Apple picks O2 for UK, T-Mobile for Germany?
By Ryan Block 
posted Jul 5th 2007 12:57AM
posted Jul 5th 2007 12:57AM
Yeah, that's apparently what's going down -- the iPhone will be over the Atlantic "in time for Christmas," according to The Times. That is, assuming they can quickly localise its dialogue for easy manoeuvring in the UK market, aye guv'na? Oh, and Apple still has to sign the paperwork, too, so it isn't necessarily over.P.S. -Naw, doesn't necessarily mean Vodafone is out -- remember, they're so freaking all over the place Apple might just get Vodafone distro somewhere else in the world.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Update: The piece also notes that Orange is the front-runner in France. As a reminder, German paper Rheinische Post reported that T-Mobile's locked down the iPhone for Deutsche release. Apparently it'll land for €450 (about $612) on November 1st. More as it develops. Congratulations, Europe, now you too can experience absolutely insane consumer hysteria that is an iPhone launch! Thanks, Chinman.
I thought somebody here said that O2 wouldn't be chosen because they spent too much money buying the Millenium Dome. See? You never know what's going to take place in the future, so why bother to speculate so much.
That was me, I just said that I hope o2 get it but they are probably a bit hard up for cash after the dome! Don't take my word or anything I know absolutely nothing about o2's finances, I really really really want the iPhone to be on o2.....they even have white shops theyre perfect for each other
Did O2 actually buy the dome or are they just sponsering it like the 'British Airways London Eye'?
OK. I forgive you.
O2 own "The O2" (a.k.a the dome) and they had funding from their parent company Telefonica as an investment in new and exiting ideas and also to get in on the 2012 olympics. O2 are never short of money as they are part of one of the larget telecoms companies in europe.
Curses, Drat and Double Drat, Foiled again by the Puppet Master Jobs! To quote a famous yankee scholar named Yogie "We wont really know until we know, wont we"...
P.S. Ryan, stop working so hard and get some sleep Bud :^)...
Hm. iPhone will see some real competition abroad with more feature rich phones. I wonder if it'll get 3G?
As a European looking at this iPhone - 2003 called, they want their features back ;)
But seriously the European market, especially the UK, is so competititive. Activation charges are unheard of because the networks are desperate for you to sign. In fact most will give you a rebate of somekind, Orange offer £100 ($200) credited to your line rental, others will offer 6 to 9 months half price or even free (after rebate). Some even give you a free DS lite/PSP/Nano when you sign up.
At the moment 'three' offer a free Nokia E65 300mins, 150 texts, unlimited skype to skype, MSN messenger, browsing, data, slingbox and orb access for £35 ($70) a month.
The iPhone will still sell of course 'cos it looks so nice, but i dont think it will be the inexplicable success the iPods were. Not in its current incarnation anyway.
As a European looking at this iPhone - 2003 called, they want their features back ;)
But seriously the European market, especially the UK, is so competititive. Activation charges are unheard of because the networks are desperate for you to sign. In fact most will give you a rebate of somekind, Orange offer £100 ($200) credited to your line rental, others will offer 6 to 9 months half price or even free (after rebate). Some even give you a free DS lite/PSP/Nano when you sign up.
At the moment 'three' offer a free Nokia E65 300mins, 150 texts, unlimited skype to skype, MSN messenger, browsing, data, slingbox and orb access for £35 ($70) a month.
The iPhone will still sell of course 'cos it looks so nice, but i dont think it will be the inexplicable success the iPods were. Not in its current incarnation anyway.
ok...so if the 3g iphone comes out in Europe, then I wonder. Can you buy a European iphone and swap the sim cards. If you can, I'd be pissed!
I mean, WHYTF couldn't they have released a 3g iphone in America. Steve jobs is gonna get his ass whooped. I'm returning my iphone!
It would depend on what frequency the high speed was on. Anyway I wouldn't bet on it.
and who said the 'christmass' edition of the EU iphone will be 3G?
Europe is not gonna settle for anything less.
In fact, the mere mention of EDGE in Europe is enough to get you shot:)
ENOUGH ON THE iPHONE. Get on with life!
Would be WONDERFUL if Voda managed to get rights to in Australia....
i would prefer Three, their data plan is many times cheaper.
True, but since I don't live in a capital city their coverage leaves much to be desired...
Same, i dont care who, i just want it in AU!
I will take Vodaphone :(
nah, it would better with optus. does any aus provider actually have edge tho? I don't think they do, but don't bite my head off if i'm wrong
yeah, Telstra has edge, but i think everyone's hoping for a 3G iPhone here in OZ.
