iPhone providers (international)

This is a good sign. It suggests that we'll start getting release dates for iPhone in Europe over the next few weeks, and they'll likely have release dates in November.
 
Not confirmed yet, but its the BBC (last bastion of truth and decency in a crumbling society etc etc).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6272226.stm

O2 'to get iPhone contract in UK'

Mobile phone operator O2 is reported to have won the sought-after deal to sell Apple's iPhone in the UK.
Press reports said that O2 is set to sign an exclusive contract shortly and should have the new phones on sale in time for Christmas.

A spokesman for O2, which is owned by Spain's Telefonica, declined to comment on the reports.

More than 500,000 iPhones were sold in the first weekend in the US by AT&T, which has exclusive rights there.

Vodafone had previously been tipped as the likely winner of the contract.

The agreement with O2 is reported to include Apple receiving a continuing share of the revenue generated for the network operator.

The handsets are expected to be sold for about £300 and O2 will be hoping that the lure of the fashionable phone is enough to win customers from rival networks.
Click to expand...

I've been with my current provider(Orange) for 10 years, never had a problem with them, and I'm going to drop them like a stone on launch day. Orange were never going to get the contract anyway, they insist on branding all hardware regardless of manufacturer, including putting their own skins and firmware in some cases.
 
I was surprised about that too. It would have seemed logical that one company would have won out in a majority of the markets. After getting mine, I was checking out AT&T's international rates and Orange seemed like the logical choice (most common in the list) with maybe Vodafone.
 
(I've merged the threads now, so the message can be ignored...)

We're talking about this over "there" -> (link removed)
 
What I find funny is that Orange Switzerland's chief was quoted saying "this iPhone thing is handled on a European stage", which probably means he can't talk to Apple himself. I wonder now whether that was a mistake on Orange's side, to try to manage this on a European front.
 
Thats because its all a big mess. Orange used to be owned by Hutchison who used to be owned by British Telecom, but who are now owned by Hutchison Whampoa in China, but anyway Orange are now owned by France Telecom, while 3 are still owned by Hutchison. I think. You can see why it was hard to strike a territory deal with no one solely owned provider serving every country in Europe. I can't believe I'm going to O2 which is essentially a tarted-up Cellnet, which was awful. Hey-ho.
 
Well, if the current state of rumours/news comes true, it means I won't be getting an iPhone this year, anyway. Because a) it'll be EDGE for Europe as well and b) we won't see an iPhone sold in Switzerland.

I have to say: As soon as it _does_ come to Switzerland, I don't care much which provider it is going to be on. Sure, I'd like to stay with Orange, but sunrise and Swisscom (with Vodafone, kinda) wouldn't be too bad, either. As long as it's gonna come with decent data plans (i.e. some kind of flat-rate), I'm alright with it. Orange, in Switzerland, doesn't offer EDGE at all. They have GPRS and UMTS, which - outside of the iPhone reality distortion field - is perfectly okay.
 
huh? ... without further commentary? okay... like i said: doesn't really matter. i rather have good quality (swisscom) and good price (sunrise) mixed (orange).
 
I hope it's going to be A1 in Austria, which is partnered with Vodafone - it's the only provider that works everywhere in Austria, esp. in the mountains.
I hate T-Mobile, so if it will also be T-Mobile in Austria like it is in Germany, I will not buy it.
 
Sadly, I'm finding it quite hard to find anyone who has anything good to say about O2. I've no brand loyalty to Orange, after so many years with them they don't get any better, I've stayed with them because I have a lot of free minutes and I don't really care one way or another, I don't use my phone a lot but I need to have it. I noticed a while back they were still charging me for a service they stopped providing in 2005, but they would only refund thee months. I'm going to quite enjoy leaving them. But O2 do not fare well in internet review land - although most internet reviews are going to be negative as happy people get on with their lives, unhappy people complain on the internet.
 
yes true FlashMac. That's the issue wth reviews -- people only bother leaving them when they have a problem, rarely when they have praise. Seems to me there is no great phone company, it really all comes down to coverage.

Can someone explain why Apple even feels the need to tie themselves to a carrier? Surely producing an unlocked phone that can be used on any GSM network would be much more profitable? I can sort of understand it with AT&T -- perhaps they needed AT&T to work with them and teach them how to get the iPhone working -- but overseas they have no need for such relationships, do they?

Is it all because of them needing carriers to implement visual voice mail? because if it is, I could have done without it.
 
Why such a long wait for Australia? It should have been pretty much a worldwide launch; lots of Australians are gonna grab unlocked iPhones on eBay and use those when a hack is found.
 
Apple specifically said it _wasn't_ a worldwide launch. Australia was never mentioned. USA, Europe, Asia, they said.
 
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