UK: iPhone going to be cheaper on O2
By Ben Robinson on Friday, March 20th, 2009 at 12:08 PM PST In O2, UK News
O2 is dropping the price of the iPhone in-contract – and whatever you think about it suggesting new devices coming soon, the right-now news is that TCO (total cost of ownership) is going down!
According to Electricpig, O2 (NYSE: TEF) is going to offer the iPhone 3G (8GB) for free on a 24-month, £34.26/month contract. Until now the cheapest tariff to get the device for free was the £44.05/month tariff.If you want 16GB of memory in the device, then cheapest tariff will be £44.05/month.
Going back to the 8GB-er for a moment, in that tariff you’ll get 600 free mins and 500 free texts – which isn’t too bad. An alternative way to amortise the costs is to buy the iPhone outright, and get a simplicity (sim-only) tariff with the appropriate bolt-ons you want – that’s what I did. Anyhoo, O2’s new offer apparently is going to begin 3rd April. Schweet.
[Via: Electricpig.co.uk]
I beg to differ. Who wants to sign up to a 2-year contract? I know it’s a standard thing with AT&T but not here in the UK with O2 – until now. At the moment, the 8Gb iPhone and contract will cost you £713.57 over 18 months (if you pay £34.26 a month). If you sign up to the 24-month contract you’ll be paying £822.24, even though the handset’s free. I’d like to be able to get to the end of my 18 months and then perhaps switch to pay as you go, rather than be tied in for another 6 months, especially in this uncertain economic climate.
Its a very clever marketing gimmick.
The cost of the phone in contract is 15 pounds, as o2 charges 35 p.m but you get the same for 20 pm on simplicity sim, albeit without the phone.
thus the extra cost here is 15*6 = 90 pounds, whereas you are saving 97 pounds as compared to a 18-month contract. go figure