Nooo! how could you apple! Why o2, why not T-Mobile or Vodafone who actually know what a data plan is - in my experience the best data plans come from T-Mobile and Vodafone not o2. And the o2 contracts are a bit strange.
Joeri Van Holder
· 2 years ago
What about Belgium?? No news there?
Nick
· 2 years ago
who gives a crap about belgium
Sam
· 2 years ago
Fantastic, O2 is a great network and if Apple have anything to do with it they will be sure to set up a great data plan too!
James
· 2 years ago
Excellent.. although im due an upgrade from o2 next month. I think i may have to hold off for 6 months or switch to PaYG!
Sean
· 2 years ago
Lets hope it supports 3G, but I have a feeling it wont and they re price there bandwidth packages, so they offer unlimited like T-Mobby
I'll still 100% be getting one :)
Can't wait......
Pete Cashmore
· 2 years ago
Rumor is, no 3G.
Edward Thomas
· 2 years ago
O2 is an odd choice for this - their data offering isn't hot. They still haven't offered a flat rate deal on data, largely because their network couldn't cope.
Voda has the strongest network and offering, it's also got a much more premium offering which Apple would surely find attractive.
T-Mobile has the longest data background - but smallest existing customer base.
However O2 has a few tricks up it's sleeve...
1 - Increased entertainment credentials (huge investment already with sponsorship of The O2, etc).
2 - Carphone Warehouse tie-ins. Carphone and O2 go way back and are so closely linked as businesses. If I remember rightly carphone sells more handsets than anyone else. There are rumors already about them and Apple. Carphone wouldn't take the deal unless they could put customers on their preferred network (and enjoy all the kickbacks).
3- Vodafone recently fired Carphone as a reseller...so that'd be them out of the picture if Carphone is the distributor (with their biggest network of stores).
chris dowling
· 2 years ago
I'm surprised it wasnt orange, they are generally the first to get the high end phones. Or they were last time I checked. o2 are ok, but I would've preferred Orange. Why does it need to be exclusive anyway?
William
· 2 years ago
Because o2 will pay Apple :)
mechelle
· 2 years ago
what ever
Nate Lanxon
· 2 years ago
As an Orange customer of 6 years, I'd like the iPhone to come on Orange. Though in all honest, I don't care what network it's on as long as it's not Vodafone. They're not a nice service in the UK.
O2 makes sense, but T-Mobile wouldn't have surprised me.
Nate
Patrick
· 2 years ago
What about Ireland?
Andy Cheeseman
· 2 years ago
O2 is a fantastic network. I would recommend it. The amount of free stuff you get is insane!
Jason
· 2 years ago
gotto be Orange they have the best network coverage ,i have tried them all over the years and Orange lead the way when it comes to reliability !
Geoffrey McCaleb
· 2 years ago
This is a surprise. O2, next to Orange and Vodafone, have one of the worst data packages out there. They say they offer "unlimited" data, but that unlimited is actually just 75 meg.
TMobile and 3 actually offer significant allowances for roughly the same cost.
xman
· 2 years ago
Heaven forfend that anything might go wrong with your phone if they chose O2. I have never experienced worse customer service than I have with O2. I mean indescribably incompetent, insulting and just awful, awful, awful.
Robert Sharl
· 2 years ago
I'm very surprised by this too. O2's data plans have always sucked IMO, and the obsession with entertainment (second only to Three) is bound to conflict with Apple's own interests sooner rather than later. I really don't want my network to be in the entertainment business, but we don't have much choice on that front.
Personally I'm also disappointed. I'm a long-time T-Mobile user and get a great deal on their wifi hotspots and wireless data. Until O2 can provide a proper wifi network on a par with BT or T-Mobile, this is a deal breaker for me. The lack of good and easily accessed wifi means using the regular phone data network much more, and that's just going to be too slow. At the moment I use my 3G network a lot for email on the phone and web via my MacBook when there's no wifi. So, for me, no iPhone. Poo.
