iPhone 3GS UK Discussion thread

[BohoTrash]

Probably ecause they can't achieve over 400 kbps on Pay and Go.

I can't see why not. I have a Three dongle and it's on PAYG. When I run out of credit, I run out of internet. Simple. What stops o2 doing this with tethering? The only thing I can't really complain about is the fact that I still have a few months free web surfing on o2, and will gladly pay a tenner a month when the freebie is up because I do most of my basic surfing on the phone. It's so much more convenient than lugging a laptop around -although I am still a little miffed about the no tethering on PAYG. I always think, like, if Three could do it when I had a Three phone on PAYG, why not O2 with the iPhone?

Interesting to see at the keynote that we iPhone users count for so much of mobile net usage. Is there any wonder since browsing on iPhone is such a natural and intuitive experience? Maybe that's why AT&T are being so fussy in the US. Give us the option and we'll cane it. Sweet.

 

[sananda]

I can't see why not.

I don't know why, but they can't. And they don't seem very bothered about it.

 

[Nero3000]

$700 = approx 450. Add VAT approx 500. £538 isn't looking too bad actually

 

[Aurial]

Are there any problems in terms of settings needing changed or anything if I decided to get a PAYG and just pop my current contract Sim card in?

I'm thinking that in the long term this is going to be the cheaper option because I don't want to have to buy myself out of my contract this year, and then again next year too. At least if I go down the PAYG route I'll be eligable for an upgrade next year still.

 

[01jamcon]

$700 = approx 450. Add VAT approx 500. £538 isn't looking too bad actually

What you mean "not too bad"? Even if you do the calculations accurately inc VAT at about £65, they're still charging an extra £20.

The price is still ridiculous no matter how you try to squeeze it, and plus the tethering costs. Jeez, o2's really going for the wallet this time.

 

[Steamie]

I can really understand why so many people are upset, last year when the 3g was announced i was gutted as I was only 6 months into my contract.
To be honest I felt cheated that at the time a new customer could get the 3g iphone for the same price that I would pay to upgrade ( even though I'd paid them the contract fee for 6 months and having paid the full cost of the iphone). In the end I decided I would hang on to my 1st gen iphone till the contract expired, which is 22/06/09 .

I'm going to order a 3gs for both my daughter and myself but I'm not that thrilled with the prices.. It looks like I'll be going for a 24month contract this time just to get the phone at a decent price.

 

[Leemo]

I was a bit miffed last night about the lack of an upgrade option, but I'm just going to sell my current 3G for a couple hundred quid, and fork out for a PAYG one and pop my current Pay Monthly sim inside.

Not ideal, but at least I won't be tied into another 18 month contract, so when the next one's released I'll be good to go!

-L

 

[CD3660]

I was a bit miffed last night about the lack of an upgrade option, but I'm just going to sell my current 3G for a couple hundred quid, and fork out for a PAYG one and pop my current Pay Monthly sim inside.

Not ideal, but at least I won't be tied into another 18 month contract, so when the next one's released I'll be good to go!

-L

This is looking like the way forward for a lot of people, including me.

 

[amammad]

Why no tethering on Pay and Go?

I know it's expensive, but may have been useful to me.

Still, if they don't want my £15 per month, who am I to argue...

How would you pay the £15 on PAYG?

 

[dazcox5181]

Any doubts I had over switching to the HTC Magic on vodafone are now gone. My wife has my 3G for the last 6 months of contract, if O2 change their prices I'll get her the 3GS, if not, Simplicity sim till next years iPhone(if their is one...yeah like Apple would miss that chance to fleece us)

I have in my Magic, most of the 'new' features of the 3GS, without the Apple Tax, and without so many app restrictions, and so I'm quite happy now

 

[xnetco]

I've been a customer with O2 for about 12 years, I upgraded the day the iPhone original and iPhone 3G launched. I've just spoken to O2 and the best they can offer me is an upgrade 3 months early in October! Pretty crap!

 

[tardis56]

Done!

and me

 

[Stiss]

Well i think i'm going to hit o2 where it hurts.

Knock my tariff down, yeah it may only be by £10 a month but thats £120 a year, and if thousands do the same they will soon notice.

