Comments on: O2 iPhone 4 tariffs revealed: data disappointment

By: Stanislav Beremski

Stanislav Beremski — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 11:56:58 +0000

So lets think about this crappy data plan means for someone who plans to use this device to do a fair bit of music streaming, FaceTime calling or video streaming:

Music Streaming
Music Quality (Bitrate: kbit/s)) 128
Music Streamed (mins/day) 30
Music Streamed (secs/day) 1,800
Bandwidth Usage (kbits/day) 230,400
Bandwidth Usage (MB/day) 29
Bandwidth Usage (MB/Month) 864

Video Streaming
Video Quality (Bitrate: kbit/s)) 800
Video Streamed (mins/day) 30
Video Streamed (secs/day) 1,800
Bandwidth Usage (kbits/day) 1,440,000
Bandwidth Usage (MB/day) 180
Bandwidth Usage (MB/Month) 5,400

Total Bandwith Usage (GB / Month) 6.26
Less allowance of 750 MB 0.75

o2 price per GB £10.00
Data Spend £62.64

So be prepared to shell out an extra 60 quid for data per month if you stream 30 mins of music + 30 mins of video per day.

Keep your current unlimited contract…sell your old iphone and buy the new iphone 4 on financing and you will get a better deal I think.

By: Darren Cartwright

Darren Cartwright — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 23:05:40 +0000

I too don’t know how much I use. The thing I will miss the most is being able to use some of my SMS messages for Picture Messages.

By: Joe Brown

Joe Brown — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 21:24:19 +0000

Interesting Device. That is not the final Design, is it?
WHAT’S THE SECOND GRILL ABOVE THE RECEIVER/HEARING-SPEAKER?

By: DeltaCity

DeltaCity — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:08:43 +0000

I’m also wondering about the effect of unlimited SMS messages on the tariffs. At the moment, sending an MMS depletes my 500 SMS allowance by about three texts. This presumably won’t happen if SMS messages are unlimited and we will be hit by the 20p charge for every MMS sent.

By: mikewill37

mikewill37 — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:02:20 +0000

Am really disappointed with O2 today. Followed their twitter post with the link to the tariff information and thought hang on I dont know what my data usage is as the O2 app does not (god knows why) provide this figure. Rang the call centre and they had not even been briefed with the new tariff bands so when I asked what would be the most appropriate one for me they did not know what I was asking for and had to go and get a manager to look at the same page I was looking at.

I then had to speak to someone outside of this team to tell me what my usage is and spoke to a manager who said after digging around for a bit that my average usage is 5000mb from my unlimited tariff. We BOTH agreed that this seemed ridiculous that the unlimited was going and that it could cost me up to another £40 a month ontop of the basic to cover this off if I want like for like. Telling him I have been with O2 since the days it was Cellnet and then BT Cellnet I said that this was now the first time I was considering leaving O2.

This prompted him putting me through to a retention manager who likewise was not really briefed on the tariff that had been rolled out and was unable to say anything to counter my argument that given I am a high data user then there is nothing in place to keep me with O2 if Vodaphone and Orange offer a better deal or even here’s hoping an unlimted data plan.

By: Abdul Mufti

Abdul Mufti — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 13:43:38 +0000

I feel the same way Dominic. I was hoping that I would keep my unlimited data as it really is quite handy. It’s going to be a real shame if no one beats this limited data plan.

I end up using my phone quite a bit while on the move, mostly for IM and maps. I’ve just used maps for a minute or two and it uses approx 500kb I wonder how badly this is going to rack up over a month when combined with other apps such as the LBC radio station etc. If only Apple had included an actual radio with the phone!

By: Dominic Allkins

Dominic Allkins — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 13:38:46 +0000

As someone who does a lot of mobile browsing while travelling I’m very disappointed with the reduction of bundled data.

I’ve been with O2 since the first iPhone launch and have upgraded as each phone has come out. Despite having a fair while to go on my contract I was tempted by the early upgrade offer and O2 recycle option, but not if I lose my unlimited data.

So I’ll stick with my 3GS (which I’ve been very happy with anyway) and wait to find out what the other networks have to offer as I get closer to my contract end. A bad move on O2′s part.

By: stueyuk

stueyuk — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 13:35:14 +0000

Problem is that i don’t know how much data i use at the moment!! Until knowing that i can’t tell whether 500mb would be enough…. Desperately want to know how much the handset off without contract will be…. £450 for 16gb??

By: sockatume

sockatume — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 13:29:21 +0000

Never mind, I misunderstood what “up to” meant in that context.