If you took a contract with O2 when the iPhone 3G first came out, it is very likely that you are coming to the end of your contract right about now. I was in the same position and was getting increasingly annoyed at what I was getting out of my £35 a month. Instead of going with what o2 would like us all to believe, I decided to look around for the possibily to pay less while maintaining the features I regularly use.
The biggest problem in finding a cheaper tariff was keeping the unlimited internet use within the UK. I don't want to pay seperately for this as I use it more than I phone with the iPhone 3G. After much searching, I managed to find that O2's Online Simplicity 20 tariff currently comes with a bolt on bonus for free. By default this is set to unlimited O2 to O2 calls but by pressing an obscure 'change' link you can actually add this to unlimited web - perfect for iPhone users.
What you end up with:
- 700 Minutes
- 1400 Texts
- Unlimited Web (UK)
- 30 Days Notice (No long-term contract!)
- All for £20 / Month - £15 less than the contract most iPhone users pay!
How to go about getting this? It might sound odd, but you actually have to visit O2’s upgrade page. Once there, enter your mobile phone number and wait for your text message to arrive. While waiting, get your O2 account number, you will be asked for it later. Enter the upgrade code that O2 texted you and you're in.
First thing to do now, is to ignore all the shiny free phones and offers to add credit on your account - you'll be worse off going down that route. It's worth noting that it is possible to tie yourself into a new 18 month iPhone 3G contract at the current £35 and get £100 credit on your account. Of course clever readers will have made the calculation and will know that by changing to £20 you will actually save £270 over 18 months so it would be unwise picking this iPhone Tariff offer!
What you do want to pick is the "Sim Only" package. Once this is active you will see various tariffs below. You will find that the Simplicity 20 Tariff is the lowest priced one with a free Bolt On package. Please don't forget to change this Bolt On to Unlimited Web, unless you don't want to use your iPhone 3G for surfing/e-mail. (Why exactly do you have an iPhone again?)
Once done, you should see a summary at the top-right stating your tariff and unlimited web, just press continue and keep doing so. Ignore all offers - they are mostly rip-off's. Since you are not buying anything over £100 worth, you don't need to sign a new direct debit or enter payment details. You can go right through to the end, making sure your e-mail and telephone details are correct. Remember the account details I told you to find? It will ask for you them somewhere during this process.
Once done you will get a confirmation screen. And yes, that was really it. Your iPhone 3G will have been transferred to the new tariff and your bills will start reflecting this. Your iPhone will still work during the switch to your new tariff. You will know the transfer is completed when your iPhone’s data connection stops working. This is because you have swapped to a 'standard' O2 tariff which uses a different APN. Luckily, it only takes 2 minutes to sort this one out:
On your iPhone 3G, browse to Settings -> General -> Network -> Cellular Data Network. In there, change the login details you see there for all three services (Cellular Data, Visual Voicemail and MMS) to the following details:
- APN: wap.o2.co.uk
- Username: o2wap
- Password: password
You don't need to change any of the other MMS settings, only the details above.
And that's really all that there is to it. You now have every feature you had before on your iPhone 3G, but at 57% of the price you paid before. You still have 700 minutes and 1400 texts, which is sufficient for most people. If you require more minutes/texts, there still is the option to get £100 credit on your account by following the same process - as I mentioned earlier in the article.
If you come across this article and manage to make use of it - please do share it with other people while the offer is still valid, so that other iPhone 3G users can benefit from reduced payments as well. We've endured the monopoly long enough!