If this was a free upgrade a bit similar to 2G to 3G I would of been happy with a new contract. But now I think the people who DON'T upgrade will be having the last laugh when next year they show off another new iPhone, and not being tied into a contract will be great.

3.0 OS will add everything I need to a phone, the 3G S has stop gap written all over it for me they obviously just had to churn a new iPhone out to please the masses, and once you start doing it every year people expect it. I love Apple products but the 3G S is a pretty poor upgrade, I had the keynote coverage last night and they were raving about a 3 MP camera which shoots video, well sorry my Sony Erricson I had 18 months ago also did that, oh and my Nokia before that. It just seems now that with this phone Apple have put everything in there that should of been there first time around, there just making amends now so I'm going to wait for the true successor in a years time.

Though I do think how o2 handled it is already very poor, and its not even release date yet. I mean using twitter to talk about upgrades and pricing before even on there official website, before even the people answering the calls knew. o2 were being murdered as the managers slept.

 

[jimf123]

I've been a customer with O2 for about 12 years, I upgraded the day the iPhone original and iPhone 3G launched. I've just spoken to O2 and the best they can offer me is an upgrade 3 months early in October! Pretty crap!

Yep I just phoned o2. Out of contract on my original iPhone & expected a reasonable upgrade deal (maybe £99/£149). No go though, nothing offerred to existing customers that's different to new customers. I'm really disappointed! I'll be keeping the original iPhone and going to Simplicity20 unless something changes in the next few weeks!

 

[ClaphamChris]

How would you pay the £15 on PAYG?

Same way as any other bolt-on, would have thought. Can't see how it's problematic.

I'll shortly have to pay the £10 a month for the unlimited data bolt on when the 'free' year runs out.

Just can't see why I can do that, yet can't pay £15 for tethering too. Seems an artificial restriction.

 

[ascender]

I'm sure most people aren't expecting a free upgrade as the 3G was subsidised, but I honestly expected O2 to offer existing users some sort of incentive to upgrade to the 3GS as it would mean siging up to a new contract with O2. Those who bought on launch have what, 6 months or so to go.

If there aren't any good reasons/incentives to upgrade, O2 are risking those users dropping their tarriffs down and leaving at the end of those 6 months to another provider, handset, PAYG etc. Especially when you see that many of the new features of the 3GS are going to be delivered in software, so there's not as many compelling reasons to upgrade as there was when the 3G model was released. IMO of course

Will be interesting to see what the sales figures are like.

 

[OllyW]

I'm sure most people aren't expecting a free upgrade as the 3G was subsidised, but I honestly expected O2 to offer existing users some sort of incentive to upgrade to the 3GS as it would mean siging up to a new contract with O2. Those who bought on launch have what, 6 months or so to go.

If there aren't any good reasons/incentives to upgrade, O2 are risking those users dropping their tarriffs down and leaving at the end of those 6 months to another provider, handset, PAYG etc. Especially when you see that many of the new features of the 3GS are going to be delivered in software, so there's not as many compelling reasons to upgrade as there was when the 3G model was released. IMO of course

Will be interesting to see what the sales figures are like.

I agree. I think O2 have got a bit too cocky after the success of the 3G iPhone.

 

[tardis56]

I was a bit miffed last night about the lack of an upgrade option, but I'm just going to sell my current 3G for a couple hundred quid, and fork out for a PAYG one and pop my current Pay Monthly sim inside.

Not ideal, but at least I won't be tied into another 18 month contract, so when the next one's released I'll be good to go!

-L

This too looks like a good option. What happens when the 18 month contract runs out though? Won't you have to renew it again? Or will you go on to PAYG till the new phone is announced? Does MobileMe work on PAYG and could you transfer your phone number?

 

[songwriter81]

O2 or Apple have seriously misjudged the market on this.

80-90% of people who would buy this phone are already iPhone owners. When I got the 3G, the 15-20 in the shop on launch were iPhone owners.

If they did a reasonable upgrade, I would buy it. They aren't, so I wont. They can't 'lose' my money, but I'm annoyed and disapointed with their decision and I hope they change their CRAZY ASS BUGGERING STUPID LOSER IDEA!!!