No iPhone launch news for Australia yet. Still waiting patiently over here for news :)
I don't even know whether it'll be such a hype overhere.
In Belgium nothing really seems like a big hype.
XBox 360s were abundand in stores, don't think the iPhone is going to make much of a difference.
If you know how long it took for the iPod to take off ...
And why on earth would i want to switch to an expensive provider with and expensive phone, when i'm always close to a computer and paying my own cellphone bill ?
@ Jeroen VB,
After everything else would pale in comparison. :-D Just kidding, I loved his cheesy movies as a kid.
Seriously though, the iPod isn't a good comparison for the launch. People weren't familiar with an Apple handheld device at the time, Apple was still getting it's tech-legs backs, the iPod was initially released only for the Mac platform and had no iTS yet.
Plus, despite it's popularity now, the Jobs introduced the iPod to a less than energetic crows who obviously see what Jobs saw with their portable music player.
Man, those crazy belgians. You just don't know what they're going to do next.
@ Jeroen VB,
After Jean-Claude Van Damme everything else would pale in comparison. :-D Just kidding, I loved his cheesy movies as a kid.
(now that line makes more sense)
Seriously though, the iPod isn't a good comparison for the launch. People weren't familiar with an Apple handheld device at the time, Apple was still getting it's tech-legs backs, the iPod was initially released only for the Mac platform and had no iTS yet.
Plus, despite it's popularity now, the Jobs introduced the iPod to a less than energetic crows who obviously see what Jobs saw with their portable music player.
How is this going to work in the UK? Over here its illegal for providers to lock phones to their networks, they can initially but your totally entitled to request a SIM unlock code from your provider free of charge.
So for them to lock it to O2 and not give you the unlock code will be breaking the law.
Wouldn't surprise me if other providers got ahold of licences to sell iPhones either. As far as I'm aware though, there's no laws regarding locking phones to a certain network... I could be completly wrong though, so you may want to check for sure there are laws for this.
Actually, I'm not sure if they are obliged to give one, but even once your contracts up, they can still charge a fee!
Online petition for 3G/EDGE in the UK:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/iPhoneUK/index.html
Yeah, good luck with that petition.
So let me get this right...
Almost every single network has now been linked with the iPhone launch...
Colour me unimpressed! Give me a heads up when there's an official press release!
All I can guess is there is some serious behind the scenes talks going down in Europe.
Why o2 in the UK? Orange has the only EDGE network. Unless, this means we will get a 3G iPhone! o2 does have a lovely HSDPA network.
No, O2 do not have a nice data network. One of their top execs said recently that introducing flat rate data tariffs would "break their network" (or words to that effect). At the last count they only have around 5500 3G masts, which is the same amount 3 had when they launched a few years ago (and we all know how well that went!).
If they want this to be a success, my preference would be T-Mobile, followed by Orange, then Voda. Why T-Mob? They don't lock down their phones to the same extent that Orange do (for instance not allowing third party apps to be installed on Windows Mobile devices).
"One of their top execs said recently that introducing flat rate data tariffs would "break their network"."
Like 10-odd million iPhones constantly sending and receiving data won't?
Nooooooooo not O2! I guess it would make sense after Apple's everso popular choice of Networks for the US....
Totally better be joking...
Meh!
How about Alaska??!! Hello Apple! We really are a state!
:'(... Nothing in Canada.... I feel so hated....
Ironically, O2 are the only carrier in the UK not to offer flat rate Internet access.
£300+ is way too expensive though. You can get phones with much better features for free in the UK.
@ Rich: Additionally, O2 are a carrier in the UK that do not currently have an EDGE capable network.
AFAIK, the ONLY network in the UK with EDGE capability at the moment is Orange, which is a shame as their service is poor, prices are high and given their desire to brand the hell out of everything on their network I doubt they'll play nice with his Jobsness. Oh, their *unlimited* mobile internet tarriff has a "fair-use" cap of 30Mb per month too!
Dear America,
Please don't send your slow, over-priced, feature-crippled crap over here. We have enough of our own.
Thank you
Britain
"Congratulations, Europe, now you too can experience absolutely insane consumer hysteria that is an iPhone launch!"
Well, I don’t think apple is going to pull that off over here. Europeans are much more sober I think. Not only because its a hell of a lot of money for European standards (specially for Germans because there currency is beer i believe), but also that everything comes later on the market than in the USA (computers, movies. etc) or Japan (consoles, games, hentai, etc.) or so.
