Apple iPhone 3G on Orange, T-Mobile in the UK
July 16th, 2009
photo: William Hook
Some fantastic news for mobile phone consumers in the UK – the mother of all mobile phones, the Apple iPhone, is being made available on Orange and T-Mobile in six weeks time reports Mobile Choice.
Apple is poised to open the iPhone 3G to Orange and T-Mobile in a bid to boost sales. The move is set for as early as September and will end Apple’s two year exclusive deal with O2. Crucially, the manufacturer will continue to give O2 exclusivity for the new, faster 3GS version, but will grant distribution of the older 3G handset to another network.
Orange and T-Mobile are known to have already begun pitching for the handset. T-Mobile’s call centres have also started telling customers it may stock the iPhone. Both networks sell the iPhone in several other countries.
It’s quite a clever move for Apple. They do have an exclusivity deal with O2 on the latest version of iPhone – that being the 3G S at the moment. But presumbly the exclusivity does not extend to old models: hence them being allowed to offer the iPhone 3G on other networks. Crucially, an iPhone 3G with the iPhone OS 3.0 Firmware update offers many of the features of the 3G S: with the exception of compass navigation and some other hardware tweaks.
Although the iPhone is popular in the UK – mobile operator O2 is less popular. It’s been blamed for having a slow 3G network and for crippling the iPhone (e.g. disable tethering). Competition for the iPhone can only mean one thing: lower prices for the end user and a greater incentive for investment in the 3G networks.
Now if only 3 would sell the iPhone…
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[...] will be offering it from next year. Both networks will offer the 3G and 3G S models (it was previously reported that only the older 3G model would be available on other [...]