Yep, those that know me well enough will know I’ve been banging on about getting an iPhone for a couple of years now.

At first I couldn’t afford it – the contracts or the phone – but now I can, and to be honest, it’s also now more of a need than a want.

Conveniently then, Apple recently launched the iPhone 4 – a completely new generation of their innovative mobile communications device – as well as opening up the market.

But here’s the dilemma: Since there really isn’t much in the way of competition between them, who do I go with? And what plan?

I’ve tried to be pragmatic with this, but it’s been difficult, so here goes…

Essentially then, first there’s the ‘providers’ or ‘operators’, which initially appears to be six: O2, Orange, Vodaphone, T-Mobile, Three, and Tesco.

As of 31st July they now all stock the iPhone4 for anybody to buy. (02 were just offering the phone for existing customers, and T-Mobile along with Three have literally just got there hands on some.)

So six operators means six networks then?

Er, nope. Actually, there’s really only three of them.

First, of course, was Vodaphone, though I’m led to believe from a number of diverse sources that they still have the worst coverage.

Then there’s 02; better, supposedly – oh and note here please that Tesco use the 02 network under licence.

And finally, there’s Orange who’ve recently merged with T-Mobile, and inceidently have had a long standing relationship with Three, in that they all share each others networks to each gain a far better coverage across the country.

So, for coverage, I’d go with the Orange/T-Mobile/Three network. Wouldn’t you?

Okay, so now let’s look at the plans.

Tesco, at first glance, look great. Simple; just three plans. Small, Regular and Large.

Oh and wow, a now hitherto unheard of 12 month contract for the first two plans (£20 and £35) and hey, only £19 for the phone on the £45 plan (24 mths).

Looks good?

Actually in comparison, apart from the contract lengths, the plans are pretty much the same as the others. Having said that, 750 mins for the £35 tariff is the best minutes on offer.

Sadly though, it’s the cost of the phone that’s the downer – £229, when similar plans incur ‘only’ a £119 up front cost. (16MB)

“What? – No BOGOF on iPhones?”

O2 of course had the monopoly on iPhones until a few months ago, but the other providers now in the market have decided to cash in rather than offer us customers some real competition; their plans have all pretty much matched 02.

The 18 month £40 contracts on both 02 and Vodaphone are identical, save the data allowance. And, though it is claimed by 02 (though don’t quote me) that 97% of their iPhone customers have never exceeded 500MB of data usage per month, Vodaphone are offering a full 1GB.

Unlimited data went out the window – though Orange were a little sneaky capping their so called ‘unlimited’ data allowance at 750MB in the small print.

My budget is £35 per month, and though I really don’t want to be tied in for a wapping 24 month contract (and we all thought 12 months was excessive!) I guess, I’ll just have to curtail to demands.

Minutes? Well I’ve survived very happily with, in my terms, a perfectlly adequate 350 per month for the last couple of years.

Until, last month that is.

A few days ago, I had a voice interrupt my phone call telling me I had one minute remaining, and I’m still waiting for my next monthly allowance.

Basically, £30 pcm will only get me 300 mins on most of the iPhone contracts, and a pathetic 150 mins on Orange!

So at a typical 600 mins for £35 it looks like I’ll have to go to the top of my budget just to get at least the minutes I’m likely to need.

Texts are fine. I have unlimited texts currently and committing to a planned £35 contract means I’ll get this with my iPhone too.

And data allowance? Well assuming I’m in the 95% bracket, 500MB should be enough, which is fine since most of the £35 contracts exceed it anyway.

So, summing up then, I can choose from three providers with a 24 month £35 contract including 600 mins, unlimited texts, and an average of 750MB of data, all for £119 up front.

And, going with the supposedly best coverage, I’m left with a choice of T-Mobile or Orange.

Orange are offering 750MB of data, which I probably won’t need, and since I’m already with T-Mobile (having switched from my 10 years with Orange a couple of years ago) I’d might as well stay with them and not have the, supposed, hassle of transferring my number.

So there, I guess, we have it:

An upfront payment to T-Mobile of £119 for my 16GB iPhone4, and then a direct debit of £35; giving me 600 minutes, unlimited texts and 500MB of data each and every month for two years.

Sorted!

Glad I’ve done this logically; writing it all out in this post.

Oh.

Hang on…

What’s this?

£30 a month for two years? Wow! That’s a saving of £120!

500 minutes? Great! I don’t need 600!

And 5000 texts? Well that’s as good as unlimited for me.

1GB of data? So I won’t have to worry about data allowances then?

Oh, £189 though. £70 more up front – Hey, but I’m saving £60 in the first year anyway, and then another £60 in year two; so that’s not an issue, is it?

Hang on! £189 is for the 32GB model! Bonus! – And only £99 for the 16GB too!

So who’s this with?

Three, that’s who, and there’s 5000 three-to-three minutes thrown in too – not that I know anyone on Three, lol.

They’re not so upfront about the data allowance though. No mention of 3G or WiFi anywhere on the site – is that the catch?

Oh and this ‘offer’ expired three hours ago now

Ermmmmmm, what to do?

Guess I’ll have to wait for a few days and see what happens to all the tariffs. It seems 31st of July was some sort of changing point.

Searching for the best deal on an iPhone4?
There’s an app for that.

I wish…