As contracts are expiring on our iPhone 3’s I’ve decided to do a cost comparison of the various options on how to buy the new iphone 4, to see which is cheapest. That is a bit of an oxymoron as they are all very expensive, but which will cost you the least? So far, with o2 and Orange having released their prices and basing the comparison on a iPhone 4 32GB it looks like o2 simplicity comes out just ahead, which involves buying the phone at full price. Obviously the costs are front loaded this way, but ongoing it is cheaper.
The only challenge there is that simplicity comes in 12 month blocks, so 18 months doesn’t really exist save that you buy a new phone at full price after 18 months and renew simplicty after 12 months. This is as a personal contract/tariff rather than a business tariff.
One of the issues now is that all carriers are capping data, which seems like a very backward step to me.
As of 18th June these are my findings. All prices in £’s
| Contract Length | |||
| 12 | 18 | 24 | |
| o2 Simplicity | |||
| Phone | 599 | 599 | 599 |
| Contract | 15 | 15 | 15 |
| TCO | 779 | 869 | 959 |
| Avg/Mo | 64.92 | 48.28 | 39.96 |
| o2 | |||
| Phone | - | 279 | 269 |
| Contract | - | 35 | 30 |
| TCO | - | 909 | 989 |
| Avg/Mo | - | 50.50 | 41.21 |
| Orange | |||
| Phone | - | 319 | 269 |
| Contract | - | 35 | 35 |
| TCO | - | 949 | 1109 |
| Avg/mo | - | 52.72 | 46.21 |
| Vodafone | |||
| Phone | 269 | 269 | |
| Contract | 35 | 30 | |
| TCO | 899 | 989 | |
| Avg/mo | 49.94 | 41.21 | |
| Three | |||
| Phone | |||
| Contract | |||
| TCO | |||
| Avg/mo | |||
What I haven’t done is compare buying a full price phone from apple and shopping around for the cheapest data tariff. t-mobile do have a 30 day contract for £10/month, but no mention of micro SIMS.
