Orange UK confirms iPhone date and pricing

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According to details published on the Orange UK website today, the iPhone will be available to Orange customers very soon.

Until now, many of the details regarding their provision of the iPhone have been kept very closely under wraps. Orange have simply asked customers to register their interest and wait patiently for further details.

November 10 is the magic day for wannabe Orange iPhone users but until today none knew what they may have to pay for the privilege. Now, Orange have revealed iPhone 3GS pricing details, including a free 3GS on 24-month contracts of £45 ($74) upward, or a free 3G 8GB on a £30 ($49) 24-month contract. Orange pricing seems to be no different from the pricing which O2 provides its customers. What Orange do offer however, is an option to acquire the iPhone 3GS with no initial down payment, something which O2 doesn't. In order to qualify for the no-down-payment option, customers are looking to pay a minimum of £73.40 and a 24 month contract. It's also interesting to note that there is no 12 month contract with Orange, it's either 18 months or 24. According to Zee from TheNextWeb

For customers who want the more basic 3G iPhone, Orange will offer it free to subscribers who take up a £30 two-year contract, with the more powerful 3GS available free on £45 contracts. Pay-as-you-go customers can also buy the handset (8GB) for £333 and iPhone 3GS for £539. The iPhone will also be offered with unlimited data bundles.

Orange seem to have failed on the definition of the adjective "unlimited." For O2, they do have a "fair usage policy" which prevents users from using their sim cards in devices other than their iPhone, however do not have a physical limit with regards to data. Orange however, have a fair usage policy with their tariffs set at 750MB/month - a great deal more restrictive than users with the O2 iPhone are likely to encounter.

According to Orange, stores will open at 7am on November 10th for those interested in picking up an iPhone 3G or 3GS; the handset will also be available through Orange HMV concessions, Apple Retail Stores, Carphone Warehouse, Phones4U and other "selected high street partners".

In September, both Orange and Vodafone announced that they would be offering the iPhone to their customers. Vodafone have said the phone would be available on its network from 2010 but has yet to confirm pricing details.

(7 replies) #1 mammix2 on 02 Nov 2009 - 13:09

18 - 24 month contract, the mobile operators are taking the pi**
Your better off buying an iphone 3GS on PAYG for as it would probably work out cheaper in the long run!

#1.1 +stevember on 02 Nov 2009 - 13:20

mammix2 said,

you have to remember what comes with these contracts, free phone calls, free bandwidth, free text messaging.

#1.2 mammix2 on 02 Nov 2009 - 13:35

stevember said,

Dude, nothing is ever "free", especially where the mobile operators are involved
Although air is free (at the moment!)

#1.3 PaulCabby on 02 Nov 2009 - 13:39

I think with O2, you can get free internet with a PAYG sim card for a year (then after that is Â£10 per month). 500 mins if you top up between Â£10 - Â£14 (with unlimited landline/some O2 numbers) but 10p per text for Â£15 (then after a year, its Â£25 for the Internet/500 mins). Though I guess you can mix and match some bolt-ons.

Makes me hate having the iPhone 3GS on contract

#1.4 mmck on 02 Nov 2009 - 15:44

PaulCabby said,

Makes me hate having the iPhone 3GS on contract

They are over priced beyond belief.

iPhone 3GS 32gb / 24mo O2 or orange Â£35/mo:
600min / 500txt / unlimited data/wifi /
(... and the phone costs you Â£175! so total = Â£1015

Nokia N97 32gb / 24mo Vodafone Â£35/mo (this is listed price):
900min (+unlimited landline) / unlimited txt / unlimited mobile internet
(... free phone) = Â£840

BUT ^ if you ring up and are happy to drop to 600min you can get for Â£30/mo (Â£720) and even less if a long term customer / do some bargaining (which good luck attempting on the iPhone!). I got one several months ago and paying Â£24.?? (less than Â£600) for a 600 min contract so really the true comparison is Â£600 or Â£1015. Ouch!

#1.5 Shadrack on 02 Nov 2009 - 19:14

These contracts are different in the US. For AT&T (and most of the major providers that I know of), the 2y contract is tied directly to the phone price no matter what plan you go with. For 2y contract you get the 3GS for $299. W/o 2y contract you get the 3GS for something like $700. The service costs for those 2y are the same regardless of if you are on contract or not on contract. For AT&T it makes sense to go with the 2y contract as you will save about ~$400.

#1.6 Frank Fontaine on 02 Nov 2009 - 21:26

I get all that on my G1 as well. Â£30 a month for 18 months, no downpayment on the handset and a reasonable amount of minutes and texts.

