Orange has taken a superficially penny pinching approach to tariff pricing for the iPhone 3GS, undercutting O2 by just 1p on some of its packages.
With 18 month tariffs, Orange costs just 2p less than O2 for the cheapest package (£29.36 vs £29.38) while on all its other packages, up to the most expensive at £73.40 18 month deal, it shaves off just 1p (O2 asks £73.41).
Orange has also added a new package for super-users willing to stump up for a 24-month contract. The £122.34 a month deal gives you unlimited texts and unlimited calls as well as the 750MB of monthly data which all the packages include.
It may seem that there’s not much to choose between O2 and Orange but dig a little deeper and Orange’s deal is a little sweeter.
If you opt for the iPhone 3G 8GB on the cheapest tariff from Orange, the handset will set you back 39p less than grabbing it from O2 (£96.50 vs £96.89).
However, jump up to the 16GB version and you’ll save £59.98. And if you go for the 32GB model (again on the cheapest tariff), you’ll save £49.23.
Sticking with the cheapest tariffs from both operators, Orange is offering more minutes and messages than O2. O2 gives you 72 minutes and 125 messages while Orange will sling 150 minutes and 250 messages your way.
Will O2 change its mind about its decision to not adjust its prices? Orange looks like it could well give the former exclusive iPhone provider a bloody nose.
However, it might not be plain sailing for any of the mobile networks with Twitter users up in arms over the deceptive nature of “unlimited data” provisions.
There have been calls on the site for the Competition Commission to investigate the pricing similarities between O2 and Orange.
Out November 10 | From £96.50 | Orange
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