And the iPhone isn’t as hyped over here as it is over there. The reviews are pretty bad in my point of view. Besides, we have reasonable alternatives, like the Prada iPhoneKILLERRR. Its not an iPhone, but its here and now.
I'm quite bored of this - everyday brings a new european carrier rumour. I just want to know it really is now - please Apple put out a formal release so we know for real.
And to correct someone earleir, O2 are only sponsoring the Dome, it was bought by AEG who own venues like the Staples centre (center).
In the UK O2 don't lock their contract handsets, although companies must provide an unlock code they are allowed to charge a "reasonable amount" - so interesting to see what happens.
Although no great iphone fan I think O2 would be the best network, if they can privide a decent flat rate internet access, besides by the time Orange and/or Vodafone hack about with the interface adding those little touches it wouldn't resemble Steve's vision anyway.
Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile and Orange set the "reasonable amount" to around £20. However, 3 set it £100+. I don't know how they get away with it but I wouldn't be surprised on Apple setting the unlocking fee for the iPhone to an equally unreasonable "reasonable amount".
But still, under UK law, they *must* unlock it on request.
I'm really doubting that Apple will go with one exclusive carrier for the iPhone in Europe. They had to do it in the US, because when they approached the carriers and asked for changes like Visual Voicemail, they had no device to show to back them up. Now, with the enormous amount of hype that the iPhone has generated in the US, no carrier wanting to stay in this market would claim the investments in changing infrastructure aren't worth it.
And in Europe, carriers like Vodafone, O2, and T-Mobile are everywhere. They're pretty much in every EU country. I'm not sure about Orange, but I've only ever really noticed them in the UK and France. It's different from the US in that these are different countries with the same network operators. If you pick one operator, you're leaving behind many millions of potential customers, because the phone market is in this superpower-like position. It would be unwise to choose a single carrier, when Apple certainly has enough leverage now to command all three.
O2? OH NO!!!!!!
If it's true that O2 is the exclusive UK network well then I'll will NEVER EVER OWN AN IPHONE. I would rank this as Steve Jobs single biggest F**k up!
I work at the ad agency for O2 and they are the sleaziest, slimiest, most dishonest, least imaginative, worst service in the UK. I'm on vodafone even though I could get an employee discount on O2. I would switch to T-Mobile, Orange, Virgin, Fresh, hell even smoke and signals for an iPhone but I won't be switching to O2. This is the worst news I've heard all year.
Fired, Much?
no gary. prat much?
Jobs, fall off that F.....g high horse. If ya wanna sell a phone, sell it, if not, stop pissing people around!!!! And the big delay is "How much can we rip Europe for" (remember its under $200 or £100 to make)
UK: O2
Germany: T-Mobile
France: Orange
What will happen in Spain? O2 is a partner of Telefonica but we have Orange here to.. and I still hope Vodafone will get the deal.
Excellent news. In my opinion, O2 and ORange are the best networks in the UK, so both will suit me down to the ground. I'm just wondering how Apple would bypass the UK unlocking law, as I imagine they want to.
I bet that as soon the iPhone will land in EU it will get hacked for all sim cards... at least for that.
Guys, just because a phone has to be unlocked it doesn;t mean you aren't liable for your contract payments. I can get my Vario II unlocked from T-Mobile if I want and use it on Orange, but I'd still owe T-Mobile another 8 months worth of payments!
Not keen on O2, their price plans are horendous as soon as you attempt to add data. The only network with a decent data plan is T-Mobile with their £7.50 unlimited plan with a 2GB fair use policy.
Count me down as another against Jobs picking O2 for the UK. Funnily enough, I'm an existing O2 customer, but I'm only hanging on with them because I'm past my contract obligation period and now just waiting to find out who is getting the iPhone in the UK.
I received an O2 customer service call yesterday (receive quite a few of these now that my contract isn't locked-in) and the rep. offered a flat-fee data bolt on pack for £45!?! I told him that I could get a flat-rate fair usage policy from T-Mobile for £12.50, but there wasn't anything they could do. Oh, but I could get 5mb for £15 - bargain......Fingers crossed for T-Mobile then.
With the US iPhones they already come with a sim with 3G on written on the sim do you think the iphones for Europe and Asia-Pacific will be identical to the US handsets and Apple will just simply pipe a Update through iTunes??
Yes, and with the update there will also float a 3G chipset magicly through the air that will solder itself on to your iPhone.
