Thoughts on O2’s new iPhone Contracts

O2 have followed suit from AT&T in the US and made their data plans for the iPhone. Although this has caused a lot of fuss, personally I don’t think it’s a particularly big deal.

Firstly, they’re not changing any contract that you’re signed up to - it only applies to new contracts. They’re perfectly entitled to change that if they want to. If what they offer’s not as good as you can find elsewhere, go elsewhere (if you can find anything better. I imagine the other networks that offer unlimited data will follow suit).

Secondly, 500Mb a month (which is the amount for the lower-end pay monthly deals) is still a pretty hefty amount. I used 2.1Gb in the last two and a half years. I’m not an insane user of data, but I’m also not a particularly light one. O2 say this change will only affect 3% of users and that seems entirely believable.

Of course, if you are using more than that per month, and you wish to change your contract by upgrading, then you’re losing a pretty cushy deal. However, it’s a deal that the other users are paying for, to some degree, through poorer 3G reception. If you’re a 3G user in the UK, you know the networks are already straining at the edges. It doesn’t seem unfair that those using the largest amounts of data will have to pay more. However, I doubt that this change in contracts will bring about any noticeable improvement in 3G reception, but I can dream.

The only real issue with all this is when it comes to tethering. I haven’t seen one way or the other whether tethering charges are going to be either dropped entirely or reduced dramatically, but if your data is capped, what’s the justification for charging for tethering? It’s data that’s essentially already paid for, why can’t you use it?