O2 Will Allow Unlock For UK iPhone’s

O2 the current exclusive retailer of the iPhone and iPhone 3GS, although not for long; will be allowed to unlock their O2iPhones to other carriers as long as it’s the end of their contract period according to the CEO of O2’s parent company, Telefonica Europe. “Once the iPhone becomes available on other UK networks,” says Matthew Key, “we will allow O2 customers to unlock their iPhones, although of course they will still need to honour any outstanding contract period they have. At the end of their contract period, they are entirely free to move to another operator — though naturally we hope they won’t want to!”

Orange is starting to sell the iPhone from November 10th and Vodafone will be joining in on the iPhone in early 2010. O2 have had exclusivity on the iPhone since 2007 but once released on Orange and Vodafone an unlock will be allowed.

Orange Release UK iPhone Details

With the release of the iPhone on UK network Orange about a week away, Orange have released the pricing details for the Pay Monthly and Pay As You Go plans. One thing to remember that Orange wasn’t planning on challenging O2 on prices but this gives people who don’t like O2 or who are already on Orange a chance to get an iPhone.

Orange iPhone Prices

The only big difference between what O2 offers and what Orange offers is that for £122.34 per month you can get unlimited minutes and texts. For Pay As You Go, an 8GB iPhone 3G will cost £343, the 16GB iPhone 3GS is £440 and the 32GB iPhone 3GS is £539. The prices are slightly cheaper than O2 but what I still wonder about is does that now mean iPhone’s sold in the UK should work on both O2 and Orange?
If so, in the first quarter of next year UK iPhone’s will work on O2, Orange (Soon to be merged with T-Mobile) and Vodafone.

Update: So it’s been pointed out that now Orange’s ‘unlimited’ plan there is only 750MB.

Reports Suggest iPhone 3G Could Be Coming To T-Mobile UK

Register Hardware and guardian.co.uk both suggest that the iPhone 3G, last years model, could be on the British Apple iPhone 3G WWDC 2009carrier T-Mobile within the next few months. However O2 would still keep the 3GS exclusivity.

“This represents a major shift in how Apple markets the iPhone,” The Register said, “which currently relies on network exclusives to get a decent subsidy; giving that up shows either greater confidence or reflected disappointment in how O2 has priced up the latest offering.”

The report from guardian.co.uk talks about how both Orange & Vodafone are interested in providing the iPhone on their networks as well. If that were to come to pass, all of the U.K.’s major cell phone carriers would provide some version of the iPhone, but would this mean it would need to become unlocked or multiple carrier restrictions made?

Though exclusivity for the iPhone with one carrier is the most common arrangement, non-exclusive deals are not unheard of. Since 2008, Apple has signed a number of non-exclusive carrier contracts in various countries.

O2 Get Palm Pre in the UK

The official iPhone UK carrier O2, have been reported that they are to be the official carriers for the Palm Pre. O2 has always Palm Prehad a strong smartphone market in the UK and with the iPhone and Pre being sold in the same store it will make things a little more interesting.

It seems this will be true as the O2 owner Telefonica, reportedly secured global rights to the Pre back in March.

O2 owner Telefonica reportedly secured broad global rights to the Pre back in March

Enable Tethering On 3.0 Via iPhone Safari

For all those out there who need tethering. but cannot wait for there providers to roll out support, there is a very easy way for you to enable tethering on most networks across the world for free.

First head over to help.BenM.at in Safari on your iPhone.

Tethering_1

Select Mobileconfigs

Tethering_2

Select Your Country

Tethering_3

Select Provider

Tethering_4

Select Install

Tethering_5

Select Install Now

Tethering_6

Now go to Settings > General > Network > Internet Tethering > On, and now you have tethering.

Update: Some are reporting that this procedure could disable MMS and visual voicemail depending on your country and carrier.

Update 2: Techradar reports that O2 UK has responded to the tethering hack saying, “we reserve the right to charge customers making modem use of their iPhone or disconnect them.” This assumes O2 can identify such customers.

O2 Announce Price’s For iPhone 3G S

The UK iPhone provider O2, have announced the prices for the new iPhone 3G S. Here’s the break down:Apple iPhone 3G WWDC 2009

Pay As You Go:

  • iPhone 3G 8GB – £342.50
  • iPhone 3G S 16GB – £440.40
  • iPhone 3G S 32GB – £538.30

The iPhone 3G 8GB remains the same price as it was before on Pay As You Go, all iPhones on PAYG come with 12 months of free unlimited data.

Pay Monthly:

O2 Pay Monthly Prices

The iPhone 3G 8GB remains at the same price as before.

If you need business plans look here and if you need corporate plans go here.

iPhone OS 3.0 is Out Now!

iPhone OS 3.0 Software Update

For all those who haven’t been sitting constantly clicking the update button in iTunes, waiting for the new update or been complaining on Twitter how it was 5 minutes late, then to let you know the OS 3.0 firmware for iPod Touch and iPhone is out.

iPhone 1G – Download
iPhone 3G – Download

If your in the UK like me then you must update certain settings once you have upgraded to ensure your internet works and MMS.

These are for Pay As You Go Customers, for Pay Montly or other go here.

  • First change your APN from idata.o2.co.uk and enter payandgo.o2.co.uk (Passwords and username remain the same)
  • Repeat for MMS settings.
  • Turn the phone off, and then back on.
  • Send a text saying ‘MMS’ to 1010, once O2 has set up MMS for your account a MMS will be sent to you.