I was hoping for something different but it is essentially the same ripoff you get from o2

#1.7 /- Razorfold on 03 Nov 2009 - 05:12

Shadrack said,

At first you could get the same iphone plan for cheaper with AT&T (buy the iphone at full cost and then mix and match), or you could get the gophone unlimited data for like 20usdIn the long run you would save a good amount of money, but at&t eventually made the gophone one 100mb only and made the plan costs match.

Hmm after looking into it:

Regular: $30 for unlimited messaging + data, and $40 for 450mins talktime = $70
Iphone: $20 for unlimited messaging, $30 for unlimited data, $40 for 450mins talktime = $90

So yeh you still are paying extra

Last edited by /- Razorfold on 03 Nov 2009 - 05:22

(2 replies) #2 J400uk on 02 Nov 2009 - 13:21

I hate those ridiculous long contracts, would never buy a phone like that.

#2.1 mmck on 02 Nov 2009 - 15:30

There is little point changing you phone every 12 months or less these days -the rate of phone development seems to have dropped significantly in the last few years. I remember before you got a phone and in a few months it seemed very outdated. Now you can have a phone a year and it can do as much as the new phones still coming out... I mean take the iPhone theyve hardly changed a thing since it came out, maybe adding copy and paste etc. but hardly anything significant.

#2.2 Shadrack on 02 Nov 2009 - 19:17

J400uk said,

Are you constantly changing providers? Do you have a hard time paying your phone bill and have to drop your service for months at a time?

IDK, if you have the income to support an iPhone plus service fees today, then you better be able to support those service fees for the next 24 months. So I guess I don't understand what the big deal of a 2y contract is.

If you can't afford that, don't buy a cell phone and service plan. It is very simple, and doesn't have to be overly-complicated.

(3 replies) #3 Daedalus on 02 Nov 2009 - 13:35

Hmm, I only had a quick look, but the tariffs seem to be almost exactly the same as the ones from O2.

#3.1 Tom W on 02 Nov 2009 - 13:37

Yeah indeed, just goes to show how much Apple influences the pricing.

#3.2 Jambon on 02 Nov 2009 - 13:51

Almost identical. Not the 'price war' that some may have expected - however the article says: Orange pricing seems to be very different from the pricing which O2 provides its customers.

#3.3 Zoom7000 on 02 Nov 2009 - 19:09

Yeah, those prices are identical to what O2 have been offering for ages. Not to forget the VAT increase at the end of the year will round those contract prices off to Â£35 and Â£45/month.

What's the betting Vodafone is also exactly the same! :p

#4 forcer on 02 Nov 2009 - 13:41

Oh wow, it's nice to see the competitive plans we all hoped for (sarcasm)

#5 BGM on 02 Nov 2009 - 13:49

we all knew they were going to be expensive, the handsets are VERY expensive, and this has to be made up somewhere

£45 over 24 months is over £2k, and you still don't get unlimited data.. this is an absolute rip :/

#6 Sawyer12 on 02 Nov 2009 - 15:00

Wow thats horrendously expensive.

(3 replies) #7 +Shirosaki on 02 Nov 2009 - 15:08

So lets recap. with O2, you theoretically do get unlimited data, but on Orange, their idea of unlimited is 750MB.

The iPhone could easily do that in a day if you let it, what the hell are they thinking?

I'm just hoping that 3 get on board soon

#7.1 mmck on 02 Nov 2009 - 15:49

What the hell are you doing on your handsets??? 750MB in a day! Most people don't use that on a PC in a day. 750 works out at 25 a day - which is more than enough for 99% of the population, are you torrenting or streaming youtube all day long on your phone or something? Even downloading music gives you a few tracks per day on average which again most people wont go near!

#7.2 Zoom7000 on 02 Nov 2009 - 19:10

750Mb is more than O2! Much more! O2's Fair Usage Policy is 250Mb per month!

#7.3 +Shirosaki on 03 Nov 2009 - 17:18

Zoom7000 said,

Not if your on the iPhone tarriff, thats for any other phone.

And you could easily blow 750mb on things like youtube, spotify, installing apps, facebook yada yada yada

(3 replies) #8 Exosphere on 02 Nov 2009 - 15:25

I really do laugh at all these iPhone owners tied into crazy 18 & 24 month "deals" which are VERY expensive.
Open your eyes, shop around, if you don't really need an iPhone, get something better like the HTC Hero/G2

I pay half of what is normally advertised, haggle & shop around, this new deal from T-Mobile is closer to what I have:

FREE HTC Hero (Google G2)
· 1,000 minutes per month (Any UK Network, Europe, USA & Canada)
· UNLIMITED UK landline calls (01, 02, 03 numbers – anytime, no limits!

