BillMonitor

Vodafone and Apple today confirmed that they have reached agreement to offer iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS in the UK in early 2010.  This announcement follows on the heels of Orange’s own announcement yesterday that they would be joining O2 in offering the iPhone in the UK, bringing the total number of operators offering the iPhone in the UK to three.  Our office speculates that T-Mobile may soon offer the iPhone to its customers as well due to their merger with Orange.

The Telegraph reports rumours that Virgin Mobile are also attempting to secure the right to sell the iPhone.

Competition for iPhone customers may lower the price of an iPhone plan; in foreign markets with multiple operators offering the device, the cost of an iPhone contract was lowered by around £5/month.

Orange UK and Apple have announced an agreement to bring iPhone 3G and 3GS to Orange UK customers later this year.   Orange will sell the iPhone in their shops and on their website as well as through selected high street partners.  O2 will continue to offer the iPhone, giving customers a choice of carriers in the UK market.

We wonder when T-Mobile will also announce offering the iPhone to their customers.  As T-Mobile and Orange announced earlier this month, they will be merging their companies and the signing is expected to take place at the end of October.  The merger will probably give T-Mobile the right to offer the iPhone.  We imagine that T-Mobile will not announce adding it to their offerings until after the signing.

We’ve just updated the plans in the comparison engine to include some interesting new mobile deals. Orange have introduced 36 month (!) contracts. Whilst these may seem like good value – as little as £4.89 per month including a mobile – being locked into a 3 year contract could prove costly. The deals have quite small allowances (as low as 50 minutes) and the cost of calls outside that allowance is very high (20p/min) so if you want to call more than a little between now and 2012 you’ll be paying though the nose. On the other hand this deal sounds great for my gran, who needs a phone for emergencies but hates the hassle of topping up a pay-as-you-go phone.