O2 to Launch iPhone in Ireland

[MacRumors]

Underscoring comments by Apple COO, Tim Cook, that they are working to expand the iPhone into new geographic areas, wireless carrier O2 announced that they would be introducing the iPhone in Ireland on March 14th, 2008.

The iPhone will be made available through both O2 retail stores as well as branches of Carphone Warehouse. The 8GB model will cost 399 euro and the 16GB at 499 euro. Tariffs start at 45 euro per month.

45 euro/mo: 175 minutes, 100 texts, 1GB data
65 euro/mo: 350 minutes, 150 texts, 1GB data
100 euro/mo: 700 minutes, 250 texts, 1GB data

More information available at o2online.ie.

Article Link

[puckhead193]

yay for everyone ireland!

[paddy]

About damn time! Might have to move to O2 now...

[pederg]

Great news.. We need switzerland now Especially since they sell the french officially unlocked ones in official stores here... Says that Ireland won't have visual voicemail tho.. Thats a shame..

[pismodude2]

Top o' the iPhone to ya'!

[johnnyjibbs]

Originally Posted by MacRumors

45 euro/mo: 175 minutes, 100 texts, 1GB data
65 euro/mo: 350 minutes, 150 texts, 1GB data
100 euro/mo: 700 minutes, 250 texts, 1GB data

My god those are stingy tariffs! Where's the unlimited data option?

[sysiphus]

Originally Posted by johnnyjibbs

My god those are stingy tariffs! Where's the unlimited data option?

No kidding. Much as I hate ATT, my 30/month (on a family plan) for the basic US plan looks like a steal in comparison...

[Jcpudney]

visual voice mail not supported either :/

[arkitect]

Originally Posted by johnnyjibbs

My god those are stingy tariffs! Where's the unlimited data option?

Very stingy…
Compared to the UK:

Minutes Texts
£35 (€46) 600 500
£45 (€60) 1200 500
£75 (€99) 3000 500

Plus: Unlimited Data (Email/Web) & Wi-Fi (O2 Hotspots)

[em500]

Which is probably why they're selling much better in the US than in Europe so far.

[ggbrown]

I can't believe that the iPhone is STILL not available in Canada.

[malcolmffc]

Originally Posted by sysiphus

No kidding. Much as I hate ATT, my 30/month (on a family plan) for the basic US plan looks like a steal in comparison...

But remember:

- Prices for the US plans don't include taxes, European ones do.

- Incoming calls are free in Europe, in the US they count against the minutes in your price plan.

Having said all that, the tariffs are certainly stingy compared to the UK.

[Bonte]

Data plans are to expensive here in Europe and not enough free accessible wifi for a Touch. I can't decide to buy a Touch or wait for the iPhone so i bought a shuffle to have something for the podcasts.
Lets hope the 3P apps will let me use the touch without the need for a constant internet connection.

[mainstreetmark]

A warning, Ireland, I have a tough time getting cellphone signals in most of the pubs I go to. Your mileage may vary.

I can't believe that the iPhone is STILL not available in Canada.

..because Rogers want to charge five bucks for every kilobyte of wireless data?

[MacRumorUser]

Damn! I wonder if they will give me the plan even though I already have an iphone?

[Knox]

Originally Posted by johnnyjibbs

My god those are stingy tariffs! Where's the unlimited data option?

Certainly compared to the other country's tariffs they are, but at a quick glance they do appear to compare well with other tariffs in Ireland. For example, on Vodafone €45 will get you 100 minutes and 100 texts with 25MB data.

[edit] ah, well, that price is for GPRS, for 'mobile internet' it's €9.99 for 500MB, plus the €29 normal tariff [/edit]

[eastcoastsurfer]

Originally Posted by Knox

Certainly compared to the other country's tariffs they are, but at a quick glance they do appear to compare well with other tariffs in Ireland. For example, on Vodafone €45 will get you 100 minutes and 100 texts with 25MB data.

