Nokia have released, via the Nokia Beta Labs, an update to the Free Ovi Maps solution, now at v3.04.  The new features are:

• Improved positioning speed and accuracy
• Map zooming with faster speed
• Improved search for cities with zoom out to city level

This is good to see, and if you want to try it out (remember it’s a beta version, so may not be perfect), then head over to the Nokia Beta Labs to download this new version.  If you think your device (whether S60 3rd Edition FP2 or S60 5th Edition) is not supported, it’s worth trying one of the other similar models (within the same OS group); eg if you are using a Nokia N86 or Nokia E75, then try the 3rd Edition FP2 version even though your model is not explicitly listed; strangely some people seem to have had success with this method, and others not, so it’s not clear whether or not other devices of the same OS (other than the original 10 or so Nokia announced) can access this software or not.

One word of warning; if you are using a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, you need at least v31 firmware, which is still not available for some Orange models and all 3UK Nokia 5800 XpressMusic devices, and this despite 3UK giving assurances last month that they were working at fast as possible to get this update out to their users.

Now, about all those of us with S60 3rd Edition FP1 devices; Nokia released a statement (via a Q&A session) about supporting existing and elder devices with the Free Ovi Maps service.  They said they were working to extend the compatibility to other current devices (although I believe they meant FP2 devices), and from now on, all GPS enabled devices will be supported with Free Ovi Maps, but could not give any timelines or guarantees over elder devices; although a ray of hope was that their exact comment was “We can’t say when it will be available”, which seems to imply there is still a chance it will happen.

What I can say is that the Beta of v3.04 isn’t available in an FP1 version, so it’s fair to say it’s going to be a while longer before it comes out, if it ever does…

The Guardian has covered some of the business information behind the merger between Orange and T-Mobile (here), but it’s the interesting possibilities that caught my attention…

Firstly, and a real winner for 3UK, is that as part of the merger, the combined company will give up, and pass over to 3UK, 3000 more mast sites, which will increase their planned total for this year to reach 16,000 mast sites.

Also, Orange and T-Mobile will have to give up one quarter of their spectrum in the 1800MHz range.  Now, wouldn’t it be interesting if 3UK bought up this spectrum, and used it to provide a 2G service instead of relying upon Orange to provide that service…

Everything is still being discussed, so these conditions may still change, but it’s good to see that things are progressing, if a little slowly…

We’ve received confirmation from 3UK that they will also be selling the HTC Desire (along with Orange and T-Mobile who have already announced their plans to sell the phone).  This is good news for 3UK as part of their plans to expand their Android range to over 6 devices by June, although at this stage it’s not clear if they will only be selling the HTC Desire, or whether they will be carrying the HTC Legend too.

As with all other 3UK devices, it will feature Skype on 3 (Free Skype Forever), Email on 3, Free Windows Live Messenger, and will also have the Spotify client installed too.

Although 3UK have only formally stated “Spring 2010″, we understand it should be available in April 2010.

HTC have released 2 very exciting Android phones this week; the HTC Legend (above) and the HTC Desire.  HTC have released some information about the devices here, but in summary:

The HTC Legend is made from a single aluminium block, features a 3.2″ AMOLED screen with an optical joystick.

The HTC Desire features a 3.7″ AMOLED screen, 5 megapixel camera, and is, in essence, very similar to the Google Nexus One, although it lacks the dual-mic noise cancelling feature of the Google phone.

One of the new UI features that HTC will add to both devices is the new “HTC Friend Stream that seamlessly aggregates all of your social communication including Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr into one organised flow of updates. This simple aggregation makes it easier than ever to focus on what friends are doing as well as to view the images and links that they share.  In addition to Friend Stream, people can be organised into specific social circles, such as groups of friends, colleagues or any other way that makes sense.”

In terms of availability, the HTC Desire should be available on Orange in April, and on T-Mobile on 26th March.  If you can’t wait for this, T-Mobile have just released the T-Mobile Pulse Mini on PAYG for £99.99, which is a very low price point for an Android device.  When I met up with 3UK a few weeks back, they talked about having the Hero replacement by June, and I do wonder whether they will be carrying the HTC Legend.