Nicola
· 2 years ago
Good! I'm an O2 customer, and always have been, so I guess this is good news for me! If only I could actually afford one. They recently lost the battle to Vodafone to be the network for MySpace, but with Facebook in full swing now that doesn't seem to matter so much anymore.
With 'the 02' just launching, and apparently it's a wicked venue, they're doing pretty well at the mo...
Azzam
· 2 years ago
As far as data is concerned t-mobile is the most cost effective.
Ryan Bestford
· 2 years ago
I have no strong views on the matter and, personally, feel the iphone is over hyped. I still use my gloriously indestructible Nokia 3410.
I've had no negative nor positive experiences with O2. T-Mobile would be preferable, in case I ever decided I wanted one.
Ultimately, anybody but the awful Vodafone suits me fine.
Red Leader
· 2 years ago
O2 isn't brilliant. I would have preferred Apple went with Orange - I mean the "fruit" connection alone would have made a great advertising campaign!
I've been with Orange forever and their coverage across the UK has never failed me. I can't say the same for my O2 housemate!
Edd
· 2 years ago
I love the idea of the advertising campaign; I'm actually quite gutted Orange never got the deal now.
azzam
· 2 years ago
A contact on the geek up mailing lists spoke to a reliable source who works for T-Mobile, Germany and has worked for the last 7 years that they will definately be taking the contract for Germany for the iphone. No reason for him to make that up
Rob Mansfield
· 2 years ago
am surprised, given that T-Mobile is in line in Germany, that they didn't get it in the UK, as well. I'm disappointed, because I think that Orange or T-Mobile would have been far better
anita
· 2 years ago
Not Vodafone, anything but Vodafone - after what Orange and Voda did to the N95 they really don't deserve to ever be given another shot at selling a hot phone. Both are slippery, nasty operators.
T-Mobile are good with data so they deserve it but their coverage isn't so hot so I reckon O2 should launch it combined with a hot new data tariff.
Robin Wauters
· 2 years ago
In Belgium, it will most likely be Proximus, although they won't confirm
Oren
· 2 years ago
What about Israel???
Will Neale
· 2 years ago
IMHO O2 has won because it's not a 3G phone and they have the weakest 3G network in the UK - the other networks are reluctant to commit massive spend promoting a phone which does not 'sweat' their massive 3G investment.
BeyondWWW ..
· 2 years ago
O2 = Free stuffs -> Free iPhone.
May be the calculation is not correct but O2 getting the contract naaaaaaaaaaaaa......
Matt
· 2 years ago
O2's data plans are a bit strange, but I imagine that they will have a better plan for iPhone users - O2 are the sort of company who would take that into consideration.
Besides that, I use O2 and my handset is due for renewal just after xmas, so hopefully I'll get one ;)
EAS
· 2 years ago
Does anyone know the real scoop about O2's 3G coverage in the UK, and T-mobile's coverage within Germany? It's hard to get the real scoop, because a lot of Europeans seem to like to use 3G to take digs at the US mobile industry, and a lot of American's like to use poor 3G as a reason to bash AT&T.
From what I've been able to tell though, both carriers may actually have extensive EDGE installations. This may mean that the first European iPhone's will, in fact, be EDGE, which would also help explain why the current iPhone sold in the US is a quadband phone.
I have been watching this for the past few days. Until yesterday, everyone thought Vodafone was a lock, perhaps for most/all of Europe. However, the earlier rumor/news about T-mobile getting the contract for Germany along with this latest rumor/news about O2 suggests Vodafone, whose biggest strength was the breadth of their subscriber base across Europe.
It also suggests that Apple's European carrier strategy is similar to their US carrier strategy of partnering with someone they can exert more leverage over, which gives them more strength in negotiations to extract things like a share of services revenue. Given Vodafone's reach, they might have thought they had more leverage with Apple than they apparently did.
