Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
UK iPhone 4 Updates: O2 Axes Unlimited Data and Announces Upgrade Offer, T-Mobile and 3 On Board
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
FaceTime
In the Keynote, Steve Jobs said that FaceTime is WiFi only at the moment, but in discussions with the carriers to bring it to 3G next year.
What worries me is how much FaceTime can you use on 500MB per month as well as using all the other apps that use 3G?
Does anyone have any idea what LTE/4G would be like? Would we have the same data limits and spotty cover or would this new network be able to cope with the demand that 3G clearly can't handle?
In the Keynote, Steve Jobs said that FaceTime is WiFi only at the moment, but in discussions with the carriers to bring it to 3G next year.
What worries me is how much FaceTime can you use on 500MB per month as well as using all the other apps that use 3G?
Does anyone have any idea what LTE/4G would be like? Would we have the same data limits and spotty cover or would this new network be able to cope with the demand that 3G clearly can't handle?
O2 say only about 3% of customers will be affected by a 500MB/month cap, but judging by the posts on here, about 25% of people are getting through that in a matter of days!
Are people SURE they're interpreting their usage correctly?
Are people SURE they're interpreting their usage correctly?
It doesn't though, it just lets them know where the limits are. We grow up with limits on everything we do and we seem to cope fine.
If the bus company says '400 trips a day max' then it isn't going to worry anyone, in fact it will help some people to know what they can do. Most people are making 60 trips a month, so it is not a problem.
I just like things to be called what they are. last time I changed ISP I contacted them to ask what the limits were, and virtually none could answer. I went with the one that did.
No, that has a word too, that is ill defined or variable.
MR really isn't a good place to judge data usage. Most people here are very savvy when it comes to there iPhone and are doing like streaming music over Spotify and watching iPlayer. I think that it really is only 3-5% of iPhone owners that actually go over the limit. Most iPhone users just use it to browse the web and check there emails (The might go on Facebook and watch a few YouTube videos).
O2 Rip off!
I am shocked at the O2 price plans.... not only do I get a million dropped calls I getting charged more if I want to stay on a similar price plan.
I currently pay £45 for unlimited data/wifi, 1200 mins and 500 texts / 250 picture messages.
I'm now getting 900 mins, unlimited texts, 750mb, and charged 20p for each picture message! WTF!
I am not happy...... and to add to this I was due an upgrade last october that i didnt take. Bye Bye O2...
I am shocked at the O2 price plans.... not only do I get a million dropped calls I getting charged more if I want to stay on a similar price plan.
I currently pay £45 for unlimited data/wifi, 1200 mins and 500 texts / 250 picture messages.
I'm now getting 900 mins, unlimited texts, 750mb, and charged 20p for each picture message! WTF!
I am not happy...... and to add to this I was due an upgrade last october that i didnt take. Bye Bye O2...
That 3% figure refers to the percentage of all of O2's customers, including the majority of customers without smart phones.
BBC News said:
That works out to around 630,000 customers. It's clever use of figures from O2 to make it sound as if it won't affect you. I don't know exactly how many smart phone customers are on O2 but I wouldn't be surprised if it the 3% works out to nearer 20% when it's only applied to smart phone customers.
I nearly posted that on here yesterday after reading the BBC news article but I think in this case BBC have got their facts wrong. The literature on O2's press release site says 3% of smartphone customers. I can believe that because O2 compresses images to the iPhone so much as to make them look awful so even heavy internet browsers shouldn't be able to get over 500MB of use. It's video and audio streamers that will get penalised.
Yup, same boat and O2 has been ignoring my twitter questions on the matter.
Although picture messages used up 4 of your text allowance before so you had 125 picture messages then. Still, 125 picture messages would now cost £25 extra a month.
They're clearly trying to force people onto 24 month contracts. The only way they can justify this reduction in value is if the iPhone 4 is available at the same price point on 18 and 24 month contracts.
My apologies if the BBC have cocked up again.
TBH, I trust the BBC more than any other news organisation by a mile. Chances are O2 missed out the word 'smartphone' when talking to or informing the BBC and then changed it afterwards.
The Governments are partly to blame - at least in the UK. They charged so much for the 3G network licences that to recoup the money back we've been charged ridiculous prices ever since.
I didn't think it was really the governments charging so much, I thought the high prices were because it was an auction and the different carriers kept outbidding each other.
I agree completely. At the time when O2 has completely lost exclusivity, why shoot themselves in the foot by announcing this? Even if the new hardware is free on these new contracts (which let's face it is a pipe dream) than I'm basically going to be getting half the minutes and a fraction of the data for the same monthly plan, not to mention now having to pay for MMS messages. I only send around 50 texts a month so the unlimited text messages are nothing to me if I have to pay 20p a time for an MMS. Last time I'll be using that.
It's a PR disaster to start selling half the stuff for the same price because it's so obvious. Can you imagine going into Pizza Hut and getting only half a pizza for the price of a full one, just because they updated their prices? Of course you'd feel ripped off.
And for all the negative publicity around limiting the data, it's just not worth it for O2. Even if I only use 400MB a month, the freedom of having unlimited is important because it means I don't worry about it and I feel like I'm getting something for nothing without worrying about it. Now I feel like I'm getting less for the same money, which sounds cheap on their part.
