The U.K. iPhone 4 Thread

[hippyharry]

Spreadsheet updated with latest Orange prices.

Comparing it to the leaked prices the other day, the £30 tariff over 18 months is gone, as has the £25 tariff over 24 months is gone.

The £60 a month tariff is also gone on both 18 and 24 month contracts.

But the leaked prices were pretty bang on.

Grab your comparison spreadsheet here.

http://bit.ly/dqmdsn

 

[johnrs]

sorry if this has been posted

Orange have put up their plans with prices

http://iphone.orange.co.uk/plans/

 

[Peter Harrison]

I agree

I personally cannot see a better deal than this at this point in time:

O2 Simplicity 12 Months @ £15/mth

300 Minutes
Unlimited Texts
Unlimited Data
Unlimited Wifi
Visual Voicemail

Cost of Phone: £599 - 3% Quidco (on price exl vat) (hopefully) = £583.71

Total Cost of Ownership over 12 months = £763.71

• For those looking at 24 or even 18 month contracts, a good portion of you will be in the same situation in June next year when the next phone is released and you are trying to get out of, or upgrade your contracts.
  
• If O2 do retract the unlimited data in October you will have grounds to end your contract and look at another sim free deal with any provider you choose.
  
• The only downside I can see is if people have issues with the coverage which is understandable. I wouldn't call O2 amazing but they are satisfactory enough in London.
  
• The other downside is the initial outlay may not be affordable for everyone, but judging by the recent Orange Payg phone price, you will not save more than £20-30 off of the Sim Free Phone price, which in my opinion is not worth it.

Does anyone have any better ideas?

I'm essentially doing the exact same thing. I preordered my iPhone and i've started with Simplicity (still waiting for the sim etc). The only difference is that I've went with the month-by-month rolling Simplicity rather than the contract. I'm paying £10 more, but I know that if another carrier comes along with a great deal I can always jump ship since my loyalty isn't rewarded anyway. So I'm paying for that extra bit of freedom, which is something new for me when it comes to mobile phones. I've always been locked in a contract, and this is the first year it has ended at a good time to coincide with an iPhone release.

Now I just hope O2 cooperate and get me onto a MicroSIM. Ive registered interest on their website, so hopefully I'll get one posted out to me and I can just call up. If not I can try cutting it down to size, but I don't know much about that and still need to read up on it.

 

[Tino04]

Like i said, i have no interest in cutting down to size. I want to port my number from one network to the next, the number is too vital to lose.

Let's wait and see, the networks will cut the accounts of sims used in iPhone 4, that are not iPhone mirco sims. Simple analytic tests will show this to them, then we can all moan about how unfair they are.

So seriously, how many times - the average user does not want to piss about cutting sims.

Sims will be provided, for gawd sake - are networks going to just ignore the fact that the new iPhone needs a micro sim? Of course not, bide your time

 

[brianjcameron]

Well good luck using any phone, SIM free or not, without a network...

If you want no commitment, use PAYG, it's what I do, so I can change networks or sell the phone at any time.

Are you being an idiot or trying to be funny!?!. Like i said, Orange is not offering sim only - so i cant get PAYG with them. o2 has no reception in my area.

 

[MikeWilson]

For those planning on getting their iPhone 4 direct from the operators next week, I popped into the Vodafone store and was told that they won't have a seperate batch of stock on the day.

IF all the stock is allocated through pre orders then that's it,

Damn. Bad news.

 

[Theophany]

thats how alan sugar got rich.

Alan Sugar turned down Microsoft Windows on Amstrad computers at a discount rate of something like 75% because he said that there will never be a market for software.

Amstrad shut down computer operations shortly after that and are now a crappy brand owned by BSkyB making crappy satellite boxes.

Alan Sugar is a parasite that got lucky selling crappy products at exorbitant prices and selling overvalued companies to uninformed buyers. He also supports high rates of personal income tax in the UK, of which he does not pay as a non-domiciled individual.

So yeah, better example next time please.

 

[Willis]

Like i said, i have no interest in cutting down to size. I want to port my number from one network to the next, the number is too vital to lose.