More updates and analysis about this on my blog.
Farhad
· 2 years ago
O2 contacts are completely bull sh*t! I recommend T-Mobile to Apple!
James
· 2 years ago
I see what everyone is saying about the data plan but I'm thinking they will maybe realse special iphone plans like in the U.S.!!! With Unlimited data!!! If they do i'm so frickin happy cause I'm already with O2, but if O2 don't get iphone I'll drop them like an anchor! Cause I'm in they U.S. at the moment and went to the apple store to see it and I LOVE it! But I already did before I got here! I just hope it's not to expensive (But expensive enough to keep chav's away)!
james p
· 2 years ago
will o2 in ireland get it as well???
Nicole
· 2 years ago
I have been with o2 for years and its a pretty good network. I would suggest bringing the iphone out in pay as you go though!!
All Comments
Why o2, why not T-Mobile or Vodafone who actually know what a data plan is - in my experience the best data plans come from T-Mobile and Vodafone not o2.
And the o2 contracts are a bit strange.
I'll still 100% be getting one :)
Can't wait......
Voda has the strongest network and offering, it's also got a much more premium offering which Apple would surely find attractive.
T-Mobile has the longest data background - but smallest existing customer base.
However O2 has a few tricks up it's sleeve...
1 - Increased entertainment credentials (huge investment already with sponsorship of The O2, etc).
2 - Carphone Warehouse tie-ins. Carphone and O2 go way back and are so closely linked as businesses. If I remember rightly carphone sells more handsets than anyone else. There are rumors already about them and Apple. Carphone wouldn't take the deal unless they could put customers on their preferred network (and enjoy all the kickbacks).
3- Vodafone recently fired Carphone as a reseller...so that'd be them out of the picture if Carphone is the distributor (with their biggest network of stores).
O2 makes sense, but T-Mobile wouldn't have surprised me.
Nate
TMobile and 3 actually offer significant allowances for roughly the same cost.
Personally I'm also disappointed. I'm a long-time T-Mobile user and get a great deal on their wifi hotspots and wireless data. Until O2 can provide a proper wifi network on a par with BT or T-Mobile, this is a deal breaker for me. The lack of good and easily accessed wifi means using the regular phone data network much more, and that's just going to be too slow. At the moment I use my 3G network a lot for email on the phone and web via my MacBook when there's no wifi. So, for me, no iPhone. Poo.
With 'the 02' just launching, and apparently it's a wicked venue, they're doing pretty well at the mo...
I've had no negative nor positive experiences with O2. T-Mobile would be preferable, in case I ever decided I wanted one.
Ultimately, anybody but the awful Vodafone suits me fine.
I've been with Orange forever and their coverage across the UK has never failed me. I can't say the same for my O2 housemate!
T-Mobile are good with data so they deserve it but their coverage isn't so hot so I reckon O2 should launch it combined with a hot new data tariff.
May be the calculation is not correct but O2 getting the contract naaaaaaaaaaaaa......
Besides that, I use O2 and my handset is due for renewal just after xmas, so hopefully I'll get one ;)
From what I've been able to tell though, both carriers may actually have extensive EDGE installations. This may mean that the first European iPhone's will, in fact, be EDGE, which would also help explain why the current iPhone sold in the US is a quadband phone.
I have been watching this for the past few days. Until yesterday, everyone thought Vodafone was a lock, perhaps for most/all of Europe. However, the earlier rumor/news about T-mobile getting the contract for Germany along with this latest rumor/news about O2 suggests Vodafone, whose biggest strength was the breadth of their subscriber base across Europe.
It also suggests that Apple's European carrier strategy is similar to their US carrier strategy of partnering with someone they can exert more leverage over, which gives them more strength in negotiations to extract things like a share of services revenue. Given Vodafone's reach, they might have thought they had more leverage with Apple than they apparently did.
More updates and analysis about this on my blog.
I recommend T-Mobile to Apple!