O2 to Drop UK iPhone Prices in May?

[samab]

You can't really compare the O2 contracts with the AT&T ones as the US mobile telecoms market is radically different from the UK one.

This is about the difference between this year and last year within the context of the two separate markets, not the actual conversion between $ value and £ value of the handset costs. Nothing of significance has changed in the UK this year compared with the US to suggest why the 3GS is so much more expensive than the 3G here as opposed to the US. A small increase could be understood (due to weaker pound), but not the massive increase we have actually seen.

O2 is focusing on 24 month contracts. They are not required to apply handset subsidies evenly across the board.

And on a 24 month contract, a direct comparison with the US --- you Brits are getting a much better deal than the Americans. Brits have the best deal out of the G7 countries. Aside from Hong Kong, Brits get the best iphone deal in the world --- the reason is competition (Hong Kong has 6 carriers and UK has 5 carriers). Wait until T-Mobile gets out of UK and you have 4 carriers, then your prices will go up dramatically.

You Brits don't even know how lucky you are.

 

[CalumC]

O2 is focusing on 24 month contracts. They are not required to apply handset subsidies evenly across the board.

And on a 24 month contract, a direct comparison with the US --- you Brits are getting a much better deal than the Americans. Brits have the best deal out of the G7 countries. Aside from Hong Kong, Brits get the best iphone deal in the world --- the reason is competition (Hong Kong has 6 carriers and UK has 5 carriers). Wait until T-Mobile gets out of UK and you have 4 carriers, then your prices will go up dramatically.

You Brits don't even know how lucky you are.

I do love a good cross-cultural battle of words. Maybe we do get a good deal compared to other countries, it doesn't make it very good compared to what else you can get in the country. The price hike feels disproportionate to us, especially when the tariffs, when compared to others, are so poor.

 

[julianna1973]

O2 is focusing on 24 month contracts. They are not required to apply handset subsidies evenly across the board.

And on a 24 month contract, a direct comparison with the US --- you Brits are getting a much better deal than the Americans. Brits have the best deal out of the G7 countries. Aside from Hong Kong, Brits get the best iphone deal in the world --- the reason is competition (Hong Kong has 6 carriers and UK has 5 carriers). Wait until T-Mobile gets out of UK and you have 4 carriers, then your prices will go up dramatically.

You Brits don't even know how lucky you are.

I didnt know Tmobile were "getting out" of the UK market?

 

[Saladinos]

I didnt know Tmobile were "getting out" of the UK market?

Neither did I. Couldn't find anything on Google either. From Wikipedia:

For a long time the smallest of Britain's four GSM operators, T-Mobile has overtaken Orange UK and, with over 19.2 million subscribers, has the third largest user base behind market leader O2 and Vodafone, due in part to the mobile virtual network operators using T-Mobile's infrastructure.

On 12 December 2007, it was confirmed that a merger of the high-speed 3G and HSDPA networks operated by T-Mobile UK and 3 (UK) was to take place starting January 2008. This will leave T-Mobile and 3 with the largest HSDPA mobile phone network in the country, with a theoretical maximum speed of 6.5 MB/s, rising to 7.2 MB/s over the course of the year.

Things appear to be going quite well for T-Mobile in the UK. They've been operating here for about a decade. They're not going anywhere. It's funny that in Europe, where markets are more heavily regulated, there seems to be more competition than in the US, where companies blame regulation to justify ripping you off.

 

[samab]

Things appear to be going quite well for T-Mobile in the UK. They've been operating here for about a decade. They're not going anywhere. It's funny that in Europe, where markets are more heavily regulated, there seems to be more competition than in the US, where companies blame regulation to justify ripping you off.

DT has been trying to shop T-Mobile UK around.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUKTRE54B1IA20090512

Only UK in the whole Europe is more competitive than the US in terms of mobile telephone service. It was more "luck" than anything else that UK managed to sell their 3G licenses before the internet bubble got bursted.

Just look at France, Germany, Norway --- they are some of the worst in terms of competition. France has only 3 national carriers (all french owned). German government is still the largest shareholder of DT. Norway has 2 carriers --- basically the worst iphone plan in the industrial world.

Doesn't matter how much AT&T "sucked" compared to Verizon --- AT&T's 3G iphone speed was tied for third in the whole world according to the wired.com survey of hundreds of iphone users. Aside from UK, nobody in Europe has better iphone than the Americans. Aside from Canada's time-limited special pricing plan, nobody else in the world gives you 5 GB of data allowance for the iphone.

 

[shoppy]

Prices are not bad, I get my iphone 3gs 32gb on upgrade for £84, 16gb model is free. The rest of my number can all get the iphone 3gs 32gb/ 16gb £164/ 99. I am an o2 business customer who can upgrade every 12 months.

 

[dubhe]

Prices are not bad, I get my iphone 3gs 32gb on upgrade for £84, 16gb model is free. The rest of my number can all get the iphone 3gs 32gb/ 16gb £164/ 99. I am an o2 business customer who can upgrade every 12 months.

I thought all O2 business contracts were 24 or 36 months?

 

[londonmystery]

amazing what you can find

It appears that o2 have slightly changed there pricing policy unless I misunderstood this. It seems that some iphone 3g customers will be entitled to an early upgrade free of charge. please see details below which were found on the o2 website.

http://shop.o2.co.uk/update/paymonth.html

For me and my wife this is great. We are entitled to an upgrade on on line now so there is 1 3gs. I spend in excess of £80.00 a month regularly on each account we have so it appears we are entitled to a second upgrade free of charge on our particular tariffs. Awesome!!!!

 

[Peterkro]

I am an o2 business customer who can upgrade every 12 months.

Do you have a link for this?

 

[CD3660]

This is the relevant passage regarding early upgrades:

Upgrading to the new iPhone 3G S

Existing Pay Monthly customers have the following options for upgrading
to iPhone 3G S:

Option 1 - wait until eligible for an upgrade.

All O2 Pay Monthly customers are part of O2 Priority List and those paying £35 or more a month, have the opportunity to upgrade early.

Customers won't have to see out the full term of their existing contract before being eligible for an upgrade.

All customers continually spending over a minimum of £80.00 a month, receive a 6 month early upgrade.

All customers continually spending over a minimum of £50.00 a month, receive a 3 month early upgrade.

All customers continually spending a minimum of £35.00 a month, receive a 1 month early upgrade.

 

[alexisj]

Need refund!

Yeah, I guess it's more okay if they'd give refund
to April ...

 

[iWoz]

haha that would be the day