iPhone 3G free* in UK with O2
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Jun 10th 2008 3:39AM
posted Jun 10th 2008 3:39AM
*8GB iPhone 3G on £45 and £75 monthly tariffs. £99 on O2's £35 tariff and new £30 tariff. All tariffs include unlimited WiFi, Visual Voicemail, and reduced international roaming under an 18-month contract. Heh, not exactly free but still not bad. Certainly better than the situation when the iPhone was originally launched in the UK. O2 is also offering the iPhone 3G under a Pay & Go deal without the 18 month contract. Details of that, however, must still be worked out before the July 11th launch date.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Read -- Pay Monthly
Read -- Pay & Go
i must admit I am pretty impressed with o2 allowing users like me to upgrade just after 8/9 months + upgrade for free. They must be lossing a fair amount of revenue be doing this, 10 months to be precise.
Not really, as the original iPhone was never subsidised (wheras in the UK, pretty much all phones are). So all the 1st Gen iPhone users paid full retail and o2 just sucked up the contract cash, so they stand to gain by letting you extend for another 18 months by giving you a subsidised phone that you would have otherwise got if you'd chosen a different handset.
What is good is that someone put the idea forward and they were intelligent enough not to reject the idea out of hand (as mobile carriers like to do).
Why don't we get such a deal over here on the other side of the pond?
Thats not a bad deal from O2, I am a business user and pay through the nose for a BlackBerry pearl. I would love to know what the breakdown is on the figures, how much is being subsidised by the carriers.
11th July, here I come!
Maybe not all that good on the P&G front, you are looking at 3G and Gps. Don't wanna see the credit wind down while using these added new features. But is also nice for light surfing, texting and the odd phonecall, ofc making good use of the Music and Video features.
Charge for GPS surely not?! Or are you talking about using the 3G with GPS for some kind of tracking/geotagging? Seriously, get me iPhone+tomtom and im a very happy guy. Only reason I didn't buy last time was because of no GPS. 24hr battery for music im am liking a lot!
@Si: I think he meant direct charge for 3G and indirect charge for GPS since you'll be using Google Maps.
On P & G, because of pay as you go costs, it becomes either extremely expensive to use or it isn't used, i which case, one might as well buy an iPod touch, which has all of the music and video, capabilities, has WiFi and will have the 2.0 features,
it'll probably also be cheaper than the pay as you go iPhone
It's only using A-GPS so it will find your location using the on-board GPS but it will need a data connection to download maps and display it
What? Are you mad? This is great news. It means an even easier way of getting hold of an iPhone 3G without worrying about the contract, particularly if you already have a contract like myself (It took me a lot of trouble to get a US iPhone for nearly £400 last year).
Now I've just got to sit it out for a few weeks after launch until they get it unlocked and I'll get one to run on Vodafone (fingers crossed).
prepaid option? that is GREAT news -- i may actually be buying one now to jailbreak / unlock since i wont have to deal with a 2 year contract. great things about having friends overseas!
Obviously the best solution (depending on its price) is to buy the P&G unit and put your old sim card in it if you already have the old iPhone. I am estimating a price of £179.99 - £199.99 (About $350-$400). Which I would happily pay to upgrade from my old iPhone to the new. Although here in the UK the tech behind this device is still quite old compared to other modern devices, although its functionality is by far the best. We still await the day for a 5mpxl, 32gb iPhone with full 3G fuctionality, bluetooth with A2DP and for the love of god, is it so hard to handle MMS?
Also they are doing something about recycling your old iphone for other family members or friends (albeit bound to O2) via a P&G Iphone simcard. Not sure about price, but most likely they will.
"Don't need 2 iPhones!
We want to make sure you find a good home for your existing iPhone once you upgrade. If you've a friend or family member already on an eligible O2 tariff, they'll be able to transfer to one of our new tariffs for iPhone. If they're not already with O2 or on an eligible O2 tariff, they could get one of our new iPhone Pay & Go SIM cards."
For once the UK gets a better deal than the USA! So getting a 16GB upgrade come July 11th!
Woohoo I'm going to the UK for uni in a few months and *might* need a new phone!
its a shame us current £35 a month customers must pay the same as new customers to upgrade, whereas £45 a month guys get it free! :(
you do get to keep your Iphone v1 btw, sell it or give it away. You might even be able to pay the new one off.
