iPhone filter: Which country got the best deal?
October 4, 2009 1:22 AM Subscribe
iPhone filter: Which country got the best deal?
I know there really is no such thing as a "good deal" when it comes to buying an iPhone, but since the rules differ from country to country, I think it would be interesting to compare. I'm interested in:
1. Is it offered by one carrier or more than one?
2. Is the phone typically locked to the carrier?
3. Is the phone locked into a plan? How long is the plan? Cost?
4. Can you buy the phone without a plan? Cost?
And any other relevant information. Are any of these things allowed or not allowed due to local laws?
I know there really is no such thing as a "good deal" when it comes to buying an iPhone, but since the rules differ from country to country, I think it would be interesting to compare. I'm interested in:
1. Is it offered by one carrier or more than one?
2. Is the phone typically locked to the carrier?
3. Is the phone locked into a plan? How long is the plan? Cost?
4. Can you buy the phone without a plan? Cost?
And any other relevant information. Are any of these things allowed or not allowed due to local laws?
Response by poster: Good link for some of the info:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1937
posted by hipersons at 1:49 AM on October 4, 2009
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1937
posted by hipersons at 1:49 AM on October 4, 2009
We're in London, and we've got two iPhones with O2.
I'm paying £44.05 a month for 1200 minutes and 500 texts for mine, and Mrs Mutant pays £20 a month but is a very light user (just finishing Business School) so she's on what's called pay as you go. She pays £0.20 a minute for voice calls however can select what they call a "favourite place" where voice calls originating from a specific location are free. She also gets unlimited (AUP of course) data from her iPhone.
Both phones came with a bundled (i.e., free) subscription to The Cloud, which is a UK WiFi services provider - very common in pubs. Truth be told, I've never used this service except to verify it works as 3G is pervasive where I spend my time.
We paid £399 for her phone (i.e., purchased without a plan), while mine under contract was a nominal sum (IIRC, £45), and these phones are locked. Don't see how that is much of an issue, as street market traders claim to be able to unlock them for £10.
Typical plan length is two years which means I'll be ready to upgrade next July (just in time for something much better than the 3GS he's hoping).
Now the interesting thing here is two other carriers claim to be launching iPhones "soon". Orange announced perhaps one month ago and Vodafone followed suit perhaps two weeks ago (not really sure of precise timing).
Neither has publicly mentioned an availability date, however speculation is either Apple is fed up with complaints about O2 (I've none, as I live & work in Central London, so 3G has always been ok for me) and in order to expand market share have decided to offer to additional vendors.
Rumour has it each will be offering two to three year contracts, which does indeed seem to be the industry norm here in the UK for smartphones.
I've got friends in Paris and they've purchased iPhones completely without contracts but the prices were prohibitive, a little over 700 EUR I believe, however that was last year so prices may have changed. I think there are other EU countries where consumers must be offered an option for purchasing a product WITHOUT a contract.
posted by Mutant at 2:02 AM on October 4, 2009
I'm paying £44.05 a month for 1200 minutes and 500 texts for mine, and Mrs Mutant pays £20 a month but is a very light user (just finishing Business School) so she's on what's called pay as you go. She pays £0.20 a minute for voice calls however can select what they call a "favourite place" where voice calls originating from a specific location are free. She also gets unlimited (AUP of course) data from her iPhone.
Both phones came with a bundled (i.e., free) subscription to The Cloud, which is a UK WiFi services provider - very common in pubs. Truth be told, I've never used this service except to verify it works as 3G is pervasive where I spend my time.
We paid £399 for her phone (i.e., purchased without a plan), while mine under contract was a nominal sum (IIRC, £45), and these phones are locked. Don't see how that is much of an issue, as street market traders claim to be able to unlock them for £10.
Typical plan length is two years which means I'll be ready to upgrade next July (just in time for something much better than the 3GS he's hoping).
Now the interesting thing here is two other carriers claim to be launching iPhones "soon". Orange announced perhaps one month ago and Vodafone followed suit perhaps two weeks ago (not really sure of precise timing).
Neither has publicly mentioned an availability date, however speculation is either Apple is fed up with complaints about O2 (I've none, as I live & work in Central London, so 3G has always been ok for me) and in order to expand market share have decided to offer to additional vendors.
Rumour has it each will be offering two to three year contracts, which does indeed seem to be the industry norm here in the UK for smartphones.
I've got friends in Paris and they've purchased iPhones completely without contracts but the prices were prohibitive, a little over 700 EUR I believe, however that was last year so prices may have changed. I think there are other EU countries where consumers must be offered an option for purchasing a product WITHOUT a contract.
posted by Mutant at 2:02 AM on October 4, 2009
I'm in Australia and I don't own an iPhone, but I covet one and was looking at plans the other day:
1. Yes, found offerings from Optus, Telstra, Virgin Mobile, Three Mobile and Vodaphone.
2. No, not locked on pre-paid contract; yes locked on pre-paid. Can get unlocked for $80 or so if you want to change providers.
3. Most plans were contract, but there were also (expensive) prepaid plans. There were some pretty good contract plans with Optus business - $99 unlimted call minutes, 5GB of data.
4. Yes, you could buy the phone upfront for around $800.
posted by t0astie at 3:16 AM on October 4, 2009
1. Yes, found offerings from Optus, Telstra, Virgin Mobile, Three Mobile and Vodaphone.
2. No, not locked on pre-paid contract; yes locked on pre-paid. Can get unlocked for $80 or so if you want to change providers.
3. Most plans were contract, but there were also (expensive) prepaid plans. There were some pretty good contract plans with Optus business - $99 unlimted call minutes, 5GB of data.