In other news, HTC have confirmed that the Android 2.1 update for the Hero will become available in March 2010 (although network operator versions may take a little longer), and have also apparently stated that the HTC Magic will not be receiving this update.  The Hero update will include the new enhanced Sense features mentioned above.

Both Orange and Vodafone have made a lot of noise about now selling the iPhone on their networks, but equally, if you already have an iPhone on O2, and want to move to Vodafone, but don’t want to buy a whole new device, there really wasn’t a good option; until now!

Vodafone have now announced their iPhone SIM Only deal, whereby you pay £25 per month, and for that you get:

• 600 voice minutes
• “Unlimited” 3000 texts
• 1GB of data (it’s worth noting this is often only 500MB with most Vodafone contracts)
• Flexible 30 day agreement
• 1GB of data via BT Premium OpenZone hotspots too

This is an interesting deal, and brings together the WiFi component of many iPhone contracts without the need to buy a new device.  Although this probably won’t be the first such tariff, it’s nice to see a network saying “hey, bring your existing phone to our network, and we both benefit”.

For more details, head to the Vodafone website to see the details about the iPhone SIM Only deal for yourself.

This week Nokia released the v21 firmware for the Nokia N97, and also a v11 firmware for the Nokia N97 Mini.  As always, don’t expect your operator-branded device to be able to download this firmware (it’s currently only available via Nokia Software Updater on your computer) for a few more weeks (at least).  We’re keeping an eye on the firmware status, and will report back with how quickly the UK operators released this version too.

We’ve noticed some operators haven’t been keeping their devices up to date at all recently (hint: it’s Orange); to the extent that for some of their phones, whilst Nokia has released 2 or 3 firmware updates since the middle of last year, Orange customers won’t have seen any of those updates.  This is poor show; if you want to produce custom firmwares, then you need to offer support for your device throughout the life *of the device*, not just the initial sales period, or even just the warranty period of the phone; you need to support it for a lot longer…

If you own a Nokia N97, then you should find that the free Ovi Maps software is now available.  It’s not yet integrated into a firmware update, but instead is available from the built in Software Update tool.  However, you’ll need v20 firmware already installed, so where does the Nokia N97 UK network operator branded versions stand…?

Well, for most UK network operators, they have offered v20 for some time, and hence if you don’t already have the new firmware, you can apply it and then pick up the Ovi Maps update (although you need a fair amount of free space on the C: drive, so if it won’t install, hopefully the v21 firmware which will include the new v3.03 Free Ovi Maps should be out at some point in the next few weeks).

Most.  Not all.  This week, it’s Orange in the doghouse, for still being on v10 firmware, and not yet having made v20 available for their customers.  Nokia have said they are working to ensure v20 is available to all, but yet again, things are complicated by the UK networks.

It’s nice to see the Nokia N97 finally included in the list of supported devices for the Free Navigation Forever campaign from Nokia, but personally, I still want to see Nokia offering it to S60 3rd Edition FP1 devices…

When Nokia made Ovi Maps free for a whole range of devices last week, one thing which wasn’t so strongly mentioned was the minimum firmware versions needed for certain devices.  Take the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic for example; although many devices shipped with v11 (and since then Nokia has released v20, v21, v30, v31 and v40 firmwares), you actually need a minimum of v31 to be able to install this latest version of Ovi Maps.

Obviously for anyone with a generic unbranded device, this is easy; a quick firmware check on the device, or using Nokia Software Updater on your Windows PC will soon confirm that there is a v40 firmware, and you can easily install it; but what about the UK network operators?  If you have a branded device, are you in luck?

Well, generally, the good news is yes, you are in luck.  It looks like the majority of UK branded product codes have had v31 released (although none that I checked actually had v40 released yet), so overall, you have a good chance of being able to upgrade the firmware in your phone, and then install the new free to use Ovi Maps.

However, all is not perfect; I did say “the majority”, and I’m sorry to say, the Orange product code for a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Blue edition (the early devices Orange first sold) seems to be stuck on v30, and hence, although fairly up to date, not sufficiently up to date to allow the new Ovi Maps to work.  Ironically, the Black variant, which, being newer, has strangely always faired better for firmware updates seems to have v31 available, so those users are fine.

If my research is correct, that’s a silly situation to be in; depending when you bought your phone determines which colour you have, and with Orange, that can mean the difference between being able to install Ovi Maps or not.  Let’s hope Orange resolve this with some speed given the amount of advertising Nokia is putting behind their new Ovi Maps versions.

However, that’s not the end of the story; it appears 3UK are also stuck on v30, and hence anyone with a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic from 3UK will not be able to run the latest Ovi Maps either.

Obviously, I am not able to check every single colour and operator variant, but I checked over 10 different product codes to write this article; if you have a device from Orange or 3UK that has access to the v31 or v40 firmware (without changing the product code), then please add a comment and let me know the product code (from underneath the battery in the form of 0559360) and what firmware version you have access to…

So, to recap; well done to most UK operators (T-Mobile, O2, Virgin, Vodafone), and not so well done to Orange and 3UK for either not having v31 available, or having a mix of firmware versions.

Now, this is a nice bit of integration; get an Orange branded Barclaycard credit card, and not just will you get support for contactless payments, but you’ll also get a range of additional Orange specific features…

• You are able to keep track of finances via text messages and spending controls
• You benefit from contactless payments
• You gain Orange reward points which can be redeemed for other things

Taking each of those points in turn, the functionality on offer looks very interesting (although I’m no financial expert, and a typical  APR of 18.9% might not be the best value out there; oh, and it’s an APR of 29.9% on cash advances)…

Some of the spending controls come from Barclaycard (actually, the reward scheme may come from them too), although whether the full range of text options are available from Barclaycard, I’m not sure.  Either way, the Orange card offers the following:

Automated SMS alerts to keep a tab on spending:

• Weekly – the balance, limit and credit remaining
• Monthly – the payment due and payment received

Customer-activated SMS alerts:

• Customers can set alerts and blocks on card spend online, abroad or for high value transactions,
• Customers can set a weekly or monthly budget and set alerts when the budget is reached or chose to automatically decline transactions if they exceed the budget

It’s nice to see the ability to be notified of certain transaction types.

Contactless payments is quite a new thing, but starting to take off in London (there are already over 7000 places which will accept contactless payments in London, and another 3000 nationwide).  Given the £10 limit on these payments, many of the places that accept them are food chains, such as EAT, Yo Sushi!, Prêt a Manger and Krispy Kreme doughnuts.  Should your transaction end up over £10, you can simply use chip’n'pin with the same card.

If you want to know where you can use such a card, then Visa have a map here which can show you, however, you can only search on a company, type of business, or an exact postcode of someone who takes the contactless payment; you can’t enter a postcode and see all people in your local area who accept the card, which seems a little strange.

Finally, the reward scheme seems to offer payout in terms of high street vouchers, discounts on Orange products and purchases in their shop, tickets for events, or the ability to donate to charity.

Also, as a member of the Orange family of services, there is access to your account online.

I like the integration with text alerts, and it shows Orange is added something over and above simply taking a similar card direct from Barclaycard, but as with all financial matters, I’m not qualified to give advice on whether it’s suitable for you…

Although nothing has been announced yet, if you go into the Settings page within Twitter, and select Mobile, the UK entry has been updated as:

• UK: 86444 (Vodafone, Orange, 3 and O2 customers)

Now, this seems to imply that 3UK have joined the other listed networks in providing the ability to send and receive twitter messages and DMs via SMS.  Obviously until it’s formally announced we won’t know the exact limits (eg the number of free SMS you can receive per month, or exactly how the billing of sent SMS will work), but this is a positive move for 3UK, although with their inclusion of free internet on PAYG, and the fact that many of their phones are now shipping with Twitter clients directly may limit how many people truly need such a function, but it’s nice to know it’s coming…

That just leaves T-Mobile who aren’t playing…

Thanks to Liam Green-Hughes who drew my attention to this earlier today.