The only thing that existing O2 iPhone customers get for free rather than anyone else is a free upgrade. We don't get any deals on the actual tariffs from what I can see. Any new customer who signs up to the £45 or £75 contract can get a free 8GB and the £75 contracts can get a free 16GB model just like existing customers. Plus I can't see many people opting for the 8GB model on the £75 contract. Double the space for free, hum which one to go for.
Although this is nice that we can upgrade for free it does mean I am going to have to cough up some more money as I'm on the £35 tariff and I would like a 16GB model now, which will cost me £159. But still I think I will get one
what is the deal in pay as you go ?
Is the 3G iPhone being sold in the same way as the 2G i.e buy in store and take home and activate via iTunes? Jailbreak it and avoid that dumb contract and get a sensible one?
Hmm, i have the current iPhone unlocked but still on O2, i get 1000 texts, 600 mins and unlimited data for just £20 a month which is fantastic with the way the current iPhone can be bought and unlocked. I hope the pay-and-go deal will allow me to get hold of the new handset easily and an unlock will become available soon. I'd rather not have to sign up for 18 months and pay £15 more per month for less minutes and texts. 3G data speeds would make up for the lack of included WiFi..
What is your plan on O2???... The best plan with unlimited data that i found on O2 was a £25 with 1000 text and 600 minutes (Simplicity 25).
I'm on the Online 30 but i managed to negotiate unlimited data rather than free texts and a £10 discount each month. It would still be good value at £30 though.
That is the same deal as me- SIM only?
I negotiated 600 mins and 1000 texts, 'unlimited data'.
The latter is subject to a 'fair use' policy of 200 mb! Has this not effected you?
I wonder if the 'unlimited browsing' they are talking about is the same as this deal, or if it will act as a pressure to up their frankly toss data cap...
it will be at least £269 on prepay! which is a great price considering how much high end fones cost offline!
Beats the hell out of O2 Ireland's €299 for the 8gb with 16 month €45 tariff and 1gb cap.
Anyone know if you can replace the SIM in an iPhone? ie I could buy it from O2 on PAYG and drop my old SIM in it? I definitely don't want the iPhone tariff and if I find my Stellar is better I can pass the iPhone onto my SO (who is also on O2).
Or is it a sealed unit (hence no memory or battery replacing)?
There's a slot at the top where the SIM goes, you need a thin paper clip to open it
I think the pay and go option will sell loads!
people will buy these phones and then put in their previous o2 sim card or even get a simplicity contract
also parents will finally be able to get them for kids, husbands will be able to get them for kids
all o2 need to do now is make it under 300 and it will sell like hotcakes
That's pretty crazy. Does anyone know if they would release the Android platform over in UK/Europe as well? I wrote some thoughts about what I think Android needs to do to compete with the iPhone (this free thing makes it even harder): http://www.openxfer.com/wordpress/2008/06/10/what-the-android-needs-to-do-to-compete-with-the-iphone/
At this rate tho, I wonder if it would even matter.
I been reading around and people seem to be thinking that the ipod PAYG will be around £199 and £259 for the two versions however i think they will be much more than this.
The reason for this is the price of the touch, which for a 16GB version it is £269 so this would make it cheaper to buy an iphone and this would render the touch obsolete, and i can't see apple canablising its product that much.
Therefore the price of the touch will have to come down or the price of the iphone on O2 PAYG will be much higher than people think, probably over £300 for the 8GB.
O2 are also including free access to BT Openzone wifi hotspots as well as Cloud wifi. I could rarely find Cloud wifi, but BT Openzone is everywhere. I'm on the £45 plan, so will get a free upgrade, but might stretch to paying the £59 for the 16GB model.
O2's coverage has been pretty good for me, so would have probably continued on the same tariff after the contract expired, so starting a 18month contract from scratch is no big deal as far as i'm concerned. Now all i have to decide is Black or White.
The only problem I can see with the new iPhone tariffs with O2UK is that the unlimited data is only free for 6 months and then its going to set users back another £10 per month onwards. Pretty crappy. That pretty much equals the original iPhone price on O2, just spreading the cost across 18 months.
Handset looks cool though, and I reckon we'll be selling loads on Pay and Go.
I can't find anything on the O2 website that says there's an extra £10 monthly charge for Data after six months. Where did you get this info?
I just pray for a FREE iPhone with a resonable price in UK.
heh, you think this is bad, just wait until 02 Ireland release their price. :|
I am loving the unlimited data plan even for the lower tarrifs on o2
Sorry to let you down and that, but O2 are not releasing their Pay as you Go until LATER THIS YEAR :o. See the link below to talk about this with other possible iPhone customers.
http://customerforum.o2.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=16549#16549