iPhone Speakeasy Tariffs.

AdMMM

I'm looking into buying an iPhone in the coming days but want to have as much information regarding the SpeakEasy option, because I don't want to be royally screwed with data and text charges.

On the iPhone page on O2.ie, they describe and give an outline of what they call the "O2 Experience Plus" tariff.

Regarding data, they say that it's 99c per day for data usage (1c per KB up to a max charge of 99c). If I so much as breathe on the 3G network, I'll be pretty much up to the maximum charge. Do O2 offer any data plans similar to Three's offering? The apparent "stealth" charge of €30 a month doesn't really appeal to me.

In the way of texts, the tariff boasts free texts and calls to the O2 Network if I top up by €20 per month. The only problem there is that myself and everyone else I knew on O2 jumped off that ship years a go when the other operators introduced great offers while O2 continued to do nothing but screw us as if we were 12 year old virgins. So this tariff is pretty much useless to me given it's 13c to send texts to other networks and I'm pretty sure that's more expensive than it was to send texts back when I was on this sorry excuse for a network a whole two years a go and it's also 5 times dearer than what I'm currently paying!

Now if I navigate outside of the iPhone subsection of the O2 site, I can see information about the O2 Experience More plan which offers Free texts to all Irish networks if I top up by €20 or more per month. Now they mention nothing about this tariff on the iPhone subsection, is this because it isn't available for iPhone customers or because they don't really want to us advertise this superior tariff to us gullible and naive interested buyers? Or perhaps the folks at O2 don't know their arse from their elbow when it comes to designing informative and usable websites?

They also mention nothing about Text Bundles in the iPhone subsection. I'd hope they're available but working on the assumption that they aren't and based off a realistic guess that I'd send 600 texts a month, I'd be liable to spend €78 on texts alone every month. I'll take a conservative approach with phone calls and say that I'd spend 3 minutes talking every day which adds up to €27 a month. This is all on top of the €30 I'd be charged for data usage and all of a sudden I see I'm paying €135 a month which is over 4 times what I'm currently paying on Three with my INQ1.

If I include the cost of buying the phone itself, it works out as costing €2190 over a twelve month period to use the phone without restricting myself. Yet despite this ****ing astronomical cost, the iPhone's beautiful interface and massive array of apps still appeal to me but then again I just can't get that 4 figure cost out of my head and it's there that this entire journey grinds to a halt.

I'm a student and simply can't justify spending that much money in a year on anything other than alcohol. Am I a mile off with my estimates or am I on the right track? Does Bill Pay offer any notable benefits over Speakeasy other than the lower cost of the phone? Finally, given that I'm currently on Three, is there any possibility of unlocking an iPhone and being able to use it on Three without features being crippled?

F'kin iPhone!

CivilEx

Just a general comment, but there is no dedicated Speakeasy Tariff for the iPhone. So if you never had an iPhone, the general Speakeasy Tariffs / Options / Offers are what you are looking at. Point taken on the €30 stealth tax. You're right. An expensive way to run an iPhone. Your only option here is to delete the APN in settings and use wifi if it's available i.e. use O2's 3G coverage by exception rather than as the rule?

The only positive thing to say on the texting front is that you can use Eirtext / JellySMS as applications you can download from the App Store to make use of your free webtexts (is it 250?), so that'll help lower costs. This works on wifi or 3G.

Stephen

I would just get yourself the iphone on speakeasy then switch to a cheap billpay tarriff with data included.

O2_Daryll

Hi Stephen, Yes of course the experience plan are available to speakeasy however if I can make a suggestion. you mentioned that you and your friends jumped ship years ago as we were for like of a better word not as competitive. If you were to take advantage of the getaniphone offer you could get yourself an iPhone for a fiver, have all you friends on O2 as well as them getting €40 credit as well as a treat card as a welcome back present and you can all head off paintballing for the day on us!