I suspect Apple is just trying to keep good relationships with all the various huge mega-providers worldwide. So basically everyone is getting in on a little bit of the action. Obviously this keeps competition down better than the other way to do this, which would just be to offer the phone to Orange, Vodafone, and O2 in the same country.
Pretty clever move actually, since I'm sure the phone companies would rather have a lock on the iPhone in a few countries rather than having to compete in all their territories.
I'm moving to France :(
They'll probably sell it unlocked, but with o2, you never know.
Aside from that, I'm surprised they're thinking about shipping it to France and Germany, when Italy has a much bigger mobile phone market than these two countries (and they're allowed to sell locked phones btw)
Just a thought. The UK 3G licence holders have to cover 70% of the population by Decmeber 31st 2007 in order to comply with their licences (the ones they paid £22 billion for). WCDMA cells 'breath' i.e. they get physically bigger and smaller as the amount of traffic on them increases. I happen to knwo that o2 have pretty much stopped rolling out any new 3G sites and are touch and go when it comes to their population coverage. Do they really need a load of neards like me using up all of their bandwidth in Q4 2007 watching You Tube videos on their iPhones?
Shouldn't be a problem if all the iPhones are on their EDGE network instead.
O2 dont have EDGE, only Orange in the UK, guess well be stuck with GPRS..
Interesting. As you probably saw above, I was under the impression that EDGE was actually fairly widespread, if little talked about.
It seems that the iPhone will not be available in Italy since the 2008. Having one of the biggest and most reliable G3 and G2.5 network in Europe and being Italy the 4th market in the world for mobile phone against population I believe this is a big mistake.
This announcement will be taken seriously by the italian Apple Community and, to me, will seriously delay the spread of Apple products in the national market.
Bad call guys...
Anyway, I'm a Nokia person...
Mac users are not supported in O2 billing system - This is somewhat worrying, I had this from O2 this morning when trying to view my bill on there website i wrote them and got this reply -
"You're unable to view your bills because our website doesn't support the Macintosh computer.
Please try to view your bill on a computer that has Windows. I'm sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused and thank you for your patience."
If I was from Apple and in discussions with them I would tell em to get out door.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=abO7i.hUUOps&refer=uk
" July 5 (Bloomberg) -- Telefonica SA's O2 wireless unit said it hasn't signed a deal with Apple Inc. to be the exclusive U.K. network partner for the iPhone mobile device.
``No deal has been signed with Apple,'' O2 spokesman David Nicholas said today by telephone from London. ``We don't comment on rumor or speculation.''
The response comes after the Financial Times, citing people close to the talks, reported that O2 is close to a deal to be the exclusive network provider for the iPhone in the U.K. The O2 deal is a blow to Newbury, England-based Vodafone Group Plc, the world's largest mobile operator, which was seen as the frontrunner for the contract, the Daily Telegraph reported. "...
Damn you financial times for hurting my stock!
3G? Get with the times. HSDPA is rolling out (certainly where I live). If the iPhone is only 3G and is launched for December it will be like all the other Mac products - too little,too late and only the fanboy club will buy it (at any price as they do with every other Apple product).
I bought the iPhone the first day it came out in Reno, NV. I flew to the UK 2 days ago and brought my iPhone. I turned it on in Gatwick Airport and it immediately connected to O2. I guess I am roaming. I have been able to send and receive text messages and all my email. If I wanted to, I could have connected to any wireless hotspot.
Now I am in Italy. The iPhone immediately connected to the vodaphone network. I am able to receive text messages and not send them. What does everyone think?
Andrew
I really, really hope that this turns out to be wrong. I was with O2 for 9 years through numerous name changes and finally got round to moving away from them because of their poor customer service, noncompetitive pricing and almost non existent data plans. Getting the iphone would leave us with extortionately expensive data plans :(
I have been watching this for the past few days. Until yesterday, everyone thought Vodafone was a lock, perhaps for most/all of Europe. However, the earlier rumor/news about T-mobile getting the contract for Germany along with this latest rumor/news about O2 suggests Vodafone, whose biggest strength was the breadth of their subscriber base across Europe.
It also suggests that Apple's European carrier strategy is similar to their US carrier strategy of partnering with someone they can exert more leverage over, which gives them more strength in negotiations to extract things like a share of services revenue. Given Vodafone's reach, they might have thought they had more leverage with Apple than they apparently did.
As for the 2.5G vs 3G issue. I understand that T-mobile, and perhaps other European carriers actually have fairly widespread, and fairly new, EDGE networks in addition to the even newer 3G UTMS networks, so a EDGE iPhone sounds like it would work as well in Europe as it does in the US. That would probably explain why the current iPhone is Quad-band too.
