Orange Announces UK iPhone Pricing

UK wireless carrier Orange today revealed pricing plans for the iPhone, which will launch on the carrier on November 10th. iPhone pricing ranges from free with certain plan prices and term commitments up to 539 for the 32 GB iPhone 3GS on a contract-free pay as you go plan.

Monthly consumer plans begin at 29.36 for 150 minutes of talk time and 250 text messages. All plans include "unlimited" data mobile Internet browsing, which is actually defined in a footnote as 750 MB per month, significantly below the unofficial "soft" cap of 5 GB per month used by AT&T in the United States.

Orange's pricing structure is nearly identical to that of O2, which has been the exclusive iPhone carrier in the UK since the device's launch there in November 2007, although there are a few differences. Orange's entry-level offering is unmatched by O2 on a 24-month contract, and offers twice as many minutes and text messages as O2 on the entry-level 18-month contract. Orange is also offering a 122.34-per-month plan for 24 months carrying unlimited minutes and text messages as well as a small amount of European roaming minutes and data. On the flip side, however, O2 has not as yet appeared to employ caps on data usage.

Customers in countries such as the United States where the iPhone is currently offered exclusively through a single wireless carrier have been following the developments in the UK to see how pricing and other contract terms might be affected in countries where exclusive arrangements have been transitioning to multiple-carrier models.