RichB

I just had a call from my current provider who will rename nameless (Not o2) and when I said I wasn't interested as I was going to move to get an iPhone, "Oh we'll be selling those next month" was her response.

Just thought anyone considering jumping ship might consider asking their current supplier...

Markus

The only places in the UK that I'm aware of that you'll be able to purchase the iPhone are Apple Retail Stores, O2 Stores and Carphone Warehouse. I would presume as CW isn't a carrier that they'd be using O2 as the carrier.

It was my impression that O2 was the sole carrier for the UK, in much the same way AT&T is for the US.

One thought is that you will be able to get the iPhone as PAYG on O2, so you could, in theory, remove the SIM lock to O2, and go to another network who would be providing a plan which is comparable to what O2 offers for the iPhone. That would be a bit of clever marketing on the other carriers part, obviously they could not really advertise the fact, as they would be encouraging people to hack their iPhone though.

Markus

I've had a quick search and found the following info about carriers and the iPhone:

• México: América Móvil
• United States: AT&T
• India: Bharti Airtel
• Philippines: Globe Telecom
• Hong Kong: Hutchison Telecom
• UK & Ireland: O2
• Portugal: Orange and Vodafone
• Austria: Orange and T-Mobile
• France: Orange
• Switzerland: Orange and Swisscom
• Canada: Rogers (wheeeeeee) and Fido (le wheeeeee)
• Singapore: SingTel
• Japan: Softbank
• Italy: Telecom Italia and Vodafone
• Spain: Telefónica
• Denmark: TeliaSonera
• Finland: TeliaSonera
• Norway: TeliaSonera
• Sweden: TeliaSonera
• Germany: T-Mobile
• Netherlands: T-Mobile
• Australia: Vodafone and Optus
• New Zealand: Vodafone

So it looks like some countries will get two carriers, however the UK is still listed as O2 being the only carrier.

GC8WRX

Why do some countries get 2 choices, and some one?

JackClark

The inclusion of a Sim card removal tool still has me very curious, is it locked or not?

BuRR

Jack, I think its assuming the iPhone 1 users will upgrade to the iPhone 2 and therefore will use the tool to enable them to change SIM cards.

Its an Apple-branded paperclip all said and done

stevem2k

I'm in the same situation. My personal vodaphone contract is up now ( they're 'inviting' me to upgrade already ), and I get free calls via an orange handset supplied by work.... If I could get an unlocked PAYG iphone2 and a sim swap I'd be very tempted

JackClark

Of course!! I missed the obvious.

jowl

O2 have an Exclusivity deal for a number of years. I thought it was 2 but I;ve seen 5 years mentioned (AT&T is 5 years)

I think the other countries with multiple carriers are new iPhone carriers

BuRR

Having said that.... I read that Apple will insist on in-store activations this time.

Markus

What does not seem to have been clarified is wether you need to activate the phone at the time of purchase, or wether there is a period after when you can do it. What happens if you wish to purchase an iPhone as a gift for someone, you'd need to activate it then and there, which also means the monthly charge would start ticking away (if it's not PAYG).

There is also the issue of the time it takes to activate, they reckon about 10 - 12 mins, per customer. So launch week, let alone launch day is going to "fun".

Apple did make some mention about harsh penalties for those who don't activate within 30 days, which sounds odd, as they are saying it has to be activated at time of purchase. Perhaps you don't? Maybe you can buy and say you'll sign up later, and then go home and jailbreak it, that is after all what they are trying to stop with this activation at purchase deal.

Some have suggested that what you can do is purchase the iPhone, activate it, wait 30 days, cancel the contract, paying the early termination fee and first months usage, and then you'll be out of the contract and have an activated iPhone, which you would then be able to jailbreak to work on any carrier you want.

RichB

stevem2k - you may be with the same carrier as me, suggest you ask them the question

GC8WRX

Apple as a company are a bunch of ****, i will never be told by a company: if you purchase one of our products, you will have to use itunes to put tracks on it an any firmware updates will kill your phone if youve been tinkering with it!

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!

Sell the ******* thing as a standalone product that wiil work with any sim, and let joe public worry about their data plans!

And which tool gave it aac ringtones intead of mp3, oh thats right, apple, the people who thought up aac encoding, and will try to force it on users through itunes and iphones, which is wrong cos its a crap format no one uses except apple!

Apple business model:

Make niche products for years

Finally make something desireable, that every one wants!

Tie good product in with niche/crap products, so one wont work without the other

Sit back and laugh as joe public is forced to use niche/crap products cos they want desireable product

Crap/niche product gets loads of users now becomes mainstream!

Money rolls in!

repeat!

JackClark

I doubt they want you as a customer to be honest.

stevem2k

I may well do that

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

messiah

Sony are also starting to incorporate it as their default format, but I guess you hate them too eh?

I much prefer AAC over MP3 - on paper its technically the superior format (more accurate reproduction, slightly smaller file size) MP3 can sound fantastic if ripped using the appropriate software and a good encoder (EAC & LAME), obviously which you prefer is down to your personal taste

oh, and you can also use Media Monkey for syncing an iPod, you're not stuck with iTunes...

I take it you're using Windows eh?

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

anyone remember the horrible niche closed format they used...ATRAC

messiah

You can still use ATRAC if you have a Sony Walkman - I always thought it gave pretty good sound quality to be honest and it's still highly regarded. Only reason I chopped my 15 yr old Minidisc in was due to the capacity limitations - certainly not the sound quality.

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

but that was its downfall..the quality was superb, but the file sizes were immense. I suppose they were gambling on the increase in disk capacity

messiah

what were the file sizes?

AFAIK the capacity of a minidisc was about around 100mb? what kbps did it use as standard? I remember having a NetMD. god it was awful, only had a week before getting rid...

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

292kps I think and about 9-10 MB per track ..not a lot now, but a big deal in 1992

messiah

There's people that don't even go as high as 292 these days (heaven forbid!) I have all my stuff at 320AAC - no wonder the NetMD stuff sounded crap at 4x compression, that meant it was what? 73kbps - yuk.