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Orange confirms iPhone availability and pricing

Orange has confirmed that, from next Tuesday (10th November), it will be selling the iPhone 3G and 3GS via its website and retail stores, HMV concessions, Apple retail stores, Carphone Warehouse, Phones4U and other selected high street shops.

Marking the end of O2's exclusive hold on the Apple handset, Orange customers can choose to take out a 24-month contract worth £30 to get a free 3G smartphone, or £45 per month to get a free iPhone 3GS.

Pay-as-you-go customers who top up by £50 at purchase will get the 3G handset for £333, including 250MB of monthly data usage and a year's unlimited use of BT's Openzone network.

James Parker, mobiles manager at Money Supermarket, notes that competition has not been "ignited" as prospective iPhone customers may have hoped, since Orange's tariffs do not differ greatly from O2's.

"The average mobile users might go for 600 minutes and 500 texts, which costs £34.26 on both networks on a 24-month contract, with the 16GB 3GS handset costing £87 on Orange and 11p more on O2," he observes.

Parker suggests the "only discernable differences" between the networks are that Orange offers customers a lower-cost entry-level tariff at £29.36 a month for 150 minutes and 250 texts on a 24-month contract – with a fair usage limit of 750MB a month – whereas O2 has no set limit.