Not really. It has always been unlimited until now. Now it's 500mb pm on the same £35 tarriff. The fair usage was around that anyway. I have used 900mb in 11months on my 3gs. So it's no big deal. I am more upset about them cutting my minutes from 500 to 300. Great now I get unlimited texts! I don't need them, I need minutes. Give us a choice!
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UK iPhone 4 Updates: O2 Axes Unlimited Data and Announces Upgrade Offer, T-Mobile and 3 On Board
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Not really. It has always been unlimited until now. Now it's 500mb pm on the same £35 tarriff. The fair usage was around that anyway. I have used 900mb in 11months on my 3gs. So it's no big deal. I am more upset about them cutting my minutes from 500 to 300. Great now I get unlimited texts! I don't need them, I need minutes. Give us a choice!
Thanks, that's still £10/month less and I'll be in no danger of going over on this new cheaper tariff - so it gets my approval
However, 20p per MMS!? Crazy! Fortunately, I only send like 3 a month.
Very much so.
And you'll have to pay 20p per MMS too.
How's that for 21st Century empowerment eh?
Yes - they are not changing tariffs for existing customers, only for those that sign up as new users or new contract. Your existing contract remains in force until the end date.
Well that's a load of crap.
I was planning on upgrading to iPhone 4 in august. I will still be upgrading, but to a different phone service.
Can anyone suggest one?
Yeah. I will. But the early upgrade offer is drawing me in
People seem to have forgotten about tesco mobile. They offer unlimitted data and good amount of minutes and texts for £35pm but on a 12month contract. Great deal
I bet their pre-iPhone services are a liability as the iPhone and other smart phones have marginalsed them to being a bit-pipe. The old handsets are now giving way to smarter ones (even iPhone has low cost now!).
Only thing networks have are the data and voice networks along with the store-and-forward systems in the network itself.
As the o2 rep understands it, as long as i dont end my contract after the initial minimum contract length I will still keep the conditions of the contract when I bought it - it wont revert to the current tarrif. He said they will just send me a new micro sim
I'd wait until all the other networks have shown their cards before making a decision. I think O2 might just have a change of heart - if enough people vote with their feet!
In central London certainly
I was shocked that I'd only used 1.5GB over a YEAR. But, I have Wifi at home, and Wifi at work. My friends houses (and most pubs) all have it too, and I commute by underground train, so couldn't use 3G even if I wanted to. I'm the E-Commerce manager at my company, so I'm no stranger to the web, but I thought I'd've used more. The data cap was predictable, but I hope they make tethering free as a compromise.
But 20p an MMS cannot be justified. Unlimited texts as a compromise! I'm not 14. I'm a professional with elderly relatives who have no internet and like to receive pictures. Not pleased.
I was shocked that I'd only used 1.5GB over a YEAR. But, I have Wifi at home, and Wifi at work. My friends houses (and most pubs) all have it too, and I commute by underground train, so couldn't use 3G even if I wanted to. I'm the E-Commerce manager at my company, so I'm no stranger to the web, but I thought I'd've used more. The data cap was predictable, but I hope they make tethering free as a compromise.
But 20p an MMS cannot be justified. Unlimited texts as a compromise! I'm not 14. I'm a professional with elderly relatives who have no internet and like to receive pictures. Not pleased.
Tesco mobile. £35pm unlimited data 12 month contract.
Phone costs 100 more but you save 6months rental and get a better tarrif. Oh and it uses the 02 network.
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/cheap-iphone
Well T-Mobile and Orange haven't announced their iPhone 4 plans yet, but at least their capped data plans throttle your bandwidth rather than charge you a fiver for going over (or per MB).
T-Mobile does have an unlimited data plan for £35, but whether that will apply to iPhone 4 is anyone's guess.
Alternatives are 3's WIMI (£15 3G modem with 5GB/month data, on monthly rolling contract) or buying a PAYG iPhone 4 and using your existing contract with it... tho I'm sure O2 will try and stamp that sort of thing out (there's some smallprint under their tariff chart alluding to unlimited data being a promotion that ends 1st October...no mention of if that's existing contracts, or a seperate promotion that they've "forgotten" to detail).
At first I was livid about these new tariffs (as my post in another thread testifies), but now that I've calmed down at this 'backwards step', I think I am in fact going to upgrade to iPhone 4 on O2 (I specifically skipped the 3GS so I could get the true upgrade), and lose my unlimited data.
For me it was more about the psychological impact of suddenly getting less for my money, the idea of having a limit in general, and having to worry about huge fees if I go over on occasion (my average use is about 400mb). I feel like that's the case for quite a lot of people. And you probably use less data than you think. And if 3% of people really account for 36% of the data traffic, we probably will see a marked improvement on the speeds we're getting at the moment.
If it's indeed only a £5 fee for up to an extra 500mb if you go over your limit (I can't really figure out if you need to get that as a bolt-on or if it's also an automatic charge as the Financial Times was saying), then that's not really a huge deal for me.