 

[colmaclean]

I've worked out the total prices for each package (see attached). As I rarely actually use the phone (<£5 p/m), looks like PAYG is the way forward for me...

Note - the 24 month PAYG total includes the £120 extra for second year surfing!

 

[Leemo]

This too looks like a good option. What happens when the 18 month contract runs out though? Won't you have to renew it again? Or will you go on to PAYG till the new phone is announced? Does MobileMe work on PAYG and could you transfer your phone number?

Your contract would just carry on month by month until you decide to cancel or upgrade, you're not 'forced' into another 18 months straight away.

-L

 

[macjock]

After all the hype yesterday I looked at the £87.11 price tag it would cost me to upgrade and I was quite happy with that.

Having had a night to sleep on it and now looking at it with a slightly clearer head I have came to the conclusion that I am incandescent at O2 for the following reasons.

I currently own a 1st gen iphone. I paid full price for it and signed up to an 18 month contract. I had never been forced into a contract longer than a year even when getting free nokia n70's etc when they came out on t-mobile.

18 months annoyed me at the time but I was willing to do it on order to get the iphone.

I wasn't on the grumbling bandwagon when the 3g came out. I was quite happy to see out my contract in the knowledge that it would be up round about the launch of a new iphone. I still wasn't expecting anything for free, but the least I would have expected was to be paying reasonable prices for a similar contract I have just finished.

I had under £100 and an 18 month contract in mind for this, and I actually think that is fairly reasonable as even these parameters would be outwith what is fair for several others. A 2 year contract is utterly ridiculous, considering the rate at which technology moves and this coupled with the fact they still want £87.11 from me to get the phone on this contract puts the deal almost beyond belief.

A bloke in my work also has the 1st gen and he is now on a £15 per month rolling contract. What he loses for this is visual voicemail confused and access to the cloud hot spots. I very rarely use the cloud so this is of no concern to me. Unless O2 budge on the deals I will not be upgrading just now.

They will even only give me a now out of date 3g for free if I sign up for 2 years.

As for tethering don't get me started. I could get a 3 dongle AND a netbook for £15 per month. Wake up O2 before it is too late.

 

[flipshot]

If o2 are not careful. #o2fail will be a trending topic on twitter soon. Plus they have now just given up responding to people on twitter. I don't get why the price has doubled from the 3G launch when that was released at $199, same as the 3G.

 

[anthdci]

something i dont think that has been mentioned before. So many people complaining, and wanting out of their 18/24month contract to start a new one with a new 3gs. What happens in 12 or so months time when its likely the 4th gen will be released? Will all those who have cut short their 3g contracts want to cut short their 3gs contracts aswel? Dont get me wrong i think those prices are crazy but i do understand where they are coming from not letting people out of their contracts.

The 3GS is not that big of an upgrade to warrant upgrading from a 3G in my opinion. Im going to be perfectly happy with my 3G with OS 3.0 until next summer when my contract is up and the 4th gen is coming out.

 

[macjock]

something i dont think that has been mentioned before. So many people complaining, and wanting out of their 18/24month contract to start a new one with a new 3gs. What happens in 12 or so months time when its likely the 4th gen will be released? Will all those who have cut short their 3g contracts want to cut short their 3gs contracts aswel? Dont get me wrong i think those prices are crazy but i do understand where they are coming from not letting people out of their contracts.

The 3GS is not that big of an upgrade to warrant upgrading from a 3G in my opinion. Im going to be perfectly happy with my 3G with OS 3.0 until next summer when my contract is up and the 4th gen is coming out.

I agree with you, though I am coming at this from a different angle. There was similar outrage on the release of the 3g. I have a 1st gen and have been happy to hold on to it until my contract end (which is now) O2 have not offered people in my position any real incentive to upgrade or stay with them, they even want to lock me in for 2 years if I want (a now superceded) 3g iphone for free.

The 2 year contracts are an outrage. They are basically forcing you to either upgrade every year or miss out every second iteration of the iphone.

I appreciate they are a business and fully understand that this would make sense to them, however business models that charge you lots for a poor service seldom succeed. I have e mailed o2 my concerns via their own website in a polite and constructive manner. I urge others to do the same as this is really the only way they would have to acknowledge the short comings of this plan.