I'm surprised anyone in Ireland even uses a cell phone then. Suncom has offered unlimited voice and texting in a 'local' area for $79 for a long time here in the states. ATT, Verizon, and T-Mobile just added unlimited voice from anywhere to anywhere for $99/month. 100 minutes of talk time wouldn't even get me through 1 day lol.

[chas0001]

Expensive, especially as there is a data limit of 1GB/Month and

*** Visual voicemail is not currently supported

[freediverdude]

How far will 1 GB of data go in Ireland? That's what worries me about this, is that people there might run up huge data bills without knowing, since a lot of the functions on the iPhone rely on data.

[MacRumorUser]

Actually just occured to me.

I contacted O2 at the end of January asking if I was on their talktime plan if I could purchase the 10GB data plan - and if that would work specifically with the iPhone and the edge gprs APN.

It took them a week or so to reply but they eventually did

Hi Philip,

Apologies firstly for the delay in this response.

The broadband handset add-on of which you speak would be suitable for the apn your require.

You can add this to any of our existing voice packages.

Kind Regards
O2.IE

So the settings have been ready for a while, and anyone with an unlocked iPhone can avail somewhat of the same thing.



So basically what it's looking like is they are offering standard plan plus their basic 1GB broadband data add-on

Broadband 1GB €15.00 1GB 2c per MB
Active life 150 €35 150 anytime 100 Text

€50


So yeah €45 is a slight saving, offering 25 extra minutes.

So not hugely bad a tariff, but........ 18 month contract and if you end early you have to pay up the €45+ for each remaining month... ouch!!!!!!!!

[MrCrowbar]

Originally Posted by johnnyjibbs

My god those are stingy tariffs! Where's the unlimited data option?

... check out Germany's t-Mobile Prices:
49 EUR (US$ 74) for 100 minutes, 40 SMS, 200 MB data
69 EUR (US$ 105) for 200 minutes, 150 SMS, 1 GB data
89 EUR (US$ 135) for 1000 minutes, 300 SMS, 5 GB data

If you've reached your "data flatrate" data volume, you're throttles to 64 kbit/s and 16 kbit/s upload. Additional minutes cost 29 cents for the cheap tarifs, 9 cent for the 89 EUR one. Additional SMS cost 19 cents.


Note: Right now I got an unlocked Sony Ericsson and a Simyo prepaid plan. I pay 9 cent per minute, 9 cent per SMS, 24 cent per MB data. I'd love to have an iPhone to pop in my SIM card, but I don't want to get one, unlock it and have a brick at some point.

[MacRumorUser]

Originally Posted by freediverdude

How far will 1 GB of data go in Ireland? That's what worries me about this, is that people there might run up huge data bills without knowing, since a lot of the functions on the iPhone rely on data.

I imagine O2 will allow you to up that to 10GB which is currently a €15 extra on the broadband add-on package over the 1GB

But seriously 1GB is probably more than enough for most people. You wont be doing that much on the iPhone that requires that kind of information. It's not like your going to be downloading huge data files and such.

General surfing and checking emails - you'd be hard pushed to get through half of that 1GB in a month.

[MathijsDelva]

I just can't believe these prices! They are insane.. And for the rest of world where the iPhone is being sold it's about the same!

Here in Belgium you pay 10 Euro for 1000 text messages & 60 minutes and if you 'consume' more than that the price per text message = 0.085 eurocent and 0.125 eurocent per minute for a call!

Luckily it's forbidden in Belgium for Apple to combine a phone with an obligated payment option.

[bytethese]

Damn, I was hoping to look 'cool' when I traveled there in May.

[TheSpecialist]

Well its good theres another country with iPhone coming, but hey what ridiculous prices. I already start to get nervous if I think about it what the prices in The Netherlands are going to beman even unlocking the phone and then make an own plan with the SAME provider would be more cheap

At the moment I'm contracted to Vodafone for 2 years. I got a Sony Ericsson K800i from them.

11.50eu 150 minutes
10eu 1000 texts

Thats 21.50 in total. About HALF of that!!! If I take an unlimited data plan I have to pay another 10 euro's a month. But still 31.50 for a better contract. What I could think of the other money is taken out of more data usage.