Anyone know more about the relative state of EDGE vs 3G networks in England, Germany & France?
Only Orange have EDGE in the UK, there is no real need for it since when they were implementing GPRS they were also buying 3G licenses. I don't know about other EU states but imagine the situation is similar.
I can only talk about the UK...
Vodafone: No EDGE, very good HSDPA/UMTS network
T-Mobile: Very very little EDGE, very good HSDPA/UMTS network
Orange: Patchy EDGE coverage, average UMTS network
O2: No EDGE, reasonable UMTS network
3: No EDGE, very good UMTS network
If the iPhone is only going to support GPRS/EDGE, Orange would be the logical choice in the UK. But when you've got decent HSDPA coverage running at ten times the speed of EDGE, Apple would be shooting themselves in the foot by releasing an EDGE-only iPhone in the UK.
Thanks, Marty & xbit!
o2 in ireland sells all apples stuff macbooks & ipod o2 wouldnt surprise me
I have been watching this for the past few days. Until yesterday, everyone thought Vodafone was a lock, perhaps for most/all of Europe. However, the earlier rumor/news about T-mobile getting the contract for Germany along with this latest rumor/news about O2 suggests Vodafone, whose biggest strength was the breadth of their subscriber base across Europe.
It also suggests that Apple's European carrier strategy is similar to their US carrier strategy of partnering with someone they can exert more leverage over, which gives them more strength in negotiations to extract things like a share of services revenue. Given Vodafone's reach, they might have thought they had more leverage with Apple than they apparently did.
As for the 2.5G vs 3G issue. I understand that T-mobile, and perhaps other European carriers actually have fairly widespread, and fairly new, EDGE networks in addition to the even newer 3G UTMS networks, so a EDGE iPhone sounds like it would work as well in Europe as it does in the US. That would probably explain why the current iPhone is Quad-band too.
Anyone know more about the relative state of EDGE vs 3G networks in England, Germany & France?
I think this is horrible news as you may travel to other countries and have to pay loads to use your phone in Roaming mode, etc... It'd much better to be able to have a Europe-wide carrier. I just hope they select Orange in Spain as they're so much less expensive than Vodafone!!!
What about canada guys? Seriously every time a cool gadget comes out... we get screwed all the way! Haven't you heard anything about us poor canadian? I know I might sound like an apple fanboy but i'm seriously considering piking up a plan with At&t... I went over to a Rogers store the other day and for 140$ canadian (or 133 USD) I get unlimited evening and week-ends + 400 minutes during the day, a voicemail box, no sms plan and 25 meg of download! Seriously what is wrong with canadian providers?
just a though I had on this... Maybe Rogers are being snoby at apple because they want an affordable unlimited plan for the iPhone! I remember back when rogers bought Fido, they removed all the unlimited plans fido had! What do you think?
Bring out the iPhone on Orange at least that way you get by 1 get 1 free on a wednesday for the movies and maybe throw in a working xbox 360 im fed of sending it back.
Bring the iPhone on Orange and ill buy one on launch day.
I really hope Apple decide on Vodafone, network coverage is by far the best of all the networks, they have an ok data plan (£7.50 = 120mb), though not as good as T-Mobile's data plan.
3G coverage is pretty decent too on Vodafone, I think I could settle with Orange if they decided that way but I think it is unlikely as I don't think they have a proper data plan.
O2 would be a really bad choice as their lack of a decent data plan as already mentioned by people plus their 3G/Edge/Network coverage isn't as good as Vodafone or Orange. T-Mobile is appauling where I live but is cheap, though i'd rather pay a little bit extra and get good reception to be honest.
My Vodafone contract is almost up and i'm waiting to see who Apple will definatly choice before I sign anything else, I hope Apple will sell unlocked iPhones so I can just put a Vodafone sim card in.
Any word on who will provide service for the iPhone in Ireland (Republic)?
Australia does not deserve the iPhone. As an australian living in europe, I sneer at your (my) remote, overtaxed, under serviced english mining colony, and hope you never get it. It wouldn't be fair. You have steak and fish. You have a hole in the ozone layer. What more do you want?
Hey, nobody has said anything about the impending iPhone release in Irark. What is that about? It is a prerequisite for a modern democracy, surely? And, also, does Putin have one? Cause you know he wants one so bad.
As for this talk of EU laws, if the EU laws kill the release of the iPhone before christmas I am gonna sue the son of a bitch papist freak responsible.
Why bother with exclusive networks!
Put it on more than one so we get competitive prices!