And I don't buy the bandwidth argument anyway. With more and more iPhone customers, O2 should be reaping in the profits. So they should invest in bigger and better networks. Limiting everyone is backwards. And I worry about FaceTime on 3G.
I think if enough of us moan on, they will change it. They did something similar on one of the past iPhone launches.
O2 moan about their 3G network suffering but why don't they stop selling dongles which are obviously causing a strain on mobile phone users.
Personally i think O2 has gotten worse over the years with value for money.
Is everybody forgetting that not only are they shafting customers with data but i remember when i first got my 3G 16GB i could take out an 18 month contract with 600 mins / 500 txt for £35 a month. The same now gets you 300 less minutes!!
I will see no increase in service or performance as a result of this capping so i am going to try and buy the iPhone on PAYG and keep my old unlimited tarif.
This all comes down to money and O2 being greedy trying to find ways to get more money out of you.
Lastly if O2 say its only 3% of users that will be affected, why even bother?
Think when my contract runs out i will be looking elsewhere...
Personally i think O2 has gotten worse over the years with value for money.
Is everybody forgetting that not only are they shafting customers with data but i remember when i first got my 3G 16GB i could take out an 18 month contract with 600 mins / 500 txt for £35 a month. The same now gets you 300 less minutes!!
I will see no increase in service or performance as a result of this capping so i am going to try and buy the iPhone on PAYG and keep my old unlimited tarif.
This all comes down to money and O2 being greedy trying to find ways to get more money out of you.
Lastly if O2 say its only 3% of users that will be affected, why even bother?
Think when my contract runs out i will be looking elsewhere...
Because they allege that the other 97% will receive a performance increase, considering that they apparently make up for 33% of the traffic.
I don't think that they're really fair results - I doubt that the 'smartphone' users all use data on their phones, or if they do, only for small things.
What's this people are saying about the image degradation with o2? Do any other providers cap the download speed or mess up images?
working out from my current usage (not a very heavy user) i will be using slightly over 500mb a month.
from the blog post by o2 stating that data usage by customers is doubling every 4 months (this works out at the end of my 24mnt contract (if i take one out) i would be using aprox 32gb a month data?????)
also working out that a 720p video records at around 60mb per min (correct me if this is wrong, i expect it depends on the compression ratios etc), you would only be able to upload just over 8 min of video over a data connection before going over 500mb.
doesnt look like alot of data to me and in 24months time it will be a tiny amount.
poor show on o2 account
from the blog post by o2 stating that data usage by customers is doubling every 4 months (this works out at the end of my 24mnt contract (if i take one out) i would be using aprox 32gb a month data?????)
also working out that a 720p video records at around 60mb per min (correct me if this is wrong, i expect it depends on the compression ratios etc), you would only be able to upload just over 8 min of video over a data connection before going over 500mb.
doesnt look like alot of data to me and in 24months time it will be a tiny amount.
poor show on o2 account
hmm, looks like Orange are following suit and are also dropping unlimited data for both new and upgrade contracts. (apologies if someone's already said as much, didn't see it!)
http://www.reghardware.com/2010/06/11/orange_data_plans/
Steve.
http://www.reghardware.com/2010/06/11/orange_data_plans/
Steve.
If i saw someone clobbering the bandwidth just to watch a hi def film on a mobile phone i think the courts would look leniently on me if I inserted the aformentioned mobile device up their fundament - sideways.
If you suffer from poor signal - you know who to blame.
And yes - all the carriers will follow suit because if there is a run of data hogs - that will be their network kerfuffled!
Think I'm right in saying that the networks are only worried about your downloaded data, not uploaded.... for now.
If its only 3% of customers that will be affected then why change it???
Oh I know, that's because multitasking is coming - smart move O2
Oh I know, that's because multitasking is coming - smart move O2
i thought i was using a lot of 3g data with my iphone 3g, with occasional use of the netshare app to get free tethering, but i worked usage out to about 250 mb/month. that said, like the others, who knows how much it will go up if i get an iphone 4 and use facetime and upload imovie videos?
o2 3g coverage has been fine for me, and i'm kind of partial to o2 also because of their unlimited o2-to-o2 calling bolt-on, but i'm wondering if it's time to switch carriers? their telephone customer service hasn't been too bad for me either.
as a yank in the UK, i'm a bit lost about what good alternatives are. well, first i'll look at what orange, vodafone and t-mobile offer. i also heard that tesco mobile has good deals.
o2 3g coverage has been fine for me, and i'm kind of partial to o2 also because of their unlimited o2-to-o2 calling bolt-on, but i'm wondering if it's time to switch carriers? their telephone customer service hasn't been too bad for me either.
as a yank in the UK, i'm a bit lost about what good alternatives are. well, first i'll look at what orange, vodafone and t-mobile offer. i also heard that tesco mobile has good deals.
O2 and Vodafone have always done it. Previously O2 provided an alternative APN and Username to bypass the proxy server - this server lowers the resolution of images and also has the effect of slowing down data traffic. The proxy can also cause problems with sites that require no page cache such as BBC HTML5 iPlayer - it doesn't work. The iPad being the first O2 client to use the new micro SIM revealed that O2 had not provisioned the 'bypass' APN so the 3G web looks horribly compressed. Chances are the new iPhone will be subjected to the same restrictions having the same micro SIM.
APN mobile.o2.co.uk
Username bypass
Password password