O2 to lose iPhone exclusivity October 9, other carriers and customers rejoice

Jonny Evans
|
August 05, 2009
|
Share

Big news for iPhone cravers in the UK, as a report this morning claims O2’s exclusive claim to offer the device will time out on October 9, freeing other networks up to offer the must-have device for sale here.

Mobile Entertainment is claiming to have seen documentation, “that states it (exclusivity) will end officially on October 9.” This comes after weeks of chatter claiming other networks are vying to add the iPhone to their roster of available mobiles.

One limitation of the time out may be that O2 will continue to offer the iPhone 3GS exclusively in the UK, leaving the cheaper and less well-featured iPhone 3G for sale by competing operators.

O2 signed its original deal with Apple in late 2007, and is believed to have the rights to sell iPhone to 2012.

As reported last week, The Guardian revealed comments from Vodafone CFO, Andy Halford, who said, “It's a good product and we would love to have it in the portfolio in more countries.” His comments came after weeks of speculation Orange and T-Mobile are also in the frame to get in on the iPhone deal.

T-Mobile has even begun offering a very limited quantity of iPhones (sourced outside of the UK) to high-spending customers who threaten to quit its network.

Adding further grist to the mill, the Apple/AT&T relationship continues to attract criticism. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson set tongues wagging recently when he revealed that “there will be a day when you are not exclusive with the iPhone.”

Comments (15)

Tom (not verified) | August 05, 2009 - 5:38am

How is this great? Presumably O2 gets exclusivity for the most recent model for another 2 years?
For those looking at getting a 3GS this doesn't help... unless they can start offering iPhone 3G with tethering for a much better rate than O2 for example.

henry (not verified) | August 05, 2009 - 5:59am

Eugh this is NOT GOOD!
More people will have the handset resulting in it being a less desirable object! Heading the same was as the Ipod :(

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | August 05, 2009 - 6:12am

Oh, that restaurant? NOBODY eats there anymore, it is WAY too crowded.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | August 05, 2009 - 6:18am

What? Complete market saturation - yes, that would be errrr... terrible?

PeterZ (not verified) | August 05, 2009 - 7:27am

LMAO

Yea, thats a normal reaction. Go back into your yuppie hole.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | August 05, 2009 - 7:44am

I have the perfect solution for you: Go buy the crappiest device ever made... few people will actually be buying it so I guess this will make you "LOOK COOL"

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | August 05, 2009 - 9:41am

For this situation, I would recommend the Palm Pre.

PHelix (not verified) | August 05, 2009 - 6:23am

Aboutthe same time the iTablet is coming out....
If it runs iphone OS and has net capabilities, we will need another carrier?

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | August 05, 2009 - 8:05am

After calamities like I'll be glad to leave O2 ASAP. They also totally rip us off for tethering and roaming. If they'd even offered me an option of upgrading to the 3GS I would have considered staying but its too late for that now. As soon as my contract expires I'm gone. What a truly awful company they are.

William (not verified) | August 05, 2009 - 8:52am

This is perfect timing for my upgrade. I'm hoping that when my contract runs out o2 will offer a far lower tariff instead of seeing me run to Orange or Vodafone. The only question is will they use the 3GS as a bargaining tool?

deadjoe2002 (not verified) | August 05, 2009 - 8:13am

I spend a few hours in and Orange shop and a Get Connected shop with the g/f over the weekend getting her a Blackberry Curve (nice phone imo), upshot of this is that all employes in the Orange shop said for definite that Orange UK are getting the iPhone soonish, I for one will be changing to Orange as soon as my current contract ends in February thanks to O2's terrible signal with the hope that with competition driving down service plan costs.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | August 05, 2009 - 8:58am

Firstly, the salesdroids in the Orange shop have about as much definate information as we have. ie. none. They've been saying things like that for 2 years.

Secondly.. Orange data plans suck. They never 'got' smartphones and laptop use. 500Mb cap just won't cut it any more (or you can pay £25 a month for 1GB lol).

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | August 05, 2009 - 3:00pm

I personally tested the Three network last month in the north of England with my unlocked 3G. I must say it's quite good and even in area inhabited only by a few sheep you can get a good 3G signal! And their pay as you go options let you have 2 gig of internet for 30 days for only 5£. Quite a bargain compared to some others…

Jensonb (not verified) | August 06, 2009 - 5:08am

This sounds like a bigger deal than it is. In the UK it is largely standard practice for premium handsets to start out as carrier-exclusives and then later be offered to all carriers.

Call me Mr Cynical (not verified) | August 07, 2009 - 4:54am

My Company has been with Vodafone, T Mobile now o2.

Vodafone was getting expensive travelling to Asia/USA/Germany so we though ah T Mobile has a prescence everywhere so lets go to them. Mistake, they are everywhere but one Country does not talk to another, so when you want to download data if you are a T Mobile UK customer this is not recognised in Germany and hey presto big charges even bigger than Vodafone!

So we swapped to O2 with iphones and most suprisingly our bill halved, OK my home (in the countryside) has gone from 3G to E or O but I can live with that.