It seems T-Mobile will be selling unlocked iPhones in Germany, and anyone who has already purchased an iPhone will be able to unlock theirs to use on other carriers. MacWorld.co.uk reports:
T-Mobile this morning confirmed plans to sell unlocked iPhones in Germany in order to stave off legal action on the part of competing mobile telco, Vodafone.
German customers will be permitted to purchase an iPhone without a T-Mobile contract - for a price: €999. iPhone customers who have purchased one of the devices since 19 November will be allowed to unlock their mobile for use with other SIM cards free of charge, Reuters reports.
Using an iPhone with another network will make certain features inoperable, such as EDGE data access and Visual Voicemail. This is because these features require infrastructure to be set-up on the host mobile phone network.
A German court granted Vodafone a preliminary injunction this week that stops T-Mobile from locking the iPhone’s SIM card to its network. Another German mobile phone operator Debitel has filed a similar complaint,
T-Mobile says it will comply with the injunction until the “situation has been clarified by the courts,” Reuters adds.
We are not sure what impact this will have on iPhone Sales in the UK - the handset will cost 999 Euros or £720. So if you buy one from Germany it will cost you £720 for the handset, and then depending on your tariff in the UK, you could be paying anything from £990 (Handset cost + £15pm for 18 months) or if you are on an average of £25 per month tariff for 18 months, £1170.
The current prices at the moment for an iPhone on O2 over 18 months works out to be:
£35 tariff = £890
£45 tariff = £1070
£55 tariff = £1250
It will be interesting to hear your thoughts on this subject!!!