Been holding out for O2 to slash the up-front costs of purchasing Apple's hugely-popular iPhone?
Well, if the revamped tariffs and 18 month deals haven't managed to lure you in, there's now another option - the ability to bag either the 8GB or 16GB iPhone 3G for free when signing up to a 24 month contract.
Beginning April 3rd, O2 will be introducing its lengthy 24 month contracts as an option for those looking to bypass the traditionally-costly start up fees associated with Apple's high-end handset. According to O2, the iPhone "is getting cheaper but only with a new 24 month contract". Here's how its tariffs will be shaping up:
| Monthly Charge (inc 15% VAT) | £34.26 |
£44.05 |
|---|---|---|
| Contract term | 24 month |
24 month |
| Minutes | 600 |
1,200 |
| Texts | 500 |
500 |
| Data (MB) | Unlimited |
Unlimited |
| Wi-Fi Hotspots | Unlimited |
Unlimited |
| iPhone 3G 8GB Price (inc 15% VAT) | Free |
Free |
| iPhone 3G 16GB Price (inc 15% VAT) | £57.74 |
Free |
Despite the omission of handset-purchasing fees, a quick calculation highlights that the free 8GB iPhone 3G carries a 24-month contract that will cost £822.24 over the course of two years. The higher-capacity 16GB iPhone 3G, meanwhile, will set customers back £1,057.20 - for reference's sake, that's more than a 2.66GHz iMac computer.
It's a substantial price to pay, but given the success of the iPhone thus far - and the hype surrounding iPhone OS 3.0 - we don't expect O2 to have much difficulty in signing up new long-term customers.
