iPhone 3G and 3GS On Orange Mobile Network (UK)
Written by Simon Barker on September 28, 2009 · Filed under Tech
Good news everyone! The iPhone’s exclusivity deal with O2 is over and we’ll be seeing the iPhone available on the Orange network before the end of the year!
Orange have announced that they now have an agreement with Apple to offer the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS to Orange customers later this year in 28 countries and territories. Within the UK they will be sold via all direct Orange channels including Orange shops, the Orange website, and Orange telesales, in addition to other selected high street partners.
This looks like a great sign of things to come; we’ve not got any details on pricing, tariffs or dates when the Orange iPhones will be available, but I’m sure this will make for a great present for Christmas 2009 for many people who have been wanting an iPhone, but didn’t want to move to the O2 network. One of the reasons for this is that Orange has the largest 3G network in the UK, so no doubt this better signal coverage alone will help will help Apple sell many more iPhones in this country.
It’s only a few months since we were speculating on whether the rumours of the iPhone available on other UK networks were true and how that could be beneficial to us customers in terms of prices, tariff deals, customer service and network signal quality.
Will this mean that Orange will offer better contract rates or even free tethering for those of us who want to make use of our iPhone internet connection without paying expensive extra fees that O2 are charging for the privilege, who knows, but I’m sure the extra competition will be welcome. It does make you wonder whether O2 knew that they’d be losing their exclusivity deal soon and that’s why O2 where charging their existing iPhone 3G customers high rates to upgrade to the iPhone 3GS while they had a captive market.
I only bought a new iPhone 3GS on PAYG last month, so I’m stuck on O2 for the foreseeable future, but how many of you have been patiently waiting for the opportunity to get an iPhone on a network other than O2, specifically an Orange iPhone? If you have, you’ll no doubt be very pleased to hear this news and if you are, let us know in the comments section below!
Via – Gadget Venue
Comments - share your opinion or ask a question...
Hope the same happens here in Spain soon Simon. We switched all our phones to Vodafone and I couldn’t bear the pain of porting all the numbers back to Movistar, who is the only supplier here, just to get the iPhone that I really want.
iv wanted the iphone 3gs for ages but didnt wanna get it because its only on o2 im on orange at the mo with the nokia n97 orange is the best lol cant wait for the iphone to come out on orange;} :}
Hopefully the tariffs won’t be ridiculously high! I’m on Orange and would love to get an iPhone, but it all depends how many minutes and texts I can get as well as Internet costs.
If I can get around 200 mins, unlimited texts and unlimited internet usage for around £25 then I’ll be extremely happy. But that might be wishful thinking.