O2: We can't justify breaking iPhone contracts

19. I am still on the 2g phone and wanted to upgrade to 3gs, I am happy to pay for the upgrade, but 02 are not interested in breaking my contract and signing me up for another 18 months, they will give me a month off !!! Stuff them I will not re-sign anither 18 months now and will buy my own phone and terminate with 02 as soon as someone else breaks their monopoly, or someone else brings out a decent phone. O2 are very narrow minded and seem to have upset a large majority of their customers.

18. These are exactly the same restriction I have with my XDA so why should Apple users get treated any differently? I pay the same amount as they do for the same Internet access. If I want to use it as a broadband modem I have to pay the extra. I do have a separate mobile broadband with O2, mainly because its coverage and speed is better than 3 and T-Mobile (yes I've tried them both) as I work away from home 4 nights a week and like to have my phone free at all times. I'm on line as much as 14 hours a day. What annoys me is that O2 have no all-in-one contract. I have my mobile, broadband and mobile broadband all with them, but I only get a reduction on my broadband. I've also been with them as a supplier since my first mobile phone, but they don't seem to have much loyalty to their long-term customers.

17. Is there anything to stop me buying a new iphone from the Apple store and using my existing O2 sim & contract?

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16. I can swallow the handset subsidy issue; that's fair enough. The tethering issue though is a con and though there may be some smoke and mirrors involved, they are effectively double charging in this respect. You are already paying ~£7.50 (implicitly as part of the contract) for the mobile browsing so why not just charge the difference to change that to a mobile data package so that it all comes out of the same 3/10GB. Or allow people who go for the tethering to choose another free bolt-on in place of the unlimited browsing (now covered by the data bolt on), so they could go for unlimited o2 to o2 calls or something.

As it stands, they are clearly milking the iPhone exclusive for all they can and people would be well advised to hold off on buying/upgrading for the time being. O2 are actually one of the worst for mobile data (quality of service) and make it very difficult to turn off their image compression.

15. http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/the-iphone-upgrade-plan-a-fair-solution-to-a-growing-apple-problem/

This article makes some very sensible suggestions for how an iPhone upgrade path could (and should) be implemented by Cellular networks.

14. I'm not convinced about the o2 mathematics anyway, considering you have to buy the iPhone as well as the pay monthly fee's on at least an 18 month contract, I suspect the phone has more than been subsidized for those that got early 3G's.

I also love the way o2 kept agreeing they were expensive for stuff like tethering etc but insisting iPhone users were not any different to other handset users they were overcharging, like that was a good thing!?!?!?!

P.S.

After putting the GM Seed of 3.0 on a couple of days ago, I thought I would still have to wait for MMS to be enabled by o2 etc but it started working today after I rebooted the phone (if only I'd thought of that sooner) so at least I'm happy about that :-)

P.P.S

If you are a Dev and have the GM seed installed, text MMS to 1010 to get the enabled message back and your good to go. If it doesn't, try a reboot like I did!

13. I'm slightly confused as to what the fuss is about, I have recently taken on a 3G iPhone, I could be wrong here, but the 3GS doesn't really appear to be much of an improvement. Nothing as mind blowing as the 2G->3G step.

12. @amit290 - I agree no one would be complaining if there were 12 month contracts for the iPhone cause everyone would be able to get the new iPhone on a new contract. Why should we have to take out an 18 month contract and now two year contract to get the phone we want? It is this business greed that is causing us to turn to jailbreaking and illegal unlocking!

11. What we need is 12 month contracts again. These have become scarce over the past 2-3 years with every mobile company pushing 18 month contracts.

Personally I dont see what the fuss is about the new one. The tethering is a good feature but I wouldnt pay £15+ a month on top of my contract for it. The jump from 2G to 3G was big, but 3G to 3GS? you must really love the fruit and hate your ££££ to upgrade early.

10. If you bought a subsidised 3G iPhone, then I can fully understand that the cost of that phone is bourne over the length of the contract.

However, I paid £330 for an unsubsidised 2G handset, and I'm still on this contract with the same handset. While the option of breaking that contract for a subsidised 3G handset was open to me until this week, now I can neither break my contract nor qualify for a subsidised handset. Thanks O2.

9. Oh noes, do you mean existing iPhone owners will have to WAIT to pay through the nose for the new top of the range iPhone??? Shameful! I think I might run out and get an iPhone 3GS and wave it around in the face of existing iPhone 3G owners on a kind of crazed ego trip. "Look here, autofocus!" Get over it.

