Apple and Orange To Sell iPhones in UK from Today; O2 will Allow Customers to Unlock their iPhones

After two years of exclusively owning the carrier rights in the UK, O2 finally made way for Orange to join them in the UK iPhone market today. 

This follows an agreement that was signed between Apple and Orange late September bringing an end to O2's exclusivity. 

O2 has had a very successful partnership with Apple over the past two years with the carrier having reached the million milestone in February of this year. However, as in the other parts of the world, the 3G network of O2 has also been significantly affected due to high data consumption by iPhone users. 

In a recent interview given to TimesOnline readers, Matthew Key, the head of O2 had said that his company has invested over £30 million to address capacity related issues around London alone which shall improve the service levels in the region before Christmas. 

With fresh competition coming from Orange, improving the customer service levels become extremely critical. However, Matthew Key has assured his customers that his company will not resort to any kind of unfair means in trying to retain them. In the interview, Matthew said

"Once the iPhone becomes available on other UK networks, we will allow O2 customers to unlock their iPhones, although of course they will still need to honour any outstanding contract period they have. At the end of their contract period, they are entirely free to move to another operator — though naturally we hope they won’t want to!"

UK is among the biggest markets for the iPhone and with Vodafone also expected to join in, it will be interesting to watch how the carriers fight it out in this market. Who do you think will emerge as the ultimate winner? If you an existing O2 iPhone customer, do you plan to unlock your iPhone and switch carriers? Please tell us your opinion in the comments. 

Thanks TimW for the tip!

[via TimesOnline]

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