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Apple to Break O2 iPhone Exclusivity in the UK, But Not for the 3GS?
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I have had an o2 phone for the last 15 years and reasonably happy, but i would agree that competition will be a good thing.
Im sure o2's 3G network could be a lot better and faster if they thought people had a choice.
My o2 dongle is nowhere near as fast as other friends vodafone.
Im sure o2's 3G network could be a lot better and faster if they thought people had a choice.
My o2 dongle is nowhere near as fast as other friends vodafone.
Good. Finally a small step in the right direction...
I'd like to see Apple take this one step further and issue unlock codes for all iPhone first gen phones... They don't even build or sell the bloody thing anymore and it's still locked to O2! Ok, you can jailbreak, but it's the principle.....!!
I'd like to see Apple take this one step further and issue unlock codes for all iPhone first gen phones... They don't even build or sell the bloody thing anymore and it's still locked to O2! Ok, you can jailbreak, but it's the principle.....!!
It is good news for it to be available on other networks but not so good that you cant get the 3GS!!!
Hopefully when the 2010 iphone is released it will mean at least 2 or 3 mobile networks will stock it!!
For now im stuck with a bad signal that just recently got bad on O2 !!! and they wont do anything about it!!
In the end, with that attitude towards customer satisfaction means they will lose the customers they have. I for one will walk away the first chance i get now but i think they will hold me to the 2 year contract i stupid enough to sign up for JUST to get the new 3GS!!
Funny that my signal was ok for 2 years then suddenly not!
Hopefully when the 2010 iphone is released it will mean at least 2 or 3 mobile networks will stock it!!
For now im stuck with a bad signal that just recently got bad on O2 !!! and they wont do anything about it!!
In the end, with that attitude towards customer satisfaction means they will lose the customers they have. I for one will walk away the first chance i get now but i think they will hold me to the 2 year contract i stupid enough to sign up for JUST to get the new 3GS!!
Funny that my signal was ok for 2 years then suddenly not!
According to this article at The Guardian, it would appear that Apple is in talks to change from O2 all the way to T-Mobile at some point. Interesting read.
Wow, talk about a steb backwards, aren't t-mobile the only one worse than o2 (3, tesco and virgin discounted because they aren't proper providers, just re-sellers)
I dont agree. I used to not think much of Tmobile but i took a contract around spring 2006 for 18 months, it was a good deal they offered & i was happy with the signal & would have stayed with them but they werent offering me a an incentive to stay!! So i went to O2 & then upgraded to the iphone when it was released!! O2 were fine until recently when the signal went bad in my home & area!!
I would love to go back to T Mobile for the iPhone!!
Well, it varies area by area, it would be nice if o2 responded by allowing all iphones sold by them to be unlocked...
I hope Apple continues this trend with the United States next. The $99 8GB 3G should be offered on T-mobile also. Competition is a good thing for the consumer. Hopefully, it will bring monthly fees down.
Well, that's not the only reason, but O2's 'deals' are pretty lame. I'm over the moon about this.
After a few heated debates around the time of the 3gs launch, there were several, smug posters on here who scoffed at the very idea of us current o2 customers being offered a reasonable deal by o2 for the new handset.
Well, a few weeks on, and I wonder how o2 and their supporters are feeling now. The customers who have been loyal to them for nearly 20 months are now nearing the end of their contracts, many feeling aggrieved at o2's decision to disregard their upgrade request.
I personally was going to hang until December and go onto a Simplicity tariff, saving myself, and depriving o2, of a further £16 per month, and not being tied into a contract. But today news has broken that Orange, and T-Mobile are in the iPhone market too, which should make for some interesting sim only deals on the horizon.
How o2 must be kicking themselves for not tying it's huge customer base into new contracts with the 3gs now.
Finally, to all the smug, condescending know it alls from the previous threads, stick to you day jobs. You clearly knew nothing about how businesses should look after their customers then, and probably still don't realise now.
Well, a few weeks on, and I wonder how o2 and their supporters are feeling now. The customers who have been loyal to them for nearly 20 months are now nearing the end of their contracts, many feeling aggrieved at o2's decision to disregard their upgrade request.