4. Yes, you could buy the phone upfront for around $800.
posted by t0astie at 3:16 AM on October 4, 2009
Well, I imagine you're in the US and curious about other countries, but in the event you are not, and for comparison's sake, here is what I got in the states:
1. AT&T is the only possible carrier without jailbreaking.
2. Yes, and protected by US contract law.
3. My plan with AT&T is 2 years (penalty for breaking it is costly) and costs $75 USD a month. That is $40 for the cellular plan ("Nation 450 Rollover & 5000 Night/Weekend & Unlimited Mobile-To-Mobile Minutes"), $30 for the data plan (Internet access over 3G/Edge), and $5 for SMS. My bill gets about $5 more from various government feeds, so totals $80 USD.
4. I bought my phone at an AT&T store, and they would not sell it to me without signing a contract.
Addendum: I only paid $99 for the actual phone (a 3G). My understanding is it cost $399 at the time and that the AT&T contract subsidized the cost.
posted by cj_ at 4:57 AM on October 4, 2009
1. AT&T is the only possible carrier without jailbreaking.
2. Yes, and protected by US contract law.
3. My plan with AT&T is 2 years (penalty for breaking it is costly) and costs $75 USD a month. That is $40 for the cellular plan ("Nation 450 Rollover & 5000 Night/Weekend & Unlimited Mobile-To-Mobile Minutes"), $30 for the data plan (Internet access over 3G/Edge), and $5 for SMS. My bill gets about $5 more from various government feeds, so totals $80 USD.
4. I bought my phone at an AT&T store, and they would not sell it to me without signing a contract.
Addendum: I only paid $99 for the actual phone (a 3G). My understanding is it cost $399 at the time and that the AT&T contract subsidized the cost.
posted by cj_ at 4:57 AM on October 4, 2009
Just to be clear Jailbreaking is different from Unlocking, Jailbreaking lets you run non-apple authorised apps and unlocking will let you use the phone with any carrier you wish.
I've got both a UK and a French Iphone, SFR(the french one) offered 2 contracts of 12 and 24 months, but explicitly stated that if you have to leave the country due to work reasons then you could cancel the contract at any time. The 12 month contact was a few euros more expensive but should match the life cycle of an iphone perfectly when the contract is up there shouldn't be any problem moving to another carrier as France isn't locked into just one.
Another thing to take into consideration is the edge coverage of each Carrier which can vary wildly in certain areas. It's quite rare for someone to have the 3g on their phone enabled all the time and where I live I cannot get Edge only GPRS while people with the exact same phone but on a different carrier don't have that problem.
posted by MrCynical at 6:53 AM on October 4, 2009
I've got both a UK and a French Iphone, SFR(the french one) offered 2 contracts of 12 and 24 months, but explicitly stated that if you have to leave the country due to work reasons then you could cancel the contract at any time. The 12 month contact was a few euros more expensive but should match the life cycle of an iphone perfectly when the contract is up there shouldn't be any problem moving to another carrier as France isn't locked into just one.
Another thing to take into consideration is the edge coverage of each Carrier which can vary wildly in certain areas. It's quite rare for someone to have the 3g on their phone enabled all the time and where I live I cannot get Edge only GPRS while people with the exact same phone but on a different carrier don't have that problem.
posted by MrCynical at 6:53 AM on October 4, 2009
You may want to consider how much area each carrier covers, and if they offer international coverage; I'd wager that for those who travel, coverage across the United States may be more impressive to someone who has coverage in the United Kingdom, for example.
posted by meowzilla at 10:25 PM on October 4, 2009
posted by meowzilla at 10:25 PM on October 4, 2009
Wow cj_, my government fees/taxes adds up to about $15/month in the US and I have the cheapest, most basic iPhone plan. Its amazing how much that sort of thing varies across the US.
posted by Bunglegirl at 7:50 AM on October 5, 2009
posted by Bunglegirl at 7:50 AM on October 5, 2009
1. Yes and No. It's on sale from Rogers and Fido, but they are technically the same company.
2. The phones are locked.
3. The phones are on sale with 3 year contracts, which get you them for $99, $199, or $299 depending on the model. 3 fucking years. There are a bunch of different iPhone plans. This being Canada they suck. You can also add data to an existing, probably expensive as fuck, voice plan. When I did this on Fido, it was $30 for 6 gigs. This was a deal, and doesn't exist anymore. I think 30 bucks gets you 1 gig of data now. $25 gets you 500 megs, and $80 gets you 5 gigs. I can't make shit like this up.
4. You can buy the phones without a plan. 16GB iPhone 3GS: $699, and the 32GB iPhone 3GS: $799.
posted by chunking express at 1:09 PM on October 5, 2009
2. The phones are locked.
3. The phones are on sale with 3 year contracts, which get you them for $99, $199, or $299 depending on the model. 3 fucking years. There are a bunch of different iPhone plans. This being Canada they suck. You can also add data to an existing, probably expensive as fuck, voice plan. When I did this on Fido, it was $30 for 6 gigs. This was a deal, and doesn't exist anymore. I think 30 bucks gets you 1 gig of data now. $25 gets you 500 megs, and $80 gets you 5 gigs. I can't make shit like this up.
4. You can buy the phones without a plan. 16GB iPhone 3GS: $699, and the 32GB iPhone 3GS: $799.
posted by chunking express at 1:09 PM on October 5, 2009
« Older How far could a starship travel in 900? | Finding an MP3 of TMBG rarity "No Answer"? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
1. Sold by Mobistar and some Apple resellers
2. Not locked (illegal)
3. No plan required, no discount if you do take a plan, can purchase to use on any carrier (otherwise illegal)
4. 16gb is €575 ($839) and 32gb is €675 ($985)
posted by eendje at 1:46 AM on October 4, 2009