Let’s start with the first issue; actually, it’s not called a MiFi in the UK, it’s called the Novatel Wireless Intelligent Mobile Hotspot 2352, as 3UK own the trademark MiFi in the UK (although Novatel Wireless own the MiFi trademark in the US).  So, the device competes with the 3UK MiFi device, and in some ways is better, and in others, not quite as good.

Firstly, the downside: it is currently only available SIM-free (for around £200), which is a lot more than the 3UK MiFi, which can be picked up for £50.  Of course, the 3UK is locked to 3UK, and only works on 3UK, whereas the Novatel MiFi is not locked, and will pick up the internet access point from whatever SIM is put into it, making it more suitable for anyone looking to use a network other than 3UK.

In terms of ease of use, it has one advantage over the 3UK MiFi; when you turn it on (by pressing and holding the power button) that’s it; it sorts everything out, and “just works”, whereas the 3UK unit needs you to then press and hold the 3G button as a second step.  The Novatel device also gives you access to the microSD card slot via the web interface, whereas the 3UK device only allows access to the card slot via the USB cable.

There are other minor differences; eg the 3UK device comes with the wireless encryption key under the battery inside the unit, but also on a piece of card to allow easy setup, whereas the Novatel only has the code attached to the inside of the battery cover.  This, at first glance, seems better, as it allows the device to remain powered whilst you connect a new device, but I discovered that every time I took the battery cover, my natural instinct was to turn the unit back the right way up (to allow you to see the status lights to see whether the new device had connected), and the battery would loosen enough to switch the unit off.  A minor point, and obviously once everything is setup, not a problem in real usage.

Another minor difference is that the Novatel device will work on 2G as well as 3G; whereas 3UK only offer a 3G-only Mobile Broadband service (although their handsets can roam onto Orange’s 2G network, their broadband devices can’t), and although I wouldn’t want to share a 2G connection to multiple devices, a slow connection may be better than no connection…

I’ll be continuing to trial the device for a little while, but at first glances it looks a nice unit, although everyone I speak to says the 3UK MiFi has one of the best 3G radio components available today, so it will be interesting to see how the Novatel device works under the same conditions that I tried the 3UK MiFi under…

giffgaff is a new virtual mobile phone network operator, sitting on the O2 network (in fact the company is actually part of O2), but with an innovative business model, and hence tariff.  Firstly, no call centres (some will celebrate this single point), in fact they have very few staff at all, and will be relying upon other customers to help in the online forums (the main route to support).  When an existing member is thanked within the forum, they will earn kudos, which adds up, along with many other things into giffgaff points, which add up to hard cash (or at least credit).

However, as well as keeping costs down, they are keeping the tariff simple, and encouraging individuals to recruit their friends and family onto the same tariff…

• Calls, SMS, MMS, call forwarding, and even video calls between giffgaff users will be free (as long as you topup £10 every 3 months, and only calls up to 60 minutes will be free)
• UK landlines and mobiles (and voicemail) will cost 8p/min
• UK SMS will be 4p each (possibly showing a more accurate figure than other networks)
• MMS will be 16p each
• Video calls will be 50p/min

That’s the general stuff out of the way, now let’s look at the two exciting bits…

• Freefone calls (0800) will actually be free!
• Data will be free for 6 months!

Wow, it’s really good to see a network returning to the Orange / T-Mobile ways of many many years ago and providing freefone numbers for free.

The reason for free data is partly to gauge the interest in the service, partly to allow them further discussion on what pricing to set.

If you want a SIM, head over to the giffgaff website and order one, and let us know how you get on!

Some content courtesy of Dan at The Really Mobile Project.

Orange announced today that they are now supporting Twitter for text messages, but will also offer support for uploading photos via MMS too.  In a similar arrangement to both O2 and Vodafone, you are able to send and receive certain tweets throughout the day, although whereas O2 and Vodafone both clearly state the limit of the total number of free tweets you will be sent via SMS per month, Orange have not provided any details of their limit.

