Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

O2 Details 4G Tariffs in the UK, Plans Start From £22/Month

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,485
30,720



Following its announcement a couple of weeks ago, British carrier O2 has now detailed the costs of its 4G tariffs on its website, with airtime plans starting from £22 (around $34) monthly. The plans, which all include unlimited calling minutes and texts to any British network, include either 1 GB, 3 GB or 5 GB of data, with extra available to users who sign up before the end of October.
Customers who also want to choose a new device have a range of options through O2 Refresh, which uniquely gives O2 customers the flexibility to get the latest device whenever they want. Airtime plans for O2 Refresh start from £22 a month for 1GB of data, and go up to £37 for 8GB. Customers have the flexibility to choose a 4G device at a price per month that suits them. The monthly device payment will range from £10 to £25, dependent on how a customer chooses to pay for one of over 10 4G-ready devices in O2's range.
Click to expand...
Screen-Shot-2013-08-14-at-12.42.34-pm-800x811.png
The new 4G plans also include a complementary 12-month subscription to O2 Tracks, the carrier's streaming music service, and feature "exclusive multiplayer online gaming" to try and entice users to sign up. Both EE and Vodafone, two other British carriers, also feature exclusive deals to new users who sign up to their 4G plans.

Vodafone became the third British carrier to announce 4G services a week ago and is planning to offer a promotional subscription to Spotify Premium and an exclusive deal with Sky Sports Mobile TV with its 4G plans, though there is no word yet on pricing. EE, which is currently the market leader in 4G services in the UK, offers a subscription to Deezer, a French streaming music service similar to Spotify, and free mobile TV with its higher-end 4G plans, which start from £41 (around $63) monthly.

The new tariffs from O2 are priced exactly the same as similar plans from EE, although O2 is currently featuring an introductory offer whereby users who sign up to the new plans before the end of October are treated to extra data for no additional cost. The carrier has also introduced a "4G Phone Promise", which allows iPhone 5 owners on O2 to upgrade their phone to a 4G-compatible phone at no extra cost, with the carrier covering 25% of the cost of the remaining line rental.

O2 is expected to launch its 4G network in London, Leeds and Bradford on August 29th, with a further 10 cities due to be switched on by the end of the year. The network has promised speeds of up to 6 times faster than existing 3G services on the recently-licensed 800 MHz spectrum - a frequency not supported by the iPhone 5. The incompatibility is likely to be rectified with the launch of the iPhone 5S, which is expected to be introduced on September 10.

Article Link: O2 Details 4G Tariffs in the UK, Plans Start From £22/Month
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/08/14/o2-details-4g-tariffs-in-the-uk-plans-start-from-22month/
R

RickyB

macrumors regular
Oct 28, 2007
210
6
The frequency band that O2 uses for 4G is incompatible with the iPhone 5.

Presumably the 5S will support it.
 
G

glenbogle

macrumors newbie
Apr 10, 2013
27
0
Worth waiting to see whether GiffGaff, who use O2's network, offer better prices than this. At the moment for 3G they're miles ahead on value.
 
D

digitalhen

macrumors regular
Jan 10, 2006
219
64
glenbogle said:
Worth waiting to see whether GiffGaff, who use O2's network, offer better prices than this. At the moment for 3G they're miles ahead on value.
Click to expand...

+1 for GiffGaff... the speed and the loss of battery life just aren't worth it when you see the prices on GG. I use it every time I come back home.
 
SeanMcg

SeanMcg

macrumors 6502
Jun 1, 2004
333
1
Question

I remember when 4G was being rolled out here in the States. There were posts in here mocking and criticizing how long it had taken to roll out 4G in the US. England is much smaller, yet only now rolling out 4G offerings.

Why is 4G service only being deployed now in England? Did they decide to use a different technology, bureaucracy, what? I'm sincerely curious.
 
OllyW

OllyW

Moderator
Staff member
Oct 11, 2005
17,196
6,799
The Black Country, England
SeanMcg said:
I remember when 4G was being rolled out here in the States. There were posts in here mocking and criticizing how long it had taken to roll out 4G in the US. England is much smaller, yet only now rolling out 4G offerings.

Why is 4G service only being deployed now in England? Did they decide to use a different technology, bureaucracy, what? I'm sincerely curious.
Click to expand...

We've had to wait for the analogue TV transmitters to be shut down to free up the bandwidth for 4G.
 
T

Tsurisuto

macrumors 6502
Jun 13, 2007
343
4
SeanMcg said:
I remember when 4G was being rolled out here in the States. There were posts in here mocking and criticizing how long it had taken to roll out 4G in the US. England is much smaller, yet only now rolling out 4G offerings.

Why is 4G service only being deployed now in England? Did they decide to use a different technology, bureaucracy, what? I'm sincerely curious.
Click to expand...

