Although the upfront handset prices are high on Orange, I think the tariffs themselves are better than O2's (e.g. for £35 on an 18 month contract, you get 600 minutes instead of O2's 300, and 750MB data instead of O2's 500MB).
Still no handset prices from O2, and still NOTHING AT ALL WHATSOEVER from T-Mobile, Three, & Vodafone.
I'm swaying towards an Orange contract at the moment.
I don't mind being tied to another contract... If I want to get iPhone 5 next year, I can do what I did last year for the 3GS & get one PAYG & then shove the v4 SIM in the v5 to see out the remainder of the contract.
Total cost of contract phone vs SIM free or PAYG phone seems fairly equivalent to me, with Orange (& presumably O2)... usual case of small lump upfront & high monthly cost versus big lump upfront & small monthly cost. SIM free may be £499, but if you take the £229 upfront cost of a £35 contract & add that to 18 months' worth of the difference* between a SIM only deal (£20) & a contract (£35) you get £229 + (18x£15) = £499.
*[I never understand why some people use 18 x the
full monthly tariff when working out the total cost of the phone...that £35pcm is not just for the phone, it includes usage too... so surely a better indicator of your monthly contribution towards paying off the subsidy is to take the cost of the contract tariff minus the SIM free tariff]
---------- Post added at 21:01 ---------- Previous post was at 20:57 ----------
Oh, & O2's "Guru James" has been replaced with "Guru Sarah".
Latest email links to the SIM swapping pages:
http://shop.o2.co.uk/new-iphone/aboutsimswap.html
http://swapmysim.o2.co.uk/