Vodafone to sell iPhone in UK, price war looms

Jonny Evans
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September 29, 2009
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Vodafone this morning will confirm it has reached a deal to carry the iPhone in the UK, following a similar confirmation from Orange yesterday. Both networks will vie for iPhone customers with O2, which now loses its exclusive deal for the device in the UK market.

The carrier has reached a deal to sell the iPhone in the UK and Ireland from "early 2010", reports claim.

With three carriers now confirming they will be selling the device in the UK, and given that T-Mobile has also been discussed as a possible iPhone vendor, increased competition between the networks should eventually translate into good news for consumers.

"There will be a price war," said Steven Hartley, analyst at technology research house Ovum told the Telegraph. "Research shows that in every country where there is more than one operator selling it, it is cheaper.

"It could be very disruptive, but it depends how Orange play it. If they get really aggressive O2 will have to respond and a full-on price war could start."

The analyst expects the monthly tariff for the device to fall by up to £5 per month, given the increased competition. Orange has already said it intends charging less than O2 does for the device.

Virgin Mobile is also thought to be attempting to clinch a supply deal for the UK market.

In vaguely related news, China Unicom has confirmed it will make the iPhone available in China starting this Thursday.

Comments (9)

Oflife (not verified) | September 29, 2009 - 1:37am

Initially this seemed like good news, but having to wait almost 6 months is way too long for those on Vodafone whose contracts expire around Xmas time.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 29, 2009 - 2:05am

In Australia we have 5 carries plus apple sells it outright which has really driven down prices compared to last year.

Kay (not verified) | September 29, 2009 - 2:20am

All 3 operators are selling the iPhone now and the price is the same for each of them. The monthly fees are the same too...

Strange huh?

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 29, 2009 - 3:34am

yeah...strange like how all gas is about the same no matter where you go...must be a conspiracy!

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 29, 2009 - 4:43am

Not the same - the gas is all piped by transco and resold by the energy providers.. the base cost is the same to them all. There is considerable variation in price though.

Similar prices tend to happen when a sufficient number of people are prepared to pay a certain price. Right now the iphone is overpriced, and with operators saying they're going to undercut O2 (who must respond by dropping prices or lose business) price drops are inevitable until it levels out at something more reasonable.

ThomThom (not verified) | September 29, 2009 - 4:16am

Subject to the approval of the Competition Commission, of course. That'll put the iPhone on all the major networks.

In the UK, Virgin is only a virtual operator (ie, it owns no infrastructure and simply purchases capacity from the other providers according to the price economics that month; one of the advantages of everyone agreeing a transmission standard in advance) and has a relatively small share, as do Three — they have physical stuff out in the field but are a relatively recent addition to the operators and didn't enjoy a terribly good launch.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 29, 2009 - 4:45am

Three aren't the upstart they used to be - they have quite a respectable presence in the mobile phone market these days.. largely due to the incompetence of the others rather than being particularly special.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 29, 2009 - 4:53am

After the tethering fiasco I'm going to leave O2 no matter what. I pay for unlimited data therefore I expect unlimited data.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 30, 2009 - 3:03pm

And you get Unlimited Data. On your iPhone. Which is how your tariff is set out to you.

As tethering is the act of making the phone into a modem it is not part of the unlimited data for iPhone plan.

So as the device acts as a modem you pay the same as O2 Mobile Broadband; £15 a month for 3Gb of data.