If I'm not mistaken, I think it's because the frequency that the majority of the 4G networks will use in the UK has only recently become available. Up till now analogue TV was using that frequency. We have just ended analogue TV this year and auctioned off the space to the highest bidders.
 
M

mroddjob

macrumors member
Jun 29, 2010
78
0
Completely agree with CelestialToys, the 4G coverage at the moment is extremely poor. Only really worth it if you live in one of the big major cities, London, Birmingham, Manchester etc.

Also note how they are reducing the data limit at the end of October, presumably in time for the 5S to come out and flood the network.
 
R

rikscha

macrumors 6502a
Mar 8, 2010
800
420
London
SeanMcg said:
I remember when 4G was being rolled out here in the States. There were posts in here mocking and criticizing how long it had taken to roll out 4G in the US. England is much smaller, yet only now rolling out 4G offerings.

Why is 4G service only being deployed now in England? Did they decide to use a different technology, bureaucracy, what? I'm sincerely curious.
Click to expand...

England ≠ UK and also, 4G was rolled out last year in the UK.
 
P

Primus84

macrumors 6502
Jul 21, 2005
383
24
UK
In addition what some US carriers called 4G is called 3G in the UK - for example HSDPA and HSPA+.
 
cogitodexter

cogitodexter

macrumors regular
Jun 22, 2009
131
224
Naaaaaaarfolk, England
rikscha said:
England ≠ UK and also, 4G was rolled out last year in the UK.
Click to expand...

Yes, but only on the EE network and not on the frequencies that O2 and Vodafone will be using.

Personally I'm waiting for '3' to release their 4G/LTE plans: they're typically far better for price and provide genuinely unlimited data tariffs unlike the other providers.
 
C

CelestialToys

macrumors 6502
Aug 4, 2013
359
168
up above the streets and houses
SeanMcg said:
I remember when 4G was being rolled out here in the States. There were posts in here mocking and criticizing how long it had taken to roll out 4G in the US. England is much smaller, yet only now rolling out 4G offerings.

Why is 4G service only being deployed now in England? Did they decide to use a different technology, bureaucracy, what? I'm sincerely curious.
Click to expand...

Partly the wait for the frequency ranges to be available and partly the fact that the UKs 3G service was far more mature than the US..There simply isn't yet the need for LTE in the UK
 
matjamca

matjamca

macrumors 6502
Jan 2, 2013
271
286
St Helens, Merseyside, England
O2 & Vodafone will be working together to provide 4G in the UK. However, all the research I've done points to EE having the biggest & best 4G network and Three will have the worst. Three have hardly any spectrum and EE have decided not to proceed with an EE/3 Joint Venture. The bonus with EE is that they'll be using 800, 1800 & 2600 MHz frequencies.
 
A

afd

macrumors 65816
Apr 12, 2005
1,134
389
Scotland
Hope their 4G coverage is better than their 3G is. When I had an O2 contract most of my usage was gprs, it was very difficult to reach a 1GB limit with that.
 
E

eda

macrumors member
Jun 5, 2011
34
1
Birmingham, England
I just got an iPhone 5 on Three with unlimited data, when they roll out 4G later this year, I won't have to pay any extra for it. Still, their 3G is pretty fast anyway, I've been getting around 10-15 megabits down speed where I live, that's good enough for me.
 
daneoni

daneoni

macrumors G4
Mar 24, 2006
11,598
1,146
matjamca said:
O2 & Vodafone will be working together to provide 4G in the UK. However, all the research I've done points to EE having the biggest & best 4G network and Three will have the worst. Three have hardly any spectrum and EE have decided not to proceed with an EE/3 Joint Venture. The bonus with EE is that they'll be using 800, 1800 & 2600 MHz frequencies.
Click to expand...

The joint venture may have collapsed but EE is still be obliged by an EU ruling to sell Three some of the 1800MHz spectrum which will become active in Sept. So Three still have 2 of the 3 bands no matter how you slice it. Plus OFCOM has allowed all carriers to repurpose existing spectrums for 4G although that will have no bearing in the short term.
 
Last edited:
daijholt

daijholt

macrumors 65816
Jun 14, 2013
1,113
343
Wales, UK
I remember when EE rolled out people complained that 8GB wasn't enough data and now O2 won't even be offering more than 5GB after October?

EE's tarrif run circles around voda and O2 at present, since for £51 EE give 20Gb, at least until the end of September. Plus, they've already spread 4g quite far into several rural areas.

I can't see anyone else catching up to them anytime soon, and I'm not convinced that Three will offer truly unlimited 4G either, especially after seeing these tariffs. I'm sticking with "I'll believe it when I see it" until they let the cat outta the bag.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom