In an interview with Times Online, Matthew Key, head of O2, shared his company's plans to allow users of out-of-contract iPhones to switch to other providers:

"Once the iPhone becomes available on other UK networks, we will allow O2 customers to unlock their iPhones, although of course they will still need to honour any outstanding contract period they have. At the end of their contract period, they are entirely free to move to another operator...."

Of course, this hinges on other carries -- namely Vodafone and Orange -- ending O2's exclusivity. Both Vodafone and Orange are scheduled to start selling the iPhone next year. O2 first announced UK pricing in June of this year.

That's good news for users in Britain and makes me wish the same were true in the US. While I love my iPhone, AT&T often ruins the experience with dropped calls and "fewer bars in more places." The thing is flawless on Wi-Fi; hit-or-miss via 3G. A part of that is likely due to my location (my neighborhood makes that town in Deliverance resemble Gotham), but I'm certainly not the only one complaining about coverage.

[Via Wired]

Update: Orange has announced pricing for the iPhone, in a dizzying matrix of subscription & pay-as-you-go plans (Monkey, Dolphin, Canary, Racoon & Camel? Really?) matched with varying purchase costs. All plans include free unlimited WiFi access; wireless data is 250MB/mo on the PAYG plans and 'unlimited' (meaning 750MB/mo) on the subscription plans. Tethering is only available on the subscription plans.

The wait for a new carrier for the iPhone in the UK appears to be nearly over. The Times Online out of the UK says Orange will add Apple's thrice-super phone to its stable on November 10, one day after O2's exclusivity for the device ends.

Orange announced in late September that it would be carrying the iPhone, though it only said then that it would have the phone later in the year. At least 200,000 people may want to circle the date on their calendars, since at least that many have reportedly pre-registered to buy the phone on the new carrier, despite not knowing how much the phone will cost nor how much the monthly plans will run them.

November 10 may be a bittersweet day for Vodafone. While it has announced its own deal to sell the iPhone in the UK starting in 2010, pent up demand from people who want the device but don't want O2 as a carrier may be lost to the new Orange option. Vodafone reports interim results on November 10, though it'll likely face as many questions about the phone it doesn't yet have as it will about its own numbers.

O2 will still carry the iPhone, though it's also got its mind on the Palm Pre, which it began offering as a UK-exclusive last week.

[via TimesOnline]

Vodafone has announced that they will start selling the iPhone 3G and 3GS in the UK and Ireland in early 2010. This comes just one day after Orange UK revealed its plans to offer the iPhone. Up to this point, O2 has had exclusive rights to the iPhone in the UK. No information on pricing is available at this time.

[Via Engadget]

In yet another "so logical it's gonna happen" rumors-come-true, O2 will no longer enjoy the exclusivity it has enjoyed for two years and Orange UK will begin offering the latest 2 versions of the iPhone "later this year," according to the BBC. O2 will continue selling the iPhone (along with the Palm Pre) and there isn't expected to be much price difference between the two. All of this is occurring while Orange makes plans to merge its network with T-Mobile, which would make it the UK's largest mobile service provider.

Here's to competition -- now if we could get some of that sweet choice in the US of A. If you are an Orange customer or potential Orange customer wanting an iPhone, they have a page for you here.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

[via BBC and Engadget]

OK, UK iPhone fans, O2 has released its iPhone 3G S pricing plans for monthly and Pay & Go customers. Depending on your plan, your 16GB or 32GB iPhone 3G S could be free (but you'll be paying a healthy monthly tab).

The full details for monthly and Pay & Go plans are on O2's site, but here's the rundown:

The 16GB iPhone 3G S will cost you anywhere from £184.23 (about $300US) to £0 on an 18-month contract. If you are willing to sign a 24-month contract, you'll pay either £87.11 (about $141US) for the 16GB iPhone 3G S or get it for free.

