Hasta La Gadget!

While Apple had its preorders primed since 8am BST, British carriers have only just unveiled their monthly prices for the newest iPhone. Vodafone will offer it on contracts from £25 per month — with an initial £249 outlay) or free on £47 per month for two years. That free deal will net you a 16GB iPhone 5, with 2GB of data, unlimited texts and voice minutes. On Orange, a 24-month contract at £46 will nab you the same 16GB model for free, with 3GB of data and unlimited calls and texts. If you drop down to the £20 rate, you’ll have to pay £320 upfront and pick up a lightweight bundle of 100MB of data, 50 texts and 50 minutes. EE stablemate T-Mobile isn’t offering any free iPhones on its carrier plans, but you’ll be able to glean unlimited internet (alongside 2000 voice minutes) on a 16GB iPhone 5 for £109 and £36 per month on contract.

Confusingly, anyone looking to grab the UK’s first LTE network on the iPhone 5 will have to sign up to a “4GEE from EE” plan — which still hasn’t revealed its pricing. We’re checking with EE whether customers that decide to grab a new contract with Orange or T-Mobile will still be able to migrate across — we’d hold off on that pre-order until we hear back from the new 4G network. (Edit: See update below for clarification.) Meanwhile, Three UK currently has the 16GB iPhone on its unlimited data One Plan at £79 upfront, on a £36 per month deal. We’ll update again once we hear O2’s plans.

Update: EE has been in touch to clarify matters:

“Customers can either wait for EE to launch (we will be announcing the date in the coming weeks) or they can sign up to a contract with T-Mobile or Orange and upgrade to EE free of charge once it has launched, as long as they move to an equivalent priced and length plan
on EE.”

Update 2: Phones4U is taking its own pre-orders for those who want to enlist with Orange, T-Mobile or Vodafone. O2 has also chipped in with its details and is offering the iPhone 5 on plans starting from £26 per month; like Orange, you’ll have to opt for at least a £46 monthly outlay to get one for free. The O2 plans offer the same unlimited voice and texts, but just 1GB of data. Lastly, Carphone Warehouse has chipped in with its own advance order campaign, although it’s only taking online orders for the 16GB black iPhone at this stage: you’ll need to call in for everything else.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

iPhone 5 contract prices for UK phone networks revealed (updated with O2, Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Sep 2012 04:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thinking of hopping on a new contract, but lacking that smaller SIM standard that the iPhone 5 will be packing? You’d best pick up one of these, then. UK carriers, including Three and Vodafone, are already stocking up on these nano-SIMs, and they’re also prepping these tiny adapters to ensure the new cards will work across all their devices. These will convert a nano-SIM to both micro and standard sizes, so we’d advise picking one up the same time you visit the phone store. (We’ve included a glimpse of Vodafone’s nano-SIM after the break.)

[Thanks Daniel!]

Continue reading Want to use one of those new nano-SIMs? You’ll need one of these

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Want to use one of those new nano-SIMs? You’ll need one of these originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Sep 2012 04:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve been speaking to the big five UK mobile networks, finding out where British phablet fans can get their Galaxy Note II fix. So far, only ThreeUK (after the break) and O2 have confirmed they’ll be carrying the device when it arrives later in the year, while T-Mobile and Orange said they didn’t have any details for us yet. Most cryptically, Vodafone’s response was that it “isn’t involved in this,” so we figure we’ll have to sit tight for more concrete news. If anything changes. we’ll let you know.

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Note II coming to ThreeUK and O2 later in the year

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile

Samsung Galaxy Note II coming to ThreeUK and O2 later in the year originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 04:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When UK networks T-Mobile and Orange united under the Everything Everywhere umbrella, many people speculated if the two would become a single entity. That didn’t happen, but according to Sky News, that rollout of 4G services in October will also be part of a rebrand. The sources claim that new customers will join Everything Everywhere, with existing customers to be migrated around March 2013. A statement from Everything Everywhere acknowledges there was a confidential brand review, but refuses to comment on the speculation. Rival networks are already complaining that the approval of spectrum for use with 4G services gives the joint venture an unfair advantage, but the FT reports that the European competition authority has forced the pair to sell some of that spectrum — and is in “advanced talks” with competitor network Three. This could mean that there are two operators offering next generation services, but neither being Orange or T-Mobile, or rather, not as we know them.

Update: We’ve received the following official statement from Everything Everywhere:

Everything Everywhere confirms that we are planning to launch a new brand in the UK later this year. This new brand will sit alongside our existing brands Orange and T-Mobile. We will reveal more information on our exciting plans in due course.

So, it looks like the existing brands will remain, with a mysterious new addition in the mix. It’s also confirmed that the new brand won’t simply be “Everything Everywhere,” but instead something totally new. More as we get it.

Filed under: Cellphones

T-Mobile and Orange to rebrand as Everything Everywhere, sell 4G spectrum to rival Three (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Aug 2012 05:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It looks like folks in the UK will now have the option to use 3G data services for free. A service named Samba that operates on UK’s Three network gives users the opportunity to connect to the internet without paying any data costs – all they have to do is watch a video advert to gain more credit. The more ads you watch, the more credit you get to spend on surfing. A SIM card purchase which costs  £4.99 (about $7) is necessary to make use of the service – a small price to pay for the amount of free internet which you can get. It looks like travelers in the UK won’t have to fork out much if all they want is data on their phone/tablets, and they won’t have to hunt for WiFi hotspots anymore. Pretty convenient if you ask me.

However, there are some restrictions to the service – while the amount of credit you can earn is uncapped, it does limit the number of times each video advert can be watched. Users are also blocked from accessing sites that contain pornography, copyrighted material or offensive content. Cookies may also be installed for data collection. A small price to pay for free Internet. I wonder when we’ll see a similar service on this side of the world?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: White iPhone 4 arriving in UK on April 20? Too good to be true, Samsung Galaxy S receiving Gingerbread in a matter of weeks,