Comments on: Is the iPhone 3GS a rip-off in the UK?

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:57:17 +0000

“All you can eat” should MEAN “All you can eat” as far as data goes. As for SMS messages, everyone knows the carrier channels that send them are ALWAYS carrying data, whether or not SMS are being sent – THAT is a disgusting ripoff!.

Mobile companies want to have their cake, whilst being given another one, fifteen times the size, to eat… and they expect you to give them cake on demand, too.

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:45:32 +0000

Serves you right!. If you bow to these morons, you have no recourse nor reason to moan. Were you FORCED at gunpoint, to sign the contract?… thought not.

By: Harry

Harry — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 18:01:55 +0000

Hi There,

I managed to work this out as well. I am currently on the o2 Simplicity 19.58 tariff, and have the ‘unlimited’ (200mb really) browsing bolt on included. considering I will be at uni and at home I will use the wifi there .

Recycling my n96 for £200 I will be able to get the iphone for 338. 338 + 20*18 = £698, the total cost over an 18 month period, assuming no extra charges. This is £8 more expensive than the equivalent tariff on the 18mth contract, but you are not tied in . Hopefully using a few discount codes I will be able to save a bit, but to me, having the freedom to change is worth it. ATB, H123UK

By: DX

DX — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:33:13 +0000

My main issue that makes the iPhone a rip off in the UK is the lack of SMS/text message usage in the tariffs.

The maximum amount of texts O2 customers can use without being charged on contract is 500. I send up to 1000 texts a month which can be included on other mobile phone tariffs for £30 or less!! (£34.26 iphone). The only way around this is to buy the iPhone 3GS on PAYG instead of contract where I can pay £20 a month for unlimited texts. However the rip off here is the 32GB 3GS costs a whopping, shocking £538.30!!! I can’t afford to just spend that much on a mobile phone, no one I’ve ever known can/would either.

By: Matthew Green

Matthew Green — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:50:52 +0000

Isn’t this UK price difference due to the weakened pound? Surely O2 have to buy the iPhones in dollars and as such the price will have gone up from last year. The reason the price hasn’t changed for the existing models is probably due to O2 having a fixed price large order in at the start?

Blame the economy, not O2!

By: wes

wes — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:04:39 +0000

Look, why not just face up to it – the iPhone is a great price if you live in the U.S., but in the U.K., it’s a rip off, and that’s that! And besides, 3G is crap in the U.K. anyway! Perhaps if you live in London, maybe it’s OK, but elsewhere – no way! So what’s the point of a faster phone if the network bandwidth sucks? Don’t be a sucker – make do with OS3.0, and save yourself some money – go and live it up for a weekend instead.

By: Andrew Thompson

Andrew Thompson — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:37:40 +0000

Hi Al,

First of all, I’d like to say that this is a great article, providing a lot of helpful information to people looking to get a new iPhone 3GS on Friday.

You have stated that the iPhone with the £19.58 per month Simplicity tariff is the best way to go. I know that the first year for the unlimited web bolt on is free, and then its is a further £9.99 a month. Do you know if this is the same service that iPhone users on a contract will get? Are there any caps, etc?

Also, you have said that it would be possible to upgrade to the new handset in 2010. How does this work?

I am considering purchasing a pay & go 16GB iPhone 3GS on Friday, and am trying to work out the best option as I don’t really use more than £10 a month on my current pay & go phone. What would you suggest?

Thanks again for your help

By: Al Sutton

Al Sutton — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:22:56 +0000

@Ian

My main problem is that O2 advertise the tariff as having “unlimited UK data and WiFi”. It doesn’t advertise “enough data for an iPhone usage pattern”, and it doesn’t advertise “What we think you’ll need”, it clearly advertises *unlimited* UK data and WiFi.

If they advertised a, say, 1GB cap for the ‘phone tariff and allowed you to buy extra then fine, but to offer an unlimited service and then make you pay again for access to a limited version of that service when the service is accessed via the same device is just wrong.

By: Ian Betteridge

Ian Betteridge — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:01:57 +0000

Some nice points, but you’re comparing Apples with Oranges (ho ho) when you talk about tethering.

Even when used a lot, the iPhone doesn’t eat up anything like the amount of data that an average tethered laptop does. You can’t do heavy data-usage stuff on the iPhone like online games or file transfer. It doesn’t do much in the background, so your Twitter app, IM apps, and so on aren’t constantly polling the network.

If o2 gave iPhone owners unlimited data through tethering, the amount of data used would be massive – it would seriously hurt their margins.

Note, too, that your iPhone data usage isn’t affected by the 3Gb cap – it’s only tethered usage that counts towards it.

And while you say that you’re already getting free WiFi access, you’re only getting that on your phone – not on your laptop. And data pulled via WiFi doesn’t count towards that 3Gb cap. To put that into context, unlimited WiFi via The Cloud for your laptop would cost you £9.99 per month.

If you’re the kind of person that would use 3G access on your laptop only occasionally, this isn’t a good deal for you – get a PAYG mobile broadband stick from someone like 3 and use it when you need to.