T-Mobile lowers price of G1 admission in the UK to better compete

If you were a bit taken aback by the £40 ($59) monthly tariff required to take the G1 home for free, apparently you weren't alone. T-Mobile has hacked that requirement down to £30 ($44) per month, and while the carrier itself has said that it's not a reaction to poor sales, industry analysts are saying otherwise. In fact, a company spokesperson even states that it has chosen to "offer the device free with a £30 contract to make the pricing more competitive in light of recent device launches," even though it is "well on track to achieve [its] sales forecasts." Whatever the agenda, we're all about getting phones into hands for less, so three cheers all around. Except for you early adopters... bummer, eh?

[Via Pocket-lint]

[Peter @ Dec 3rd 2008 7:50AM]

I think T-Mobile UK should buy Rogers; I want 18 month contracts.

[iEye @ Dec 3rd 2008 7:54AM]

Over Ted's dead body! , oh wait...

too soon?

[Samboini @ Dec 3rd 2008 7:56AM]

I loathe the fact that operators now screw you over more by putting minimum 18 month contracts; where are the decent yearly contracts of days gone by?

[Saad Rabia @ Dec 3rd 2008 7:58AM]

Hahahahahha, iEye. I don't get what you say, but I still laughed. :)

[omnicloud @ Dec 4th 2008 10:28PM]

@Samboini

Read the comment that you replied to. I INVITE you to look at Rogers' website and check out the plans that they have, they lock you to a 3 yr contract while still charging absurd amounts for the phone, and the contract isn't all flowers and butterflies either. $60/mo. (32 GBP) for 3GB of data not including voice, text, etc. The lowest tier 'iPhone plan' is the same price, 1GB of data, 250 minutes, 75 texts. This is all per month on a 3 year contract.

[iEye @ Dec 3rd 2008 7:56AM]

Well when that new Nokia 97 and the next iPhone come out they will need to start to pay people to take this thing out the door... free adapters are not going to cut it.

[OCEAN 'CLAK' 20th @ Dec 3rd 2008 8:03AM]

'i' agree

[OCEAN 'CLAK' 20th @ Dec 3rd 2008 6:32PM]

'i' agree

[craig @ Dec 3rd 2008 8:01AM]

btw you can get it on cheaper contracts such as £20 a month if you pay a bit for the phone

[Jimjam @ Dec 3rd 2008 7:59AM]

Lots of providers in the UK offer 1 month rolling contracts. Three also offers 6 month contracts, but if you want a pricey handset with a subsidised price, you have to pay them somehow.

[Saad Rabia @ Dec 3rd 2008 7:59AM]

LOL. You are getting low ranked, I can almost swear it.

[bongo123 @ Dec 3rd 2008 8:03AM]

I wouldnt take this phone if they offered it for free with a £10 all you can eat contract, it looks absolutely hideous!

[OCEAN 'CLAK' 20th @ Dec 3rd 2008 8:06AM]

'i' agree, most iphone knock off are hideous, except N97 and mieza

[Bad Beaver @ Dec 3rd 2008 8:10AM]

Thanks go out to T-Mobile Germany for not having anything comparable, wanting €39 (that's about £33 already) for flat data alone and making well sure you're being ripped off on texts.

[Félix @ Dec 3rd 2008 8:21AM]

I wish that kind of plans came to France...

[kerry @ Dec 3rd 2008 11:36AM]

And I wish it would come to the US. I rarely talk, but text a lot, so I'm stuck paying for texts on top of the required $30 minutes plan, even though I never come anywhere near using them all. If they treated minutes and texts like two sides of the same coin it would be better for all. Well, maybe not them, since they'd get less money from nerds like me.

[Dopefish @ Dec 3rd 2008 8:27AM]

You missed out the fact that they are also giving away a free 8GB MicroSD card with it!

[Adolf @ Dec 3rd 2008 10:33AM]

If this plan hit the US We would see the G1 really taking off BIGTIME.


The reasons why im ordering 2 iphones and NOT G1's on thursday.

T-mobile network isnt as good as ATT, expecially for G2.

The G1 with a decent card is the samre price at the iphone.

2 G1's with Data plan is the same price as 2 iphones.


So... the Iphone with ATT is the logical choice here Folks,
but bring THIS Deal to the table and you got people BITING, but im not seeing T-mobile us doing anything but letting the G1 fade away.

[Oli D @ Dec 3rd 2008 8:37AM]

Lets do some maths:

If Iphone Market share = 20 times that of a regular person.