The 32GB iPhone 3G S will range between £274.23 (~$444US) and £96.89 (~$158US) for an 18-month contract and £175.19 (~$283) and £0 for a 24-month contract. Contract prices range between £29.38 (~$48US) and £73.41 (~$120US) for 18-month terms and £34.26 (~$55US) and £73.41 (~$120US) for 24-month terms. All plans include unlimited UK data and WiFi.

UK Pay & Go customers can get the 16GB iPhone 3G S for £440.40 (~$715) and the 32GB iPhone 3G S for £538.30 (~$874). If you purchase an iPhone 3G S with Pay & Go, you'll get a year of unlimited web and Wi-Fi for free.

As in the US, your upgrade options will depend on when your contract is up, though the O2 site says that you can usually upgrade during the last month of your term.

So UK readers, will you be getting an iPhone 3G S on June 19th? Let us know in the comments!

This would be an interesting deal -- rumor has it (that crazy rumor always has something, doesn't it?) that Apple may start selling subsidized MacBooks in the UK, with O2 including the notebooks with their wireless plans. Quite a proposal -- the idea, of course, would be for O2 to pick up a subscription by offering a discount on the already (relatively) cheap $999 MacBook. This plan has been rumored for a long time with iPhones (and I still believe it'll happen eventually), but with mobile broadband subscriptions on the rise, O2 and other services might start giving kickbacks on notebooks, too.

Of course, whatever discount you saved early on would cost you in the end with the continued cost of the broadband subscription. Which makes this deal as unlikely for people to buy into it as it does for Apple to agree. But you never know -- analysts especially are leading the call for cheaper and cheaper MacBooks, and a subsidy might be just the thing (even if it isn't actually popular with consumers) to push the MacBook down to around the $800 price where stockholders want it to be.

Mobile Today, which tracks mobile trends in the UK, is reporting today that the 3G iPhone is selling very well. Specifically, retailers are averaging 27,000 phones sold per week.

That's good news for Apple, especially since the 3G launch went rather poorly in the UK. Specifically, activation issues were rampant and ongoing. Sound familiar, Americans?

Apple and O2 are hoping for continued strong sales during the holiday shopping quarter. Considering O2's a pay-as-you-go option, they just might get it.

[Via MacNN]

In June, O2 kind of announced that there would be a pay-as-you-go plan for the iPhone, and now they've finally set September 16 as its launch.

UK customers can buy an 8GB iPhone for £350, and a 16GB handset for £400. Both plans come with free web browsing for the first year. (After the first year, it's £10 per month for unlimited data.) Pricey. Less pricey than, say, Greece, but still pretty steep.

Tariffs will be based on the "Favourite Place" scheme. A £10 – £14 top-up gets you 500 minutes to any UK landline, £15 – £29 gets you 1000 minutes, and £30 or more gets you unlimited minutes. Texts are 10p each.

Taking your iPhone abroad could get spendy, though: downloading 1MB of data in any EU country will cost three quid -- six outside Europe -- though this is no different than other O2 plans.

O2 also said they will give customers 10 percent of the value of their top-ups over the last 18 months as call time worth up to £200.

[Via iPhonesTalk and Total Telecom.]

Thanks Ash and William for the heads-up!

O2, the sole provider of the iPhone in the UK, sent out emails and text messages to its customers offering to send them the new 3G handset to arrive on Friday, the worldwide launch date.

Figuratively billions of people wrote us to say that the site was crushed under the load of people trying to purchase the iPhone 3G. Moreover, O2 very quickly sold out of the 16GB model, leaving only the 8GB version on offer. Now, O2's website says that all models of the iPhone 3G are "currently out of stock online."

Customers are encouraged to "come back on 10 July for more information." Instead, many are participating in an Apple Discussions thread about it. From the responses in the thread, it appears that a few people were actually able to complete the purchase process, but are waiting for a confirmation email.

In other O2 news, the company announced that Pay & Go plans for iPhone 3G will be available "later this year."

