Apple go with O2 for iPhone in UK

O₂ have won the deal to provide telephony services for the Apple iPhone in the U.K. Speculation is that they may only have this exclusive deal for a short while and then it might get opened up to other providers

Well, I might have considered getting an iPhone but I think I'll wait and see what the data tariffs are likely to be for the iPhone contract. O₂ currently charge £3/Mb for browsing the internet via their monthly phone contracts so there's absolutely no way I'd pay that kind of rate for browsing the net at EDGE speeds.

The whole idea of adding phone and wireless capabilities to an iPod was to make it a one-stop device. No more carrying around a phone/PDA and an iPod, the iPhone could do the lot. However, while O₂'s voice rates may well be competitive with other U.K. providers, their current data rates are seriously expensive and that simply doesn't make the iPhone a viable web browsing device in the U.K.

Jon Lech Johansen (DVD Jon) has stated that he's already hacked iTunes so that it can be used to activate an iPhone without signing it up for an AT&T contract so maybe it's only a case of waiting to see if that also works for the U.K. and then enables you to use it with a decent tariff like T-Mobile's Web'n'walk.