Yes O2 are greedy b*stards, who should be doing more to improve their infrastructure, and who should be offering 1gb as the base plan for that money (which would surely also cut out the extremely heavy users), but it's not so bad. I also think that the deals on the new iPhone across all networks are going to be very similar. It's an industry shift, and there are already data caps on several networks.
This whole thing isn't as big a deal as first appears.
(or maybe I just want an iPhone 4 and am trying to convince myself... )
For me it was more about the psychological impact of suddenly getting less for my money, the idea of having a limit in general, and having to worry about huge fees if I go over on occasion (my average use is about 400mb). I feel like that's the case for quite a lot of people. And you probably use less data than you think. And if 3% of people really account for 36% of the data traffic, we probably will see a marked improvement on the speeds we're getting at the moment.
If it's indeed only a £5 fee for up to an extra 500mb if you go over your limit (I can't really figure out if you need to get that as a bolt-on or if it's also an automatic charge as the Financial Times was saying), then that's not really a huge deal for me.
Yes O2 are greedy b*stards, who should be doing more to improve their infrastructure, and who should be offering 1gb as the base plan for that money (which would surely also cut out the extremely heavy users), but it's not so bad. I also think that the deals on the new iPhone across all networks are going to be very similar. It's an industry shift, and there are already data caps on several networks.
This whole thing isn't as big a deal as first appears.
(or maybe I just want an iPhone 4 and am trying to convince myself...
)I'm thinking of jumping ship from O2 to Orange, As Orange have more benefits for a similar tariff, such as Orange Wednesdays etc.
On Orange are mms inclusive of your free text allowance?
If thats a yes and their tariffs stay the same, I definitely move over.
On Orange are mms inclusive of your free text allowance?
If thats a yes and their tariffs stay the same, I definitely move over.
At first I was livid about these new tariffs (as my post in another thread testifies), but now that I've calmed down at this 'backwards step', I think I am in fact going to upgrade to iPhone 4 on O2 (I specifically skipped the 3GS so I could get the true upgrade), and lose my unlimited data.
For me it was more about the psychological impact of suddenly getting less for my money, the idea of having a limit in general, and having to worry about huge fees if I go over on occasion (my average use is about 400mb). I feel like that's the case for quite a lot of people. And you probably use less data than you think. And if 3% of people really account for 36% of the data traffic, we probably will see a marked improvement on the speeds we're getting at the moment.
If it's indeed only a £5 fee for up to an extra 500mb if you go over your limit (I can't really figure out if you need to get that as a bolt-on or if it's also an automatic charge as the Financial Times was saying), then that's not really a huge deal for me.
Yes O2 are greedy b*stards, who should be doing more to improve their infrastructure, and who should be offering 1gb as the base plan for that money (which would surely also cut out the extremely heavy users), but it's not so bad. I also think that the deals on the new iPhone across all networks are going to be very similar. It's an industry shift, and there are already data caps on several networks.
This whole thing isn't as big a deal as first appears.
(or maybe I just want an iPhone 4 and am trying to convince myself...
First off, well done on staying level headed!
But... they are giving less for more, as the number of minutes attributed to tariffs has lowered dramatically too, in place of more texts.
What you might want to bear in mind is that iPhone 4's increased screen resolution means that you're probably going to use more bandwidth than you do at the moment. I'm using my iPhone 3GS as a tether at the moment, so haven't been using my phone at all like I usually do, but it's still clocked up 197MB in received data since Monday (950MB in tethered data---uh oh).
That extra fiver's not much to many of us really, but it irks the absolute hell out of me that £5xMillions of users is a lot of money in O2's pocket, which is costing them less to run. O2 may be fools, but they know how big iPhone 4 is going to be, and their money's on the ball. The one full of cash...
Am I the only one that thinks all these phone carriers are gouging everyone? I mean seriously, its not just in the US, you guys look to be getting hosed too. The question I have is how in this day and age, when everything can be done digitally, can they charge you that much for phone service. Sheesh. Same goes with texting... lets see, hmm... thats like a whole kb of data if you're lucky, per text. Man, what a network stresser.
I realize the need to charge per MB or what not, but why aren't we only paying for Internet data? As far as I'm concerned you can send the data over that anyways, so what's the difference between my call, a text message, or me checking emails? If they just cut out this phone gouging crap and just charged us for data, I think people would be more inclined to buy. But hey, its okay, you still can't get unlimited data on your phone in 2010, even though you could with ridiculously slow dial-up speeds back in the day. GJ world networks (barring a few) for giving us all the middle finger.