Let's wait and see, the networks will cut the accounts of sims used in iPhone 4, that are not iPhone mirco sims. Simple analytic tests will show this to them, then we can all moan about how unfair they are.

So seriously, how many times - the average user does not want to piss about cutting sims.

Same... also, looking at my sim from the original 3G launch in 2008, the contact patch looks bigger than the ones in tutorials. Any clarification on this?

 

[hippyharry]

Also worth noting that PAYG is £20 cheaper than Apple Sim-Free.

If its unlocked from Orange, thats a better deal, but no doubt they'll make you buy £20 top up.

 

[bodhi77]

I'm essentially doing the exact same thing. I preordered my iPhone and i've started with Simplicity (still waiting for the sim etc). The only difference is that I've went with the month-by-month rolling Simplicity rather than the contract. I'm paying £10 more, but I know that if another carrier comes along with a great deal I can always jump ship since my loyalty isn't rewarded anyway. So I'm paying for that extra bit of freedom, which is something new for me when it comes to mobile phones. I've always been locked in a contract, and this is the first year it has ended at a good time to coincide with an iPhone release.

Now I just hope O2 cooperate and get me onto a MicroSIM

. Ive registered interest on their website, so hopefully I'll get one posted out to me and I can just call up. If not I can try cutting it down to size, but I don't know much about that and still need to read up on it.

i've spoke to 4 different people at o2 head office in the past few days and theyve all said that the stores will have stock on the 24, so even if you buy your iphone from apple, as long as you've got an iphone they'll give you a micro sim

 

[dZp]

Has anyone been able to sign up to the simplicity 15 (with unlimited data) recently?

Yes, me. I signed up yesterday for the Simplicity 15 for 12 months (with unlimited data). I had mistakenly changed my PAYG tarif to 30-day Simplicity @ £15/month last week, thinking it was the same as the 12 month one. I then got a text message saying that at the end of my 30 days, I would be transfered to the new iPhone Text & Web tariff.

Yesterday I phoned up O2 and the guy on the phone signed me up without problem to the Simplicity 15 for 12 month. All I have to do when I received my new sim is to ring them up to transfer my number and my balance onto it.

 

[Raizak]

I missed the initial batch of pre-orders and am now looking at July 2nd for my 16GB iPhone 4. I'm happy to wait, although i do have a Nokia 1661 at the moment.....so the iPhone cannot come quick enough

 

[0dev]

Are you being an idiot or trying to be funny!?!. Like i said, Orange is not offering sim only - so i cant get PAYG with them. o2 has no reception in my area.

Either buy the iPhone 4 on Orange PAYG direct from Orange, or cut the SIM.

You don't need SIM only to get PAYG on Orange.

Also don't forget Vodafone, Three, Tesco, and pretty much all the other networks have yet to announce their iPhone tariffs.

 

[Boblister]

Unethical is hyperbole. Using slave labour would be unethical, reselling phones at a higher price so that people who want it cheaper have to wait a few days is merely frustrating at the most.

I think we have to agree to differ as we both seem to have different moral standards.

 

[brianjcameron]

but you're not commited to a network, thats the point


try an o2 sim. don't like it? get an orange one instead

o2 reception sucks in my area - not starter.

Orange not offering sim only plan, as stated by Customer Services, only get micro sim through PAYG purchase or contract.

 

[johnrs]

Also worth noting that PAYG is £20 cheaper than Apple Sim-Free.

If its unlocked from Orange, thats a better deal, but no doubt they'll make you buy £20 top up.

yeah but I think you will find that they will charge you £19.99 for the sim which you will have to buy

 

[MikeWilson]

i've spoke to 4 different people at o2 head office in the past few days and theyve all said that the stores will have stock on the 24, so even if you buy your iphone from apple, as long as you've got an iphone they'll give you a micro sim

Will have stock of what? The iPhone 4?

 

[Jason-Houghton]

Like i said, i have no interest in cutting down to size. I want to port my number from one network to the next, the number is too vital to lose.

Let's wait and see, the networks will cut the accounts of sims used in iPhone 4, that are not iPhone mirco sims. Simple analytic tests will show this to them, then we can all moan about how unfair they are.

So seriously, how many times - the average user does not want to piss about cutting sims.

