What happens at the end of contract

[ducati748]

Hi,

What happens at the end of an o2 contract, say in 18 months time, do you have to take out a further o2 'itunes' contract or are you then free to use whoever you wish.

cheers

Peter

 

[teleromeo]

In case it becomes simlockfree sell it in a country that has no iPhones and buy a new one with a new contract.

 

[samh004]

I don't think anybody knows what will happen, as no one has got there yet...

 

[Phil A.]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/3B48b Safari/419.3)

O2's website clearly states you need to keep up your contract to keep using the iPhone, implying they won't unlock it. Not really bothered though 'cos I would be looking for and upgraded iPhone by then

 

[kdarling]

In the USA, AT&T has stated that the iPhone will never be unlocked.

Apparently the same is true elsewhere in the world.

Basically, Apple wants you to pay them $10-15 royalty a month for the rest of your life. Jobs must be laughing all the way to the bank.

Even if they've only sold two million phones so far, that's twenty million dollars a month they're taking in, supposedly to be used for software updates. I expect incredible software for that, not the wimp updates so far.

 

[0007776]

Does UK law require cell phones to be unlocked after the end of a contract? if it doesn't then if you don't want another contract it will be a thicker iPod touch.

 

[ert3]

Basically what will/should happen is this.

There will be no notification.

You will be billed for the final month.

Advertisements that you can now upgrade to a new phone on a new two year contract should accompany your next bill with the occasional free text.

 

[Phil A.]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/3B48b Safari/419.3)

Does UK law require cell phones to be unlocked after the end of a contract? if it doesn't then if you don't want another contract it will be a thicker iPod touch.

I think it's a really grey area: UK law requires telcos to provide you with an unlock if they've subsidised the phone but O2 could argue they haven't and the terms were clear when you signed up. Having said that there is law in the UK protecting consumers from unfair contracts that could come into play. I guess we'll have to see what happens.

 

[AnnonOnetoTen]

As I plan to leave the UK in 18 months or so I asked O2. Reply below:

"Currently an iPhone that has been purchased from us within the UK will be locked to our network and can't be unlocked. This means it isn't possible to use your iPhone with a (approved iphone) local Service Provider (in another country) after the UK contract is complete by getting it unlocked. However, you can use your iPhone as an iPod Touch after the completing your iPhone contract.
Customers who have a non iPhone contract with us can get their phones unlocked from our network after completing 12 months of their contract.
I'm sorry but currently we don't offer this service to our iPhone customers. I'm unable to tell you when we'll offer this service to our iPhone customers."

 

[samab]

I think it's a really grey area: UK law requires telcos to provide you with an unlock if they've subsidised the phone but O2 could argue they haven't and the terms were clear when you signed up. Having said that there is law in the UK protecting consumers from unfair contracts that could come into play. I guess we'll have to see what happens.

There is no such law in the UK at all.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/385625/