Vodafone to get the iPhone in the UK and Ireland
The walls of exclusivity are crumbling in the UK. Less than 24 hours after Orange UK announced that it will be getting the iPhone, Vodafone UK and Vodafone Ireland have jumped on the Apple bandwagon as well. Voda’s “coming soon” pages are now live for the iPhone 3GS and interested parties can sign up for updates. No pricing or tariff details are available but rumors place the launch in early 2010. The best part of course, is with three major carriers soon to be promoting the iPhone in the UK, prices on the handset and its accompanying tariffs are expected to fall. Competition? iPhone? Hell must be getting pretty chilly. Oh and one last thing, before you start asking: the answer is “no” — Vodafone getting the iPhone does not necessarily mean that Verizon Wireless is next.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
do they even have free wifi over there?
Why yes we do, as well as running water and television sets. Idiot.
No one cares. No more iPhone updates about overseas carriers. They have options; we don’t.
Who is this comment bot spammer. Git’ em!
Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone).
@turbodolphin,
Duhh!
Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone) at: Los Angeles California, USA
@ Paul Cargill. LMAO. Made my day. I can hardly wait for exclusivity to end here in the US. There will be riots in the streets. Lol
The iPhone is coming to T-mobile next in the USA. It’s the only other major GSM carrier. Until Verizon or Sprint get with the majority of the world on their standard I highly doubt Apple is going to take the time to make a CDMA, wifi-less iPhone.
Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone) at: Dayton North America
AT&T is a whore.
@Paul Cargill,
Wow! Running water,lol. Americans are idiots half of the time.
Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone).
The iPhone is taking over the world… Fck the pretendors(rim,wm,android,palm)
@StevenGlansburg
You do know Verizon is allowing wifi on their smartphones now? And I’m sure Apple has a CDMA versions waiting in the wings. Just like they had Intel builds of OSX well before they switched from Power PC. Apple’s not going to leave all that money from Verizon customers on the table if they can help it!
i didnt mean “if u had wifi”, simply if it was free,
oh you have running water toooo?
Derrrrrrrrrrr….
lotta places in europe charge by hour for wifi, just a simple question from a dumb american who wants everything free
gFy.
@turbodolphin
What a douche. That is what they call guys like you over there right?
no love for 3 (UK) haha
@Paul, lol you nailed it
good one. dumb question above.
@StevenGlansburg
That argument is old and tired. Why do you nay-sayers always forget that Apple first approached Verizon abut carrying the iPhone? That means that Apple originally had planned the device to have CDMA on board. That, coupled with Verizons smartphones now have SIM cards, means that an iPhone on Verizon is a no brainer.
We also keep telling you that wi-fi devices on Verizon is no longer an exception, but a rule. I had wi-fi on my Samsung-i760 back in 2007. There is a host of Android devices debuting on Verizon soon, and all of them will have wi-fi. You need to look at their current devices and count how many currently have wi-fi, but of course you wont. The fact that you keep trying to convince everyone that Verizon devices dont have wi-fi is just idiotic, read a paper son.
Oh, T-Mobile will not have the iPhone before Verizon, no matter how badly you want it to happen.
StevenGlansburg: T-Mobile would need a special model of the iPhone too- unless you don’t want 3G, I guess.
Both T-Mobile and Verizon would need to have the iPhone’s radio replaced for it to work…
“prices on the handset and its accompanying tariffs are expected to fall”
Really? In exchange for exclusivity, didn’t AT&T and O2 promise to subsidize the hell out of the iPhone. Apple would have said “because we’re giving up some of the market by giving you exclusivity, we want you to sell it cheap to maximize unit sales”. By ending exclusivity, Apple is giving up some of that leverage. iPhone is by far the most heavily subsidized device so I’d be surprised to see it get cheaper – unless Apple is willing to cut their price.
And then for carriers to make up the subsidy, can they really afford to cut the monthly fee or ‘tariff’?
Look, I think Verizon (the other two big ones) need to get the iphone for one simple reason. Competition. It will force either them or At&t to quit gouging customers.
If Sprint or T-mobile got it then the sh!t would hit the fan as far as pricing goes. I suppose my anti-verizon tendency is in part due to that it will not create much of a pricing competition as both Verizon and At&t have nearly identical rates for all services.
When I was in London in June, it was extremely hard to find a free wifi hotspot. Mcdonalds was pretty much the only place I could rely on for a free connection. The rates at the hotel were a joke.
apparently research shows that in every country where iphone is not exclusive it’s cheaper