumor mill, but on the other hand, it sounds like the carriers themselves were led to believe the same thing, all part of Apple's grand scheme to play them off one another and put together a gloriously lucrative (for itself, anyway) exclusive distribution agreement. The Guardian is reporting that O2 will be announced as the winner of that Pyrrhic prize for the UK market on Tuesday; the win is an enormously costly one, though, with as much as 40 percent of plan revenue (yes, revenue, not profit) going straight back to Cupertino. In other words, Apple turned up the heat on the UK carrier scene until everyone -- Vodafone, Orange, and T-Mobile -- had blinked except for the good chaps at O2. The article also suggests that Carphone Warehouse has been roped in to provide some backup on the retail front out of concerns that O2's retail presence isn't enough to push the iPhone properly, but let's be honest: if you really want an iPhone, you're going to seek it out, aren't you? We can apparently expect similar announcements from T-Mobile for the German market and Orange for France on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, making for a pretty enthralling week for iPhone-starved Europeans (the ones that haven't unlocked, anyway).
The guardian article mentions implementation of edge, right at the end. Is this to assume we Brits will be taking a step back, for iPhone, and as such won't be gifted a much desired 3G iPhone handset?
Steve, regarding EDGE, there are a couple other inaccuracies in the article that lead me to believe that the sentence towards the ends re EDGE may be more the reporter's speculation than anything else.
I'm really expecting/hoping that Apple will use this week's announcement as an opportunity to intro a 3G-capable iPhone, rather than seriously expecting carriers on your side of the pond to add new infrastructure capabilities everywhere for EDGE... (yes the iPhone is a landmark device, but I find it hard to swallow that _any_ one device warrants that degree of infrastructure investment, especially in a basically obsolete (albeit less power-hungry) technology)
FWIW, the 2 inaccuracies I found were in the 5th & 6th paragraphs:
* the current-gen iPhone supposedly not being able to connect to the WiFi iTunes store (while that's technically true right this second, Apple's publicly stated that the current-gen iPhone will get the WiFi iTunes feature later this month when an automatically-installed software upgrade is pushed out via iTunes desktop syncing)
* the iPod touch supposedly being able to do everything that the iPhone can, except for phone calls (the touch also can't do email, camera, stocks, Google Maps, weather, and notes)
I'm also hoping/expecting that this week's intro will bring the capacity of the iPhone up to 16GB to match the touch...
I'm an O2 customer and in the last week my phone has started reporting that it is connected to an EDGE network rather than GPRS. This only happens in my home cell so maybe a test but where I live would be a funny place for such a test.
The iPhone will be announced on O2 tomorrow. Sadly it will be EDGE not 3G and O2 will have crippling data plans to try and claw back some of they 40% they are giving away... if that is true I'm gobsmacked.
Me.. I'll wait for the 3G phone - late Q1 08 is my predicyion.
If they plan a massive charge on the data tarrif its toast in my book. Here's hoping its not.
How much are they charging?
Tmobile i the only network in the UK I would consider getting an iPhone on. Everyone elses data plan is way to expensive.
Was going to get an iPhone but I think i'll get an LG Viewty
O2 currently charge me £3 (roughly 6USD) per megabyte of data. I'm guessing they're going to either reduce the current tariff significantly or switch to unlimited data for the iPhone to allow anyone to use the device anywhere near its full capabilities.
I am sure that they will charge a hefty premium to get so much of the revenue back and probably tie users into a 2 year contract, but as with the USA launch I am going to wait a month or two, as I am sure unless the phone is priced reasonably with a flat rate data plan and reasonable contract length, most users will give it a miss. Nokia and the others will no doubt bring out their iphone copies by early next year so will happily set on the fence till January or even Feb next year. The great thing about the iphone is that it will really jump start the mobile market which has been languishing.
My contracts up in october.
I dread to think what Google Maps will cost you on £3 for 1mb of data
We'll see what tomorrow brings.