I’ve already written articles about getting the cheapest iPhone on O2, Orange and Tesco Mobile. But all these operators sell their iPhones locked to their individual networks. What if you want more freedom than that? What if you want to use two different SIMs, or simply want to switch to local network when you’re abroad?

You could pay an eye-watering amount buying an officially unlocked one imported on the grey market from Play.com. The 16GB iPhone 3GS will cost you £715.99 (with free delivery!). Or, you could take your chances and buy an iPhone from eBay. I just watched an auction end for an unlocked iPhone; a 16GB 3GS went for £470 plus £6.99 postage – saving £239 on Play.com’s price. Not bad. However, the seller said he had “opened the box to unlock”, indicating that it’s probably unofficially unlocked using the iPhone Dev Team’s fine work on their ultrasn0w unlocking software. So that means you’ll have to update your iPhone using a jailbreak tool and custom firmware everytime – or to put that jargon-free – no easy software updates from iTunes.

So here’s an easier and cheaper option to buy an officially unlocked iPhone in the UK.

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If you’re a fan of keenly focussed and very informed comment on mobile, then you really should sign up for the Mobile Industry Review weekly newsletter. This week’s edition really chimed with me as a vision of what a truly connected mobile life could be, and how the iPhone is a pathfinder, edging towards it.

As Ewan of MIR points out, the signifying role of the mobile of the future can be summed up in one word: Enablement. That is, allowing the mobile user to do whatever they need to do, seamlessly and easily.

But there’s a big problem, which may stop this party before it gets started.

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I’m sure you’ve heard that T-Mobile are giving iPhones to some customers in the UK. As with the unlocked iPhones available on Play.com, these are grey market imports that are not locked to any network. T-Mobile customers will apparently be offered an iPhone 3G if they spend £75+ per month and threaten to leave.

Initially, this will only affect a small number of high spending customers. And, it has to be seen in context of T-Mobile trying to maintain subscriber numbers – in order to make themselves more attractive if the network is sold.

But for the first time, you can now get an officially-supported iPhone in the UK on a network other than O2. Are we about to see iPhones available on other networks as well?

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Are you all upgraded to iPhone OS 3.0 now? Good. Then you’re probably aware that the new firmware allows you to tether; that is, use your iPhone’s data connection to provide internet access to a computer (via Bluetooth or USB). It’s been possible to do this for quite a while on jailbroken iPhones, using apps such as PDANet, but to be honest the experience has always been slow and flaky. Having it built into the iPhone’s own operating system makes a lot more sense.

What doesn’t make sense is O2’s pricing. If you want to tether, O2 would like £15/month for 3GB or £30 for 10GB. That’s a lot of money, especially when you compare it to say Three’s offer of £15 for 15GB/month. And also when other phones can effectively tether for free without having to pay O2 extra.

Wouldn’t it be nicer to tether easily for free? Of course it would, and you can. But be aware – I believe O2 are able to monitor unofficial tethering with little effort.
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Have you heard? There’s been a bit of discontent about O2’s attitude towards existing iPhone 3G customers who would like to upgrade to the new iPhone 3G S, which is due to be released in the UK on Friday.

There is no special upgrade deal available (unlike AT&T users). When the iPhone 3G came out last year, existing iPhone customers on O2 with original (2G) iPhone were allowed to break their contracts and upgrade to the new device. No such joy this time.

So how can existing O2 customers get an iPhone 3G S now?
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Apple have announced the iPhone 3G S, and O2 have released their pricing for the phone, which will be available from June 19th.

If you’re thinking about getting an iPhone deal with O2, there is a page on Martin Lewis’ MoneySavingExpert site that looks at the monthly tariffs. But it’s well out-of-date now, so I’ve put together a quick guide highlighting the total cost of ownership for the new iPhone.

So whether you’re looking for Pay Monthly or Pay As You Go, read on for the cheapest way to get your hands on Apple’s shiny mobile, short of nicking it!

UPDATE: There are also articles covering iPhone deals with Orange and Tesco Mobile This article was last updated on January 7th, 2010.

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The WWDC Keynote is done. Thanks to macrumors.com, which has the best coverage optimised for Safari on the iPhone. There was plenty to look forward to in the Keynote, and not just for the iPhone. I was a bit surprised they didn’t demo video editing, but all in all, good stuff. Voice control, not just voice dialling, looks excellent. More details are of course all over the web – try Engadget for starters.

So no massive surprises, until I checked out O2’s responses on Twitter. Oh dear O2, oh dear.
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If you’re thinking about buying an iPhone on O2, there is a page on Martin Lewis’ MoneySavingExpert site that looks at the monthly tariffs. But it’s well out-of-date now, so I’ve put together a quick guide highlighting the total cost of ownership.

Read on for the cheapest way to get your hands on Apple’s shiny mobile, short of nicking it!

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It’s time for a round-up of info I’ve gleaned from recent posts on Twitter. O2 have an official presence on Twitter, and recently asked for suggestions for iPhone apps. Giving away some apps specific to their network would be a good move for the carrier – they could add some real value to the iPhone customer experience.

Some of the most requested included:

• Integration with Bluebook
  Bluebook is a great free service from O2, storing all you texts, picture messages and contacts, but iPhones cannot use the service yet. A workaround is to install Synthesis SyncML, which at least enables you to sync contacts. But why you’d use this over Google Mobile sync, I’m not sure (unless you’re Google-phobic).

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You, like me, probably pay a lot of money each month for your iPhone. You, like me, expect your iPhone to be blessed with the fact that Apple products “just work” (generally). You, like me, do not expect calls to randomly go straight to voicemail without even ringing.

For a phone, especially an expensive phone, this is very bad indeed.

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