O2 touts OTT tariffs for Nexus 4 exclusive

O2 has upped the price of Google's anticipated LG-made Nexus 4 smartphone - for which the UK operator has a month-long exclusive - and customers have raised their eyebrows in disgust.

While Google will sell the 16GB version Sim-free and unlocked for a generous £279, or an 8GB version for £239, in order to get the blower free, punters will fork out a whopping £36 a month to O2.

After two years, the duration of O2's contract, customers will have paid £864 in total and while that does come with unlimited calls and texts, all they'd get data-wise is a gigabyte a month. Such a high monthly outlay is usually associated with handsets nearing the £500 mark, so the backlash is understandable.

Buy the phone from Google Play and you can get an O2 Sim-only deal for £20 a month on a contract half the length of the one above.

But subtract the Sim-free price of the handset from the total two-year cost of O2's Nexus 4 deal and it works out at nearly £25 a month.

Meanwhile, Carphone Warehouse is promising to offer the Nexus 4 free for £31 a month.

The Google Nexus 4 goes on sale on 13 November. ®