When O2 announced it's tariffs for the Apple iPhone they conveniently skipped over what they meant by unlimited data by saying that "it was subject to their fair use policy" that allowed upto 1400 internet pages per day to be viewed. What they don't tell you is that in O2s opinion each page would only be 4-5kb in size each as their limit is 200mb per month.
Strange that the O2 homepage is over 33kb and BBC is 22kb and that is without images of flash units which if included would likely more than double the file size.
Sounding like less of a good deal when you compare unlimited tariffs from other providers like T-mobile.
Their unlimited data plan is also subject to a fair usage policy but they say fair use is up to 1GB per month - 5 times more than O2!
When comparing the complete Tariff T-mobile seems better value despite having to pay for the data seperately:
T-Mobile Flext 30 + Web 'n' Walk
Price of handset: Free*
Price per month: £32.50
Contract length: 18 months
Inclusive minutes: Up to 450, based on the T-Mobile Flext 30
Inclusive SMS: Up to 900, based on the T-Mobile Flext 30
Data: Unlimited (fair usage policy of 1GB/month)
Voicemail: 12p per message
Total cost**: £585
O2 iPhone
Price of handset: £269
Price per month: £35
Contract length: 18 months
Inclusive minutes: 200
Inclusive SMS: 200
Data: Unlimited (fair usage policy of 200MB/month)
Voicemail: Free
Total cost**: £899
*Not all handsets on this network are free with this deal, but certain ones are. You may have to pay some money towards high-end models.
**The total cost figure is how much it would cost if you stuck within the limits of your inclusive calls, SMS and data charges over the 18-month contract period. You will be charged more if you go beyond these limits.
source
This means with T-mobile you get 5 times more data, 3G access rather than edge and more minutes and texts and it still costs you less.
Even if you love the new iPhone you could buy an Apple iPod Touch and still be paying less. (£585+ ipod touch at full RRP = £854)
You may feel that you don't even need the iPod touch when you consider T-mobile are offering the Sony Ericsson W910i with 8GB memory and great music, video and photo features. It even has the iPhone title action to change from landscape to portrait when you tilt the the device. It also has a very unique Shake 'n' shuffle feature which enables you to shake the phone to randomly change the track playing - even when you are in a different menu such as typing a text message.
Sadly it seems O2 are re-couping the 40% cut that Apple squeezed out of them from their customers with less than competitive tariffs that while initially seem like a good deal doesn't stand up to the competition.
Credit to Andrew Lim of CNET.co.uk for researching most of the info.
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T-Mobiles tariff vs O2's iPhone tariff makes me think of the Daft Punk Song Kanye West recently did a cover of - "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger"
Just been advised the w910i can take upto 4gb card but the w960i has the 8gb memory but is a very different phone.
But since everyone knows how to unlock an iPhone now, this is of academic interest...
The strange thing is O2 has never locked their handsets before so I don't know how people can be so confident they can remove an O2 lock.
Since Mr Jobs/O2 hinted they would be doing firmware updates to stop phone unlockers - much like sony does with the PSP I would be rather less keen to unlock my iPhone compared to others handsets.