/rant
I realize the need to charge per MB or what not, but why aren't we only paying for Internet data? As far as I'm concerned you can send the data over that anyways, so what's the difference between my call, a text message, or me checking emails? If they just cut out this phone gouging crap and just charged us for data, I think people would be more inclined to buy. But hey, its okay, you still can't get unlimited data on your phone in 2010, even though you could with ridiculously slow dial-up speeds back in the day. GJ world networks (barring a few) for giving us all the middle finger.
/rant
Wonder if 02 will change the agreement between themselves and Tesco as it would seem ridiculous to punish 02 users while letting Tesco users have a better deal over the exact same network.
How do you figure this exactly? A 480p streaming video is still 480p, regardless of the upscale capability of the device it's being viewed on. Likewise webpage rendering to fit the screen resolution is done on the device by the browser; it has nothing to do with bandwidth.
I can't see o2 keeping up that deal with tescos, it wouldn't make sense. I will
be suprised if we don't see tescos changing their tariffs.
If only 3% of the O2 customer base are responsible for the degradation of service - then why aren't they subject to the fair use policy - maybe O2 could be a little more proactive. This seems like a knee jerk reaction - when there should be more effective enforcement of those who abuse the system. I finished my 18 month contract in Jan 2010 - looking to get the iPhone 4 on release. Now I find that I'll be charged extra for MMS, and likely as a moderate user of 3G for home use, and business emails / attachments, I'm going to be constantly paranoid and having to think before I use a specific app.
This just kills the fun of the iPhone. Having lived in Australia where ISP bandwidth caps and phone charges are metered - it was refreshing to come back to the UK. Now this draconian tariff scheme has been employed here - with all reasoning simply not adding up. Anyone else think that Skype over 3G had nothing to do with this? I never did understand why as an iPhone user I was penalised. On another phone with O2 I could make Skype 3G calls, and tether without a bolt on - years ago!
I suspect I'll just have to remember to turn on wireless every time I walk into the house/office, and watch the battery drain.
There was a huge positive buzz with the release of the iPhone 4. Then O2 announced it's tariffs. Way to kill a party!
This just kills the fun of the iPhone. Having lived in Australia where ISP bandwidth caps and phone charges are metered - it was refreshing to come back to the UK. Now this draconian tariff scheme has been employed here - with all reasoning simply not adding up. Anyone else think that Skype over 3G had nothing to do with this? I never did understand why as an iPhone user I was penalised. On another phone with O2 I could make Skype 3G calls, and tether without a bolt on - years ago!
I suspect I'll just have to remember to turn on wireless every time I walk into the house/office, and watch the battery drain.
There was a huge positive buzz with the release of the iPhone 4. Then O2 announced it's tariffs. Way to kill a party!
Three have the best data coverage of all the networks. I was with O2 in Belfast and had poor reception. It used to cut out on my way into the centre of town and my bus takes a main road ffs. I switched to 3 and I get great coverage.
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radiocomms/...and/cellular/3g/maps/3gmaps/coverage_maps.pdf
This has appeared today on a UK mobile trade website, and looks as though Orange are going to follow o2's route
http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/Mobile_Exec/Orange_poised_to_scrap_unlimited_data.aspx
It doesnt bother me that they are reducing the monthly bandwith usage, as i understand its to make it fairer to everyone, its a neccessary evil, unfortunatley, as people do sit there streaming tv all day every ruining the mobile data experience for everyone else..
http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/Mobile_Exec/Orange_poised_to_scrap_unlimited_data.aspx
It doesnt bother me that they are reducing the monthly bandwith usage, as i understand its to make it fairer to everyone, its a neccessary evil, unfortunatley, as people do sit there streaming tv all day every ruining the mobile data experience for everyone else..
First off, well done on staying level headed!
But... they are giving less for more, as the number of minutes attributed to tariffs has lowered dramatically too, in place of more texts.
What you might want to bear in mind is that iPhone 4's increased screen resolution means that you're probably going to use more bandwidth than you do at the moment. I'm using my iPhone 3GS as a tether at the moment, so haven't been using my phone at all like I usually do, but it's still clocked up 197MB in received data since Monday (950MB in tethered data---uh oh).
That extra fiver's not much to many of us really, but it irks the absolute hell out of me that £5xMillions of users is a lot of money in O2's pocket, which is costing them less to run. O2 may be fools, but they know how big iPhone 4 is going to be, and their money's on the ball. The one full of cash...
I completely agree with that last part. It's more about the principle of the thing than the 5 quid. It's f**cking annoying - and given it's an industry shift, the networks are basically saying 'accept these new terms or get lost'. I would hope that they would pour some of those profits into improving the whole network, but that's probably unlikely given that this move will also lessen the burden on their towers, and help them gloss over their poor infrastructure.
re the free minutes per month, isn't it the same price as long as you sign up to a longer contract? I guess I don't really mind about that as I've been happy to wait 2 years to upgrade (which doesn't take away from the fact that it's a bitch move...as is suddenly charging us for MMS).
Will the higher resolution really mean more bandwidth use in browsing websites/using email?