I personally was going to hang until December and go onto a Simplicity tariff, saving myself, and depriving o2, of a further £16 per month, and not being tied into a contract. But today news has broken that Orange, and T-Mobile are in the iPhone market too, which should make for some interesting sim only deals on the horizon.
How o2 must be kicking themselves for not tying it's huge customer base into new contracts with the 3gs now.
Finally, to all the smug, condescending know it alls from the previous threads, stick to you day jobs. You clearly knew nothing about how businesses should look after their customers then, and probably still don't realise now.
They're "furious"? My heart.... it bleeeeeds 
What goes around does come around then!
Been all the way up and down the country the past couple of weekends watching the signal on O2 (iPhone), 3 and Vodafone (dongles, but same basic technology). 3 and Voda were on 3G pretty much all the time. With O2 I VERY rarely had anything better than GPRS (not even EDGE) - going down the motorway for example was a case of "ooh look a 3G signal! OMG! No wait... it's gone..." and half the time I was lucky to have any signal at all. A 3 dongle led to Motorway Warcraft with about 2 disconnects in as many hours of movement. Practically uninterrupted service.
(Yes my iPhone's receiver works perfectly well)
That's before you even get started on their pricing.
Although their 3G signal is good I'm not desperate enough to see 3 get it (good gawd NO).. been there: I only have their dongle because it's PAYG and was free.. but Orange might not be too bad. I'd rather have seen it on Vodafone, as they have almost the 3G coverage of 3 but without the Customer Service Fail - but any choice is good.
What goes around does come around then!
Been all the way up and down the country the past couple of weekends watching the signal on O2 (iPhone), 3 and Vodafone (dongles, but same basic technology). 3 and Voda were on 3G pretty much all the time. With O2 I VERY rarely had anything better than GPRS (not even EDGE) - going down the motorway for example was a case of "ooh look a 3G signal! OMG! No wait... it's gone..." and half the time I was lucky to have any signal at all. A 3 dongle led to Motorway Warcraft with about 2 disconnects in as many hours of movement. Practically uninterrupted service.
(Yes my iPhone's receiver works perfectly well)
That's before you even get started on their pricing.
Although their 3G signal is good I'm not desperate enough to see 3 get it (good gawd NO).. been there: I only have their dongle because it's PAYG and was free.. but Orange might not be too bad. I'd rather have seen it on Vodafone, as they have almost the 3G coverage of 3 but without the Customer Service Fail - but any choice is good.
You don't have to top up at all; I haven't in all the months I had a 3G and now a 3GS.
Data is included for the first 12 months.
Good. I still can't believe the 3G isn't free or cheaper on contract/PAYG i mean really? £96/£350?
It's about time other carriers got a piece of that pie. As much as i kind of like O2 and probably won't switch carriers regardless, i still think competition is good as it'll force O2 to improve their offerings. Because currently they aren't good at all, which is why i moved to their simplicity tariff as its probably the only decent offering they have in their lineup
It's about time other carriers got a piece of that pie. As much as i kind of like O2 and probably won't switch carriers regardless, i still think competition is good as it'll force O2 to improve their offerings. Because currently they aren't good at all, which is why i moved to their simplicity tariff as its probably the only decent offering they have in their lineup
That's what I thought. Given VF are already in bed with the iPhone in other countries it's possible that they thought this wouldn't attract sufficient business (that's the only reason I can think that they wouldn't pick up an option on this (if it was available to them).
I seriously hope VF pickup the next generation (there's no way I'll be upgraing mid product cycle to the 3GS at the end of my o2 contract in January) so I'll be expecting to have to sign another 18month contract to get the NG phone with whoever in July '10.
I have been with Orange, T Mobile, O2 and Vodafone over the many years of owning a mobile phone. I still have a Vodafone 3G phone and 3G dongle for business use and I find the 3G coverage a lot more consistent than O2 in London and E Anglia area. Not been with Orange for many years but they were OK, not sure what their coverage is like now.
But I was with Virgin (T-Mobile network) for a couple of years and sure they were cheap, and had pretty decent customer service, but their coverage is lousy, no where near as good as Vodafone or O2.
If I had a choice I would go with Vodafone for coverage, although I will say their customer service is really hit and miss, sometimes I have had really good service from them, other times they have been really really bad. Alternatively I would probably stick with O2 if they offered a cheaper deal or maybe even try Orange again.