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

UK mobile provider O2 posted a page earlier today offering the iPhone 3G with a pay-as-you-go plan costing £300 (≈ $593) for the 8GB model, and £360 (≈ $711) for the 16GB model. The plan includes six months of WiFi and browsing. After the first six months, you can purchase browsing and WiFi access for £10 (≈ $20) monthly.

The offer is available to all new and upgrading customers who purchase an iPhone 3G with Pay & Go until December 31.

The page, however, was taken down moments later, replaced with a page that omitted pricing. Some of the other pages (Tariffs, for example) were not found on the server. Strange. The page says that more information "will be available shortly so come back in a few days."

Your conspiracy theories are always welcome in comments.

Thanks, Matt, Visa, and Lewis!

Insanely Great Mac has the breakdown on a meeting between O2 (purveyors of the iPhone in Britain) and Mr. Jobs from the UK's Financial Times, and it seems iPhone users across the pond can't get enough data. Over 60% of iPhone users use over 25mb/month of data, while only 1.8% of non-iPhone users on O2 go over that mark. That's a lot of data downloading.

It's probably not a surprise, then, that about 60% of iPhone buyers are also new to O2, which, in my estimation, means that people who switched for the iPhone also switched from a non-data cellphone, and are making up for the difference. We talked on the Talkcast a little while ago about how the iPhone isn't necessarily stealing the "business smartphone" audience away from brands like Blackberry-- it's actually attracting new smartphone users completely. And there are a lot of them-- O2 is looking to sell 200,000 iPhones in Britain by the end of January, and they say that despite Apple's cut of the profits, they're making money on every one.

Finally, we get almost-but-not-quite-final confirmation that the 3G iPhone is due next year, and that O2 will very likely carry it. Which isn't really a surprise-- seems like things are going pretty well for O2 and Apple in GB, and so it's hard to see either one of them breaking up a good thing.

[Via Macbytes.com]

September 18th was perhaps one of the most hotly-anticipated days for us Apple-loving Brits. The iPhone, arguably one of the most hyped and hotly anticipated mobile phone handsets, was rumoured to be coming to our fair isle. Our resident iPhone code-guru Erica posted after the event on the most disappointing aspect of the announcement - the lack of 3G despite its prevalence this side of the pond, the contract pricing, and the 30% coverage of O2 EDGE services in the U.K. Let's take a look at these concerns, and see whether they are unfounded.

There are few things pundits agreed on but a 3G iPhone launch in the UK and Europe seemed a pretty sure move. This morning, the Steve announced the November 9th iPhone launch. And, as you may surmise from the title of this post, there was no 3G on offer. 8GB with EDGE--the same model sold in the US.

Of course between now and 9 November there's plenty of room for change but count me among the disappointed who had hoped for something better east of the Atlantic.

The costs seem incredibly high as well. The £269 iPhone clocks in at US$538.43 for today's exchange rate. The cheapest £35 plan is US $70 per month + "Special Roaming" rates--with no hint of prepaid/contract-free service. How do you British TUAW readers feel about the contract rates and the lack of 3G? Let us know in the comments.

A little birdie just flew into TUAW headquarters with a bit of news. It seems that the birdie's "friend" has seen an iPhone in the UK, running on the O2 network. Last we knew, a carrier had not been officially identified in the UK.

Back in March, it was rumored that Apple was in serious talks with Vodaphone. Just three months later, it appeared that O2 pulled the carpet out from under Vodaphone.

Then, just a week ago, O2 told the press that they do not have a contract with Apple. This is getting exhausting.

Now we hear that an O2-powered iPhone was seen in the wild. We can't substantiate any of this, of course, but Steve was recently in London.

This is a rumor, folks, but let the speculation begin.

According to this Dutch-language report, O2 says it does not have an iPhone contract with Apple to distribute the iPhone in England The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland not including her overseas territories. A spokesman denied signing a contract and would not discuss any ongoing negotiations. This contradicts earlier reports that O2 would provide exclusive iPhone service in the UK. Rumors are flying regarding European iPhone distribution deals but there is still no official word about anything yet over at the Apple PR site.

Thanks, Habbie.