Understanding O2’s iPhone 3GS Pricing Policy
I’m quite amazed by the outpouring of hate towards O2, the UK iPhone network provider, following their announcements regarding the new iPhone 3G s. Chiefly that existing customers must remain in their contract or pay a cancellation fee, and that tethering will cost an extra £15 a month. Finally there is anger at the apparant increased handset cost compared to the US. There are claims that o2 is being unfair, treating it’s customers poorly and not appreciating their customers loyalty.
Cancellation Fee
This is an industry standard thing across all maj0r networks (at least in the UK). When I left orange to join o2 I paid £70 in cancellation fees to bail out early. Why? Because I agreed to pay 18 months of 35 pounds in order to offset the cost of my phone. It’s quite a simple concept, and I find it incredible that people expect that, because they own an iPhone, they should be exempt from a contract -they- signed 12 months ago (or less). They believe O2 should suck up the cost. Bizarre.
Tethering Fee
Sure, it would have been nice to have free tethering, but let’s be honest it was wishful thinking. We all know a laptop’s use of data will be considerably higher than an iPhone. Why have we been unable to purchase itunes content over the air? Or download large attachments in mail? Or large applications? Apple has limited the amount of bandwidth we use on our handset since it was first announced; it comes as no suprise therefore that we are expected to pay to be fiven free reign on bandwidth via our laptop. I’m not arguing whether the price is competitive, but it seems to be reasonable given you now have unlimited mobile data on any windows or apple laptop or deskop anywhere in the UK?
Upgrade Prices
This bit I can’t explain - incredible that o2 would just ignore apple’s lead. Interesting that @o2 hasn’t commented on this either…
What are people’s thoughts? Am I missing something important about the cancellation and tethering fee?
“We all know a laptop’s use of data will be considerably higher than an iPhone.”
WRONG. That is why this is such an incendiary topic.
The iPhone makes quite the point of being the only phone that loads full web pages with all of their images and javascript, in addition to Youtube, Appstore functionality and so on. It does not in fact load significantly less data than any normal PC browsing the web under the same circumstances.
The data comes down just the same. What O2 want to do is charge a small fortune (and it is a fortune) just for the ability to be able to take the data that I would otherwise get unlimited and spit it over onto a laptop screen.
I get that the upgrade situation is contentious but in reality getting the 3G at such reasonable prices last time was an incredibly sweet deal so it’s not unexpected that they might want to claw some of the outlay back on that.
The tethering, on the other hand, is shameless scammery of the worst sort. If they were worried about data volume (such as from gits using torrents) then a simple application of a fair use policy is all that’s required. Seeking to essentially charge me again for something that I already get just because it’s handy to transfer it over onto a laptop screen though? No, that’s just despicable.
Hmm..
I use my iPhone as well as my laptop, not instead of. If I were to tether my laptop to my iPhone there would certainly be a lot more bandwidth used? I can run whatever bandwidth hungry apps I want, watch whatever HD content I want etc.
Perhaps it’s differences in customers use of their devices on the go, but I personally would use far more bandwidth if I could tether my laptop to my iPhone. There’s nothing to stop someone using it as their main internet connection?
Does it not depend on the user? Would it be fair to suggest in most cases allowing more devices to share a network connection increases bandwidth usage?
Letting people out of their contract:
I’m a bit gutted, but I totally agree. I was astounded when they let us out of contracts after only 6 months after the last upgrade.
Upgrade prices:
Entirely unacceptable. They were clearly not making a loss under the old arrangements, overheads haven’t gone up, it’s entirely unjustified. What outrages me the most is that I’m still considering it.
Tethering:
I swooned when I heard this in the keynote, just to have that little bit of casual internet access through my mobile for my laptop would have been fantastic. For £15 a month I’m not going near it, I might pay for pay as you go tethering, but O2’s mobile broadband is cheaper.
Actually, what my biggest beef is, is not that I’ll have to wait 6 months to not be stung on the upgrade (which I’ll still have to pay for, despite having a £45 per month contract). It’s that 12 months from now, when it’s time for a new one, I’ll have 12 months left on my contract. It’s going to take 4.5 years to reset the cycle, by which time, I’ll have missed a whole generation.
That’s the argument for 12 month contracts - even with higher rates. I can totally understand that point of view.
@Tadhg Kelly You’ve read my mind!
“The tethering, on the other hand, is shameless scammery of the worst sort. If they were worried about data volume (such as from gits using torrents) then a simple application of a fair use policy is all that’s required.”
I’m basing on this theory with my tethering usage. I don’t want to do anything stupid with it, just the simple web browsing, e-mailing and Twittering. If anything, tethering to me is just using the iPhone for the Internet but on a bigger screen!
Hmm..
I use my iPhone as well as my laptop, not instead of. If I were to tether my laptop to my iPhone there would certainly be a lot more bandwidth used? I can run whatever bandwidth hungry apps I want, watch whatever HD content I want etc.
Perhaps it’s differences in customers use of their devices on the go, but I persohally would use far more bandwidth if I could tether my laptop to my iPhone. There’s nothing to stop someone using it as their main internet connection?
Does it not depend on the user? Would it be fair to suggest ij most cases allowing more devices to zhare a network connection increases bandwidth usage?;