Buying the iPhone
There have been a lot of complaints about how badly the iPhone has been rolled out so I thought I should add my voice and take the opposite view by saying that my iPhone is great and has been from the start.
I had preregistered my email address with both O2 and Carphone Warehouse just to have both bases covered. On Tuesday morning at 8:02 I received an email from O2 saying that the iPhone was available for order immediately. By 8:28 I had completed the transaction and had an email confirmation. It was way too easy and a great relief that I didn’t have to queue at a shop on Saturday morning as I had planned, which in hindsight is even better because there was nothing to queue for by then.
It was delivered as promised on Friday and I was up and running with a new O2 number immediately. The longest part of the whole process was waiting on the phone for 20 minutes to port over my previous number. This was no hassle and had completed on Tuesday afternoon as expected.
After being a loyal foolish customer of Orange for nearly 10 years, I’ve now hopped to O2 via 3 in less than 18 months.
Paying for the iPhone
This is without doubt the most expensive mobile phone contract I’ve ever had. At £30/month it’s a lot less than the majority of people are paying for a non-iPhone contract. It includes only 75 minutes talk and 125 texts but importantly it has an unlimited data plan. That’s unlimited surfing, unlimited emails, unlimited YouTube viewing, unlimited Twittering, unlimited Facebook updating – how am I going to have time to talk or text anyone!
At the moment I subscribe to podcasts in iTunes for download onto the iPhone but could just as easily be streaming them over the 3G network. With the YouTube app I can watch as many videos as the battery will allow and that looks to be standing up pretty well.