Oh, well sorry to hear you are an average user that cant use scissors.

 

[brianjcameron]

Either buy the iPhone 4 on Orange PAYG direct from Orange, or cut the SIM.

You don't need SIM only to get PAYG on Orange.

Also don't forget Vodafone, Three, Tesco, and pretty much all the other networks have yet to announce their iPhone tariffs.

I need sim free as i spend majority of the year travelling international with work, and prefer to use local sims for data.

Vodafone a potential option, no experience of 3, and tesco use o2 network so non starter.

 

[MikeWilson]

Oh, well sorry to hear you are an average user that cant use scissors.

Plus I expect that most retail phone shops will have SIM cutters, too.

 

[jakub]

I have been on the iPhone simplicity 20 for 6 months now and i tried to downgrade to the simplicity 15. That wouldve meant i kept my unlimited data and texts and simply cut my minutes down from 600 to 300. However the guy on the phone said that i was not able to do this as £20 was the minimum plan they offer if you have unlimited data. They consider this a £5 bolt-on, and so they would not downgrade me to Simplicity 15.

Has anyone been able to sign up to the simplicity 15 (with unlimited data) recently?

I downgraded my O2 £35 Iphone contract to Simplicity 15 with unlimited data yesterday with no hassle whatsoever. My contract ended in January.

 

[ashsmash]

It's a shame I don't have a spare £499 / £599 lying around otherwise people's arguments about PAYG make a lot of sense. However, I don't think the contracts are that bad providing you're happy to forego being locked in and possibly upgrading. Which I am and a lot of others are - hence why providers offer contracts.

 

[Pez555]

Those Orange tariffs show the White iPhone..............either they have it wrong or they know something we dont.

possible White iPhone for UK launch?

 

[JulianL]

At least Orange didn't "do an O2" and withdraw the 12 month free non-WiFi data offer that they had with the 3GS. OK, 250MB is significantly lower than the others but I think I'll be OK with it, and it is genuinely no extra cost for the first 12 months, so I think Orange have my money.

I'm paranoid about battery life so I have all push functionality off. I like some peace and quiet so I rarely check email on my phone at. My calendar and contacts will be set to manual update so they'll only contact the server when I launch one of those apps (and maybe when I close it too) which I would guess is only once or twice a day on average. Most of my use will be occasional web access to google something or access Wikipedia and then maybe follow a few links. I live in London and will be buying the downloadable A-Z so I won't even be using it for maps. I really can't see 250MB being an issue for me.

How much data do folks here really use and what do you do to use that data?

- Julian

 

[toastboy]

I agree

I personally cannot see a better deal than this at this point in time:

O2 Simplicity 12 Months @ £15/mth

300 Minutes
Unlimited Texts
Unlimited Data
Unlimited Wifi
Visual Voicemail

Cost of Phone: £599 - 3% Quidco (on price exl vat) (hopefully) = £583.71

Total Cost of Ownership over 12 months = £763.71

• For those looking at 24 or even 18 month contracts, a good portion of you will be in the same situation in June next year when the next phone is released and you are trying to get out of, or upgrade your contracts.
  
• If O2 do retract the unlimited data in October you will have grounds to end your contract and look at another sim free deal with any provider you choose.
  
• The only downside I can see is if people have issues with the coverage which is understandable. I wouldn't call O2 amazing but they are satisfactory enough in London.
  
• The other downside is the initial outlay may not be affordable for everyone, but judging by the recent Orange Payg phone price, you will not save more than £20-30 off of the Sim Free Phone price, which in my opinion is not worth it.

Does anyone have any better ideas?

Little advice please...

Iv'e been on the 12month Simplicity deal since last October, got the Quidco £100 cash back deal. So £20 per month for 800min 1600texts and free bolt-on, I picked mobile web (unlimited).

Now its nearing the end of my 12months.
Is it true you can lower your existing deal to £15 per month and still get the unlimited web?
I dont care for the mins or text as i never use anywhere near that amount.

Also When did they start visual voicemail on the simplicity deal? i thought this didn't work only on Pay Monthly tariffs? Is this something I can turn on now?

thanks in advance.