Its a fact.

[Oli D @ Dec 3rd 2008 8:40AM]

First my use of greater thans cuts out half my comment, then i cant even reply...!

[Oli D @ Dec 3rd 2008 8:41AM]

If Iphone Market share = greater than 1%
And Number of pro Iphone comments are currently 3 out of 14
Then percentage of comments = 21%
Meaning Vivacity of Iphone users = less than 20 times that of a regular person.

But now these figures are outdated...

[Oli D @ Dec 3rd 2008 8:42AM]

alas i got it wrong again...

market share is less than 1%
vivacity is greater than 20 times...

Oh boy, you can tell i failed maths can't you?

[Sarig @ Dec 3rd 2008 9:18AM]

We get where you're going with it anyway ;)

[LondonConsultant @ Dec 3rd 2008 11:36AM]

If iPhone market share = greater than 20 regular persons
And number of iPhone keys = less than 5% of population
Then percentage of keys = 121%
Meaning IQ of iPhone users = less than 3 out of 14.

[Aaron @ Dec 3rd 2008 8:37AM]

That's a great price. Congratulations to T-Mobile, GSM-A, the ASA and everyone else for making the UK mobile phone market so competitive.

[ijyt @ Dec 3rd 2008 8:59AM]

Oh man, that's such a great price. First the Nokia N97 to laugh at my iPhone purchase and now this. I really hope that's the end of my bad karma.

[sockatume @ Dec 3rd 2008 9:00AM]

Most important, IMO, that contract includes the Web'n'Walk Plus tarriff for internet, which explicitly permits tethering so long as VoIP or audio/video streaming are not used.

[a_friend @ Dec 3rd 2008 9:13AM]

this price drop happened a while ago by no means is it new news........

[Live Crunch @ Dec 3rd 2008 9:33AM]

That's great news, I was wondering why people at http://www.tmobileg1fans.com were bragging about it. Thing is UK G1's can't do voice dialing, I don't know why but they can't.

[Phrank @ Dec 3rd 2008 10:00AM]

S'cos y'all talk funny. :-D

[matt @ Dec 3rd 2008 6:52PM]

We speak proper English ;)

[Richard Green @ Dec 3rd 2008 10:07AM]

Yay.. more people to download and play this game I wrote for the g1 - barcode beasties... Am still after comments and constructive criticism btw.... Who knows - maybe one day the marketplace will be a place to actually sell software too ?

[Shugg @ Dec 3rd 2008 7:24PM]

It's sad that google/htc/android failed miserably with their ""iPhone-killer"".iPhone was announced in jan of 07 n here we are still looking for phone that will ko the iPhone .tmobil was forced to slash price to $148 within 10 days of release,,.the funny part is that iPhone haters have at one point owned an iPod.

[Alex Noble @ Dec 3rd 2008 1:24PM]

Two week old news.

[Eddy08 @ Dec 3rd 2008 7:44PM]

Well there also some rumors floating around that by next year the iphone will be able to use the 3G network of T-mob (not sure just asking since i want to know if anybody has heard this similar rumor) but can you imaging how much sales will T-mobile get if they manage to lure more ATT customers to their site, and hopelly increase their 3G service outside of NYC(from what i been seen the 3G network of both companies are working real well)

[BluVoodo @ Dec 3rd 2008 2:57PM]

Perhaps, T Mobile finally realizes that people aren't going to carry this cheap looking klunky plastic phone. :)

[breaklaw @ Dec 3rd 2008 3:20PM]

As an American living in the UK, this is just a small example of how much better the Europeans have it when it comes to cell phones (mo-byles).

The industry is way more competeative here, they get WAY more phones, sooner and cheaper than we ever get. There is no Verizon with a different network requiring different phones. There is no blocking of features. The plans are better and more flexible, the list goes on.

We have it much better on tech in general, but phones, we get the serious shaft in the USA.

[matt @ Dec 3rd 2008 6:53PM]

Also, in Belgium, I believe all phones are unlocked.

[Wally @ Dec 3rd 2008 3:32PM]

If you Americans get the shaft from the phone companies with their mobile plans in comparison to the Brits, then the Canadians get royally screwed.

[OCEAN 'CLAK' 20th @ Dec 3rd 2008 6:34PM]

iPhone

[Hasney @ Dec 4th 2008 7:06AM]

I;m getting mine in march. Can't wait