· UNLIMITED text messages
· UNLIMITED Internet & E-mail
· ALL calls from UK to Europe USA and Canada (zones 1, 2 and 3) included in inclusive minutes

£20+VAT for 24 months

#8.1 mmck on 02 Nov 2009 - 15:51

Any other phone on the market is cheaper with better use plans - even higher spec phones are noticeably cheaper than the iPhone. Which means they are hugely marked up on profits for apple - or you are paying for the operating system.

#8.2 Zoom7000 on 02 Nov 2009 - 19:11

Where did you see that deal?

#8.3 Strike X on 03 Nov 2009 - 17:04

Have you got a link for this deal???? That is pretty good deal.

#9 peacemf on 02 Nov 2009 - 15:31

lol
forget this, no different from the o2 price band!

might as well doing something self hating!................i'm getting the palm pre!

#10 TonyLock on 02 Nov 2009 - 16:22

It's too expensive.

#11 nevann on 02 Nov 2009 - 16:32

What Orange do offer however, is an option to acquire the iPhone 3GS with no initial down payment, something which O2 doesn't

Yes it does, £73 - 18 month or £45 - 24 month. Still shocking, but it does nonetheless.
http://shop.o2.co.uk/update/paymonth.html

#12 SuperHans on 02 Nov 2009 - 17:32

Orange = Garbage.

#13 joemailey on 02 Nov 2009 - 17:33

Bring on the Vodafone price war.

Orange don't have the option of a price war. Were as someone as big as Vodafone should have the chance to push out some cheaper/better decent pricing hopefully.

(1 reply) #14 SHADOW-XIII on 02 Nov 2009 - 18:35

Fair usage of 750mb/month !?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! WTF is that limit?
barely enough for plain text e-mail browsing, which is history now

#14.1 /- Razorfold on 03 Nov 2009 - 05:31

SHADOW-XIII said,

You must have some massive plain text emails lol...yeh it is quite low though

#15 §am on 02 Nov 2009 - 20:34

No competitive prices at all!!!
Looks more like price fixing to an extent!

18-24mo contracts work out a bomb, its cheaper to go on PAYG at the moment.

Just got the 8GB 3G for £342, plus a 12mo SIM only contract (800min, 1600texts, unlimited web access) for £20/mo = £582 (on O2) (And for those that use cashback sites, this deal worked out even cheaper)
Cheapest on O2 for the phone on contract is £625 (18mo contract, 75min, 125texts)
And the SIM only works fine in PAYG iPhone too :-)

#16 vanx on 02 Nov 2009 - 21:04

Orange is being really crappy about upgrading their current customers. I renewed my contract (18 months) with a Blackberry a little over a week before their announcement at the end of September. The deal that they gave me was only an extra 3 pounds a month on top of what I was already paying. So, if I could then get a new handset after 15 months (Orange allow up to 3 months before end of contract) then they'd be making about 45 pounds on top of what I'd have paid them anyway. There's just no way that they'd recoup the cost of a Blackberry this way. I proposed to them that I'd be willing to go to a higher tariff so they could recoup the cost of iPhone 3GS, but I was told that they don't want to make more money from me (they didn't actually say that, but they did say that that's how they run their business).

So much for me being with Orange for the past 5 years...

#17 emzino on 02 Nov 2009 - 22:02

The only incentive I can see when it comes to choosing Orange over O2 is the "supposedly" better 3G+ network that they have.

I'll be looking closely at Oranges Forums once the iPhone has launched to see what praise or complaints it recieves.

#18 Minimoose on 02 Nov 2009 - 22:25

Pay-as-you-go customers can also buy the handset (8GB) for £333 and iPhone 3GS for £539.

lol.

#19 M_Lyons10 on 02 Nov 2009 - 23:33

I'm glad to see that the exclusivity of the iPhone is ending overseas. I hope that that happens in the US as well (Mostly because I hate AT&T... LOL)... Although it seems like the deal is better over there, as many of the iPhones work out to be free, and I don't believe AT&T offers anything like that here (Though I could be wrong).

#20 Strike X on 03 Nov 2009 - 17:10

This Orange offer is insult to Deaf community.

Most Deaf people in the UK have unlimited package for free txting only..

£122.34 for unlimited txting for Iphone? What a rip off!

#21 +Echilon on 04 Nov 2009 - 19:23

I waited for Orange's announcement but bought a 3GS on O2 yesterday. I need unlimited data... :/

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