The main trouble I see in all of this is locked handsets. Will this mean that O2/Apple will be obliged to provide an unlocking service if there is official competition in the marketplace ?
But I was with Virgin (T-Mobile network) for a couple of years and sure they were cheap, and had pretty decent customer service, but their coverage is lousy, no where near as good as Vodafone or O2.
If I had a choice I would go with Vodafone for coverage, although I will say their customer service is really hit and miss, sometimes I have had really good service from them, other times they have been really really bad. Alternatively I would probably stick with O2 if they offered a cheaper deal or maybe even try Orange again.
The main trouble I see in all of this is locked handsets. Will this mean that O2/Apple will be obliged to provide an unlocking service if there is official competition in the marketplace ?
I very much doubt it. The agreement is between the carrier and yourself, with the phone being subsidised by the carrier - they'll just have locked-to-Orange versions etc.
I have not found much use for The Cloud and BT Openzone. It's too few and far between where I am. When I do find one there is usually a 3G signal around that seems to do a better job.
3 do have their own 3G network. They just fall back onto Orange and O2 2G when there's no 3G available (and drop the call every time they do it
)Tesco, at least when I was on it 2/3 years ago was O2 (and bloody brilliant)
Virgin is T-Mobile I think.
I've been there too. Was thoroughly ripped off, abused by CS and mistreated AND the signal was *****. They're the reason I will now only sign sim only 30 day rolling contracts.
I'd love to see someone other than O2 get the iPhone (and I am very fond of O2 - they're who I moved to after 3 and it was a breath of fresh air) simply 'cause the contracts are ridiculous. And the price of the 3G is a bloody joke. As is the fact that you can't unlock your payg phone (although that's probably Apple's fault)
As for Orange and T-Mobile. My boyfriend's with Orange, and they seem not bad although I get better signal on O2 and T-Mobile than he does. T-Mobile is definitely they cheapest and best value as far as sim only deals go, and my signal's a constant 5 bars with them, whereas with O2 would drop a bit sometimes.
O2's CS was outstanding though (and, unlike T-Mobile's, free), and they did lovely things like let me give 3 days notice instead of 30 when I stopped my contract - "oh, we'd never keep charging you once you'd moved your PAC" was music to my ears.
In Edinburgh though I think it's really Vodafone that gives the absolute best signal, even in dodgy black spots like my middle of nowhere university.
While good from a line rental/phone cost point of view, everyone will probably be really pissed when it all sparks an iPhone price war.
So Orange (for example) offers 500 texts and 600 mins for £20, instead of O2's £35. The small print notes that doesn't include data, nobody reads it, gets locked in to contract. O2 sees their loss of custom, reduces contract cost and removes unlimited data offering. Other providers follow suit. Soon after, we have multiple providers offering cheap line rental for iPhone contracts, but all get screwed over because unlimited data is something of the past (unless you pay £30 a month).
I used to hate O2, after their 2003 screwing over teh bigandy. In the last 12 months I've been pleasantly surprised. Yeah, you pay a bit more, but you don't get screwed on data use. You don't have any problems getting through to customer services. They even do what you request of them!
All in all, couldn't care less - as long as I get to keep my unlimited data for a decent price. Bandwidth ain't cheap, so free is a good price - especially when landline providers are doing all they can to avoid unlimited plans and pass on their bandwidth costs to the end user.
So Orange (for example) offers 500 texts and 600 mins for £20, instead of O2's £35. The small print notes that doesn't include data, nobody reads it, gets locked in to contract. O2 sees their loss of custom, reduces contract cost and removes unlimited data offering. Other providers follow suit. Soon after, we have multiple providers offering cheap line rental for iPhone contracts, but all get screwed over because unlimited data is something of the past (unless you pay £30 a month).
I used to hate O2, after their 2003 screwing over teh bigandy. In the last 12 months I've been pleasantly surprised. Yeah, you pay a bit more, but you don't get screwed on data use. You don't have any problems getting through to customer services. They even do what you request of them!
All in all, couldn't care less - as long as I get to keep my unlimited data for a decent price. Bandwidth ain't cheap, so free is a good price - especially when landline providers are doing all they can to avoid unlimited plans and pass on their bandwidth costs to the end user.