iPod iPhone: How do US contracts Work?

[whooleytoo]

One carrier here (Meteor) offers unlimited free txts.

Funnily enough, I've heard from a lot of my Slovakian/Polish friends here (there's a huge Eastern European immigrant community here now) all have 2 or 3 phones - a Meteor phone for txting, another network with a plan optimised for peak time calls, and another for evenings & weekends (pay-as-you-go phones, so no monthly charge). It works out cheaper than just having one!

 

[adom]

Ok. Well I work for O2 (one of the bigger UK networks for you US guys), and example of our UK tariffs are:

1. The OP talked about around £25 ($49?), that will get you around 150 minutes that can be used to anyone in the UK at any time of the day and 300ish text messages.

2. A better option, if you are ok with paying £35 ($69) include our tariff which is 600mins (again, anyone & anytime), 500 free texts and every saturday, sunday and monday free .... i.e they dont come out of your 600 free allowance.

Obviously with both, you get one of the higher end phones...maybe i'll give you a K800i on the £25 tariff, or something better on the £35

 

[tallyho]

It does seem crazy but I pay $5.00 for 100 text messages, in or out.

Wow! So you have to pay to receive texts too!? Check the post above mine for a typical UK plan from O2.
Back to the iPhone...I have no idea of how Apple are going to sell it in the UK but there's no way that the pricing SJ discussed in the Keynote speech will work here IMO. Aren't some of the competitor smartphones he mentioned as costing $299 with a 2 year contract in the US available for free with a 12 month contract here?

 

[gnasher729]

Being one of those people in the UK who have a Pay-as-you-go phone (phone for £35, a £20 call card usually lasts me six months to a year), I'm probably not in the market for an iPhone as it is.

However, if you leave the phone part out, and call it the iPod Luxury Edition, that would be different. I'd want an Ethernet connection though, for places that don't have wireless Internet access. Could probably be done through a clever adapter.

 

[OllyW]

I pay £15 a month for 100 minutes and 50 texts which is plenty for me.

I've got a great deal for my daughter, 300 anytime minutes and 300 texts for only £10 per month, there's no phone included in that deal though.

Having to pay to receive calls and texts seems a little odd though

 

[VicRattlehead]

i dont like the way the us charges for phone service.

ive got nextel and pay about $60 a month after taxes. ive got 500 talk minutes with unlimited nights and weekends (39.99), unlimited nationwide direct connect (walkie talkie) ($10) caller id ($1.00) voicemail ($1.00)

and if i want text messages, in or out they are $0.10 per message. needless to say i dont text to anyone.