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3 to offer iPhone next year

Orange will sell it next month

Orange UK will start selling the iPhone early next month. And 3 has said it will offer the in-demand handset next year.

Orange will begin selling the handset in Britain on 10 November – one day after O2’s two-year exclusive ends, according to a report by The Guardian.

Orange announced in late September it would “bring the iPhone 3G and 3GS to Orange UK customers later this year”. So far, it has refused to specify an exact launch date.

It’s not yet known how much Orange will charge customers for the iPhone 3G and 3GS.

Meanwhile, Kevin Russell, Chief Executive of network operator 3, reportedly said at a recent event in Westminster that he expects “the iPhone to be on the 3 network sometime during 2010”.

Vodafone has also said it will sell the iPhone, but not until “early 2010”. T-Mobile is already offering the iPhone 3G to business customers. ®

Latest Comments

T-Mobile offers to Business customers?

EH since when? Is it just me that read that bit?

They don't offer it as far as I am aware, I can't wait for Orange to sell the iPhone curious to the cost - I hated O2 as they wanted £100 and a more expensive tariff when i renewed - I pay enough :)

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Bad Idea

If 3 have to wait for next year and with others already offering iphones, the wow factor would have been long gone. Like every chav..Oik etc would flaunt one.

Now whats the next best thing coming out of apple stables ?

Too late to join the party ... and cant be bothered anymore with alternate offerings and touchscreens everywhere.

Paris cos she still has the wow factor.

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can't wait to get on to three

3 don't block stuff (i.e. they allow skype, SSH, Telnet over 3G), they have the best 3g coverage in the country, have decent speeds AND their plans are often much cheaper and less restrictive (see above) of comparable contracts from other operators.

Meanwhile, I've phoned o2 tech support once and the one time I did need to speak to them about an outage where I live, they told me to blap my phone instead. o2 3g coverage is appalling. My phone always says I've got 3g coverage but then when I actually begin to use a data connection the icon on the phone immediately changes to GPRS. And I live in LONDON, FFS! iphone.tvcatchup.com? Forget it on 02 - it's jerko vision if it plays at all.

And just before you start harping on about call connection rates, about once every two weeks I get somebody telling me that they went straight to voice-mail whilst my handset was switched on and apparently working with 02. I tested this problem by dialing using my work phone and sure enough! Thanks o2 :)

I'm not a great fan of o2 and am very relieved to hear that I will eventually be able to move to 3 (or even Orange for that matter).

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Don't get the 3 hating.

Yeah their customer service isn't great but neither are the other networks if you have an actual problem (thats one that exists outside of your own head).

If you were on O2 then you'd have a genuine coverage complaint. I used to be able to maintain a reasonable 3G signal on 3 all the way home on the train, an extremely busy commuter route, O2 can barely manage a consistent signal never mind a 3G one and then there's still the issue with the quality of service.

N73?That would be the one with a million software updates and bugs that was released 3 years ago.

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@Martin 10

Thats a tad harsh, surely?

I bought a 3 3G dongle while in deepest darkest south wales on a break because I couldn't get any signal on 02 down there. One incident aside their support was great, they could stand some better training but otherwise...

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