Orange UK Lands iPhone, O2 Loses Exclusivity Comments

If Vodafone would offer the iPhone in the UK, I would put my order in today.

Fantastic news. About time we had some healthy competition to drive down the currently extortionate prices that O2 have been getting away with (for too long). Be interested to see how they pitch it.

o2's 3g was down again in my area - everybody using an iphone was down to gprs speeds for the morning and afternoon.

Great news for prospective iPhone owners - now you too can have the opportunity to experience truly diabolical customer service courtesy of Orange UK.

Hurry through the T-Mobile merger please. iPhone on Flext = Awesome.

Yeah Alright!

Now watch prices & Tarrifs get cheaper

and then the iphones domination will be complete

I'll be tempted if the price is right
If I can't get unlimited texts for a set price it's really not worth it to me

I guess it's too much to hope we'll get something similar in Ireland. Our contracts are even worse and we have less competition.

Neat. My vodafone contract runs out in February and was dreading the possibility of having to go to O2 at their prices. Most of my family are on Orange so I can now go with that. Plus orange Wednesday will be useful.

Competitive pricing between O2 and Orange.....
...or pricing controlled by Apple whichever network you choose?

This will be interesting....

Orange Wednesdays...

other than that, no idea. oh, the data service from Orange sucks, so called unlimited (500mb) web surfing.

Could be good for competition but in terms of network coverage and quality the only switch I'd be prepared to make is to Vodafone. I only moved to OPoo because of the exclusive... though I'd still have picked them over Orange. The rest of you move to Orange... then maybe O2 will be alright =D

"O2: once great, now network is horribly strained and unreliable though customer service is good.
Orange: once great, then pants, now huge network improvements over last year but customer service horrible."

Yep- seems that's the situation. I have a 3GS on O2 atm, and can honestly say their customer service is great (as it is with their broadband too), but signal isn't great and 3G is a waste of time even in places of Birmingham. I was in the hospital the other day, and was embarrassed that my "super-duper iPhone" couldn't get a signal while others around me in the waiting room were happily on their phones to their friends and relatives. Most of the time I try to access the net away from home, the 3G signal quickly changes to E (EDGE).
I have to put up with this till next Xmas thanks to the contract. If things don't get better, Orange here I come.

Apple making a deal with Orange, what's the odd's it goes Pear shaped?
It all all sounds a bit fruity to me. :)

@Keith

Lmao!

So d'you think is this an omen for AT&T prisoners, who badly want to migrate to Verizon?

@Keith&&Gordon: Why did I just read that on Twitter then come here to read it again? It's like double-posting within my limited time-frame and memory banks... pffft, damned technology.

I doubt the handset price will change given the vulnerable sterling/dollar parity and end of lower VAT(15%) after December. So the realistic hopes should be:

1- Competition on offering Visual VoiceMail and tethering on Pay&Go.
2- Competition on offering one-day Bolt-on or Pay&Go style option for tethering on Pay Monthly contract rather than current one-month Bolt-on option.
3- Competition on more free minutes allowance on £30 monthly tariff.
4- Competition on introducing sub £30 monthly tariff probably £25 or £20 considering recession and 18/24 months binding contract.

This is tough, do I stick with iffy coverage with great customer service, or move to greatly superior 3G coverage with a company that's shafted me twice in the past?

What are the chances of Vodafone or 3 making an announcement soon?

@Keith and Gordon

What about people with Blackberries...

I'll get me coat!

hmm, fruity

Never mind Orange's customer service, I haven't had any need to speak to them in the year I've been with them. More importantly, doesn't anyone else have problems with Orange's coverage? I find the localised 'black holes' to be infuriating...
Possibly related to their GSM 1800 network?
I'd definitely welcome some competition to O2's ridiculous iPhone tariffs though.

"So let's hope competition and consequently choice brings a better service to iPhone users nationwide." Choice? When I can choose the carrier, worldwide, I might choose an iPhone.

@Hugo: Can you give us some details about the tariff you negotiated with Orange? Of course we'll (I'll) understand if not it's just that I wanted to know how you got around the 500mb data limit or is that enough?

With regards to the news I think it's fantastic and I for one cannot wait; and this coming from a self-confessed winmob geek/freak (or whatever moniker you choose) who's done his fair share of modding, ROM cooking and generally fiddling about. I loved/love my HTC Touch HD and was one of the first to get it, but I have to say I am more than taken by the thought of a product that supposedly 'just works' out of the box. Although I am likely to be jailbreaking from some of the things I've read.

Anyhoo, I don't want to start a flame-war - this is my first post - I'm not a fanboy (for either side) I just want to see for myself what everyone's on about.

On another note. Like you I've never had any problems with Orange in general. There have been a few niggles (which have always been sorted) but I am unashamedly a fan and have been since the beginning about 15 years or so.

Just the news I didn't want to hear. Let's hope Orange network performance doesn't go the way of O2 once all the iPeople come on board.

@Xbrumster
Used 650MB last month. Never been an issue going over 500MB.

@bobsta, jopey, Ben, and Cub:

If you want it, you got it. Vodafone are announcing today that they will be selling the iPhone 3G and 3GS early in 2010. Hand in there and you'll get your upgrade.

I should have added, you can pre-register here,

www.vodafone.co.uk/iphone

@Orinj - Speedy work! You'd better believe I'm off to Vodafone =D For their sins, their physical network has always been good for me, and that has always been my priority when it comes to mobiles.

iPhone 3Gs coming to Vodafone Ireland too (no surprise!)... www.vodafone.ie

I think Orange / Vodaphone joining is fantastic. I went over to O2 for one reason only, they were the only network supplying the IPhone.

Because of O2's pricing for the new 3GS, and don't forget your also tied in for 18/24 months there will certainly be no loyalty to them from me. So if Orange/Vodaphone have some good deals then I'm gone.

O2 have made the classic Mobile Phone network error of the past, it's hard to get new customers, it's a lot easer to keep them. eg. In the past new customers always got better deals than existing customers upgrading, until the realized they were loosing customer left right & centre.

In fact if O2 had not been silly with there 3GS pricing, they would have got an extra customer (my wife), I was planning on upgrading to the 3GS and my wife getting the 3G on Pay&Go, but looks like I'm sticking with the 3G until I see what Orange/Vodaphone come out with, I'm in no rush.. :)

Following on from my earlier comment, hopefully everyone chooses Voda over Orange! Guessing that Orange will have to enable visual voicemail for the iPhone though and wondering if it work for other handsets? Wouldn't mind having that on my Hero.