Looks like American iPhone owners aren’t the only unhappy ones with their carrier. British users are also complaining–or whingeing as it were.
British carrier O2 has retained UK exclusivity on the new handset – which packs faster chips, a better camera with video, a compass and the same 3.0 OS upgrade existing owners can get from June 19 – but it’s introduced a heftier pricepoint, with the new 16 Gb and 32 Gb handsets respectively about twice and three times as expensive as the current 8 Gb on a £35-a-month ($57), 18-month tariff…
But, unlike the previous jump from iPhone to iPhone 3G, O2 is not offering a rebate to upgrade; instead, owners must either buy themselves out of their contract or move up “when it’s time to upgrade; it’s usually the last month of your contract“. And it will even take an extra £15-a-month ($24) tethering “bolt-on” to use a new feature that lets the handset be used as a modem.
That’s brought cries of #O2Fail in Twitterville (the Bourgeoisie’s direct-action tool of choice), and a petition (actually an, err, twitition; oh dear) to get O2 to change its mind. An O2 spokesperson, meanwhile, tells Sky News, its “deeply upset” and “quite shocked by the reaction”. The spokesperson said, “We heavily subsidise the iPhones, we can’t afford to just cut these [contracts] off.”