This is very interesting, hopefully something similar happens in the US. Competition is always good for carriers and may lead to lower prices! 
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Orange Announces Plans to Offer iPhone in UK
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This happens a lot with companies. They get bought out and the new owner sucks the life out of the customers. I have my broadband through eclipse who were one of THE best ISP's back in the day. Low and behold what happens they get taken over, the new owners keep the name but the tariffs and customer service change for the worse. Luckily i haven't been affected much by the change of ownership as im not a big downloader and i rarely have to contact them for help but 2 of my mates who i convinced to join them have had nothing but problems since the takeover by Kingston.
Don't forget that O2 is part of Telefonica, a Spanish company - O2 offer no such roaming deal within Spain. Roaming's a really lucrative cash cow for the mobile operators, I don't see them changing things whilst they've got it so good.
True, but on the flipside, look at what Vodafone did this past summer? Roaming calls out of your bundled minutes all over Europe and in Australia (maybe other countries too I don't remember). Hopefully more of that to come?
From bad to worse
Just Awful, to pick a carrier worse than O2 & AT&T put together. I wonder if Orange will stick their stupid logo on the front & rebrand every menu in orange (colour) like they do with all their other phones - that'll teach Apple.
I think the chances of Vodafone of ever getting this is pretty much non existent now. Boo!
Just Awful, to pick a carrier worse than O2 & AT&T put together. I wonder if Orange will stick their stupid logo on the front & rebrand every menu in orange (colour) like they do with all their other phones - that'll teach Apple.
I think the chances of Vodafone of ever getting this is pretty much non existent now. Boo!
They don't stick any Orange branding on the iPhone in France or in any of the other 27 countries in which they sell it.
What makes you think they will in the UK?
Be as cynical as you like. I have nothing whatsoever to do with Vodafone, apart from being a long term customer.
Tried Orange, had nothing but problems.
As I stated in my post, I am very happy with them. I just wish that they would hurry up and get the iPhone.
They stick it on EVERYTHING they sell in the UK, every phone is locked and rebranded, settings are removed & they only sell phones which have special Orange firmware versions on it. On a side note, their plans range from 1-3 years, their service is appalling, signal is weak ... etc etc...
anybody noticing a trend... some people get poor coverage and service, others dont-- regardless of what carrier they are on (in the uk at least). I'm already tired of seeing people whinge about it. the fact is, Orange has the most widespread 3G coverage out of the biggest UK operators, and with a T-mobile merger sometime next year, that's going to improve significantly. It's not difficult to see why Apple might go for Orange on this basis, but it remains to be seen if vodafone get a deal too.
It's been published numerous times before that Apple will allow no branding of the device, so, Orange won't be branding the device. Their plans range the same as any other operator and OFCOM rated them to have the best population coverage in the UK so stop being a troll man.
Nice! Now people there have two plan options instead of a monthly tyranny. =P Funnily enough, I don't know what deals my own country, Canada, has... mostly because I don't plan to get an iPhone for a while.
I'm not the smartest guy in the world(or room) but when i first heard of this merger I saw this coming...Hope they change the name though, something like...T-Orangile....or ORANObile...yeah, i like Oranobile....
The iPhone is staying on O2, which was the exclusive partner in the UK. All it means is we get more choice when buying our phones.
Apple seems to be moving away from exclusive deals so if they do offer it to any other US companies it doesn't automatically mean AT&T will lose the iPhone.
Arg. My contract is up in 2 weeks but I don't want to wait any longer! its been a long 18 months since I had to decide on an iPhone or a PS3 and went for the ps3 =s
I don't like Orange as well and Ive been an o2 customer before and it was great, just dont want to miss out on a good deal. Although I do get a discount with o2. That would probably swing it!
I don't like Orange as well and Ive been an o2 customer before and it was great, just dont want to miss out on a good deal. Although I do get a discount with o2. That would probably swing it!
good lord
I moved from orange to o2 for the two reasons of getting an iphone and there service had gone from excellent in 1999 when I joined them to appalling when I left. I vowed never to go back too them.
I moved from orange to o2 for the two reasons of getting an iphone and there service had gone from excellent in 1999 when I joined them to appalling when I left. I vowed never to go back too them.
Unless Orange have been investing heavily in 3G antennae since the January Ofcom report, they're second behind 3 and T-Mobile's network pretty much overlaps Orange exactly.
See the maps in the PDF at http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radiocomms/ifi/licensing/classes/broadband/cellular/3g/maps/3gmaps/
I hope this is just the start of it being available to ALL operators in the UK and the start of some price cuts to bring the iPhone down to the same levels we pay for non-Apple phones.
I disagree. I have a nokia from Orange and there are no stickers on the phone, you can turn Oranges features off and I have never had problems with signal where I go unless I am in an old building. Also I have never had to ring them with a problem at all
CentralMan
Other countries have a choice of carriers because they all use the same internationally agreed GSM 3G standard and the same frequencies.
In the USA you have only ONE carrier using GSM 3G - AT&T.