8. I don't understand why people feel they should be able to upgrade without penalty. You agreed to an 18 month contract. Just because a new model comes out, it doesn't give you the automatic right to have it subsidised or your old contract terminated so you can start a new one. If you really what the iPhone 3GS then pay the full cost for one.

And for the record, just because Apple have released iPhones in July historically, doesn't mean they will wait another year to release the next model. I think you'll find they'll announce one sooner next time.

7. I agree with O2 completely. If they did this for iPhone customers and not for others this would give off the wrong message. They would certainly annoy other handset manufacturers by further diminishing their chance of competing against this behemothic brand device. I don't hear any Sony Ericson users moaning about similar issues every time a new Walkman device is launched. Why should the iPhone in general be any different? The first iPhone as we all know should have been a 3g launch device. However, it wasn't, and I think the iPhone 3g subsidy was a way of rectifying this obvious mistake and maintaining the brand image.

6. @rob982000: No, you're missing the point of revenue over the course of a contract.

When the iPhone 3G was released, you were under contract (and not eligable for an upgrade) for another 12 months (or so). They could simply have said "no upgrades until the end of the contract, as normal" - at which point, you would have had to sign another contract. Your total contract term with them would have been 36 months.

As it is, if you upgraded, your total contract term was only 22 months. Effectively, the amount of time you're locked in to o2 was reduced, significantly - and that means less revenue.

5. Details on the Priority list can be found at http://www.o2blueroom.co.uk/O2PriorityList/. If you've opted in to receive emails from o2, at some point after you joined them they'll have emailed you with you a level - it depends on how long you've been with them, and what tariff you're on. In my case (on the £35 a month iPhone tariff) it's silver, for example, which means I can upgrade a month early - they contact you to let you know when you can get an early upgrade.

So no, he's not "talking absolute nonsense", as John suggests above. Neither can they let you sign a new contract starting now - if they do, they lose six months-worth of revenue from you, because your contract with them will end December 2010, rather than the June 2011 it would if you get an upgrade and sign a new deal in January. Even if you paid the remaining subsidy, they would be effectively allowing you to leave your contract term earlier than they would otherwise.

I can understand people wanting a new iPhone now - I'd love one too - but expecting o2 to change its entire business model just so you can have the latest phone every 12 months isn't an option. And no other phone company will do it either.

4. Consider this, if you had the original iPhone and then upgraded, your contract was renewed. The first iPhone was not subsidised, the second one was. Assuming if your contract was not renewed and carried on then you would be eligible for an upgrade. So O2 have had there subsidiary paid off because the contract has been ongoing since November.

3. I agree with O2, they have subsidised the cost of the iPhone, for the customer to sign up to a fixed length contract and receive the iPhone at a much reduced price.

I have had to see out the terms of my contract before upgrading my Sony Ericsson phone, just because it is an iPhone, why should they be treated any differently.

2. Could I please just point out that he is talking absolute NONSENSE RE early upgrades for "Priority List" users.

"All iPhone customers who spend more than £35 per month are eligible for earlier upgrade under our Priority List programme, the only early upgrade programme of its kind in our industry. Early upgrade is for 1-6 months depending on spend levels.We urge customers to call customer service to discuss their options."

So I got the low down from an O2 sales rep today, and here's how it works:

The earliest ANYONE can have bought an iPhone 3G is last year on the 13th of July (launch-day) therefor the shortest time remaining on ANY 3G contract is 6 months.

The ONLY Priority List level that offers a 6-month early upgrade is Platinum. And how do you know if you're Platinum? Well you have to have had a phonebill higher than £80.00 every single month for at LEAST the last 6 months (though I've heard conflicting reports since that suggest a full 12 month requirement).

The crux of this is that there are maybe 1% or less of iPhone users in the UK who can have this free upgrade - and the fact that O2 are trying to use it to reassure people is a total joke!!

The other thing to remember is that even if you do shell out a lot of cash and upgrade anyway. You're still tied into a NEW 18 month contract, so this time next year when the next iPhone comes out - you're going to be faced with the EXACT same problem once again.

The suggestion that O2 can't upgrade us due to subsidy is also sheer lunacy.

The subsidy was approximately £250 (as I understand it) so 250 / 18 = just under £14 per month. I have 6 months remaining in my contract so my upgrade cost to pay off the subsidy should be £84. No questions asked.

O2 are coming up with a whole lot of BAD excuses.

1. Just rang O2 upgrades again after being told it would cost me £380 to upgrade. I quoted them your article and (after much faffing around trying to get them to find the article) they don't seem to know anything about this and have more or less disputed its accuracy. I've just been told that it would cost me the remainder of my contract. They know nothing about a "priority list programme"