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O2 Offered iPhone Contract in UK

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the nice-work-if-you-can-get-it dept.

davidmcg writes "There has been speculation on who will provide the service for iPhone in the UK. Now, the answer has been provided. It seems that O2 has been offered the contract to provide telephony services in the UK for the iPhone. It seems that the iPhone should be available in the UK in time for Christmas. O2 have refused to confirm or deny these reports, so is it yet another unconfirmed iPhone rumor or is it fact? We can only wait to find out."

4 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. What about smaller countries by suv4x4 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I live in Eastern Europe and the presence of Apple here is basically nill.

    There isn't a single Apple store here. There are 3rd party distributors which sell Apple hardware/software and that's about it. With the kind of deals iPhone is after (tightly integrating the iPhone functionality with a specific provider), I see a big chunk of the world simply denied access to the iPhone (with the exception of illegally imported and hacked units I guess..)

  2. Why do they need exclusive contracts? by jaaron · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why can't Apple just sell an unlocked phone and really help change the market? Is it the visual voicemail app that needs operator support? Is Apple going to negotiate contracts in every country? What a mess.

    --
    Who said Freedom was Fair?
  3. 3G? by p0tat03 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Given the limited nature of American 3G networks, the whole iPhone and EDGE thing can be (to some extent) explained away. But considering how widespread 3G is in Europe, I'd hope Apple has a 3G-ified version of iPhone ready for them. The lack of 3G in the phone, IMHO, is one of the more critical mistakes that Apple has made, especially in introducing such an obviously media-heavy device.

  4. Oh no, not O2!!! by DrogMan · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm with O2, fortunately out of my mandatory lock-in period. I'm not interested in an iPhone, but as soon as I can get my grubby paws on a Nokia E90, I'm jumping ship - probably to T-Mobile. Why? O2's GPRS data charges are extortionate.

    You get 100KB for free a month. Last month I had to use my phone for data and I managed to suck down 14441KB. They charged me £27.97 for the privilege. That sucks. ~30 quid for 15MB. I pay less than that for my broadband connection a month and that's capped at 40GB a month.

    Mobile data in the UK is rubbish.

    /DM