You can send tweets via SMS, which will come out of your inclusive bundle, or be charged at your normal rate, and if you include your username and password, you can also MMS a photo to the same shortcode (86444), and this will appear on Twitter via Orange’s Snapshot service.  MMS will also come out of your inclusive bundle (if you have one), or will be charged at 30p per MMS.

Last night I was privileged to be invited to a small, cosy location in London 2 floors underground to discuss with LG some of their new phones recently released, and about to be released.

John Barton, the UK Sales & Marketing Manager, spoke candidly about the LG range, and there’s a summary of the devices that were discussed after the break…

(more…)

The iPhone has been locked to O2 since they first launched the device, but now the device is available from other networks (currently only Orange, but it will be available on Vodafone in the New Year too), O2 are now offering people the ability to unlock their iPhone.

If you are a Pay Monthly customer, then the unlock is free, and can occur at any time during the contract; you will still have to continue making the monthly payments until the end of the contract (and it’s not clear whether or not O2 will let you port the number away from O2 during this contract period), but O2 will unlock your iPhone for free.

If you are a PAYG customer (and many iPhone 3GS were bought like this, as it proved an efficient way of getting the iPhone upgrade before the customer’s iPhone 3G contract term was up) then it’s a bit more complicated.  Firstly, you need to have had the iPhone for over 12 months, and it will cost £14.69, so you need enough credit for that too.  Also, if the iPhone 3GS was registered with the PAYG SIM, you’ll need that number to perform the unlocking, as that’s the number linked to the phone sale.

If the phone was bought from an O2 store, Carphone Warehouse, or Apple UK, you should have no problems getting your iPhone unlocked; from any other source, and you will have to speak to the company you bought it from to sort out the unlock; ebay sales may run into problem unless you have the original SIM and number used to originally register the iPhone.

You need to complete an unlocking form, and the process can take upto 14 days, and to complete the process once you have entered the code O2 supply, you’ll need to have a non-O2 SIM to place in the iPhone, and then connect to iTunes via a USB cable to get the final confirmation message.

It’s nice to see O2 offering this service, although it’s a shame that due to the subsidies, PAYG customers have to wait 12 months (whereas other networks with less subsidised phones can often provide the unlock code within hours of first registering the phone), and for those who find their iPhone is linked to a SIM they don’t have or can’t find may have problems unlocking at all.

For more information, head over to the iPhone unlocking webpage at O2.

We’ve spoken with 3UK, and we now have a better understanding of how the Spotify Premium service will operate on the HTC Hero that we covered last week.  Firstly, if you are streaming the music direct from Spotify over the 3G connection, then yes that data will come out of the Internet Access usage, which is capped at 1GB per month, although we do understand there’s a little leeway on this exact figure, so 3UK shouldn’t cut you off for exceeded it a little (they will if you exceed it a lot though!).  Although 3UK did tell me what that actual limit is, the T&Cs and the promoted set the limit as 1GB, and that’s the number you need to keep within as much as you can.

However, one of the advantages of having a Spotify Premium account and the Spotify Android client is the ability to access music in other ways.  Firstly, it will also work over Wi-Fi and home / work broadband connections, allowing you the ability to listen to music in those places as well as home.  Secondly, the client support offline playlists, which will allow you to preselect music and then have access to it without needing to be streaming all that music whilst out and about.  Personally, I normally preselect playlists when I want to listen to music on whatever device I’m using, so I can understand the advantage that as well as having access to a massive music library, many of those tracks that I want to listen to regularly can be already downloaded.

Having said that, it’s being advertised as “unlimited” Internet access, and unlimited Spotify, which isn’t quite true.  3UK have stated that if you just used the Internet Access for Spotify you would still get roughly 1.5 hours per day of streamed music for the whole month without running out of data usage, and that would easily cover the work commute for many people even without the use of offline playlists.  Of course, every track already downloaded will save some data usage (and will help deal with those little network blackspots such as road and rail tunnels or underground trains), so many people may well end up using a lot less than this in reality.  Given, that in essence you “pay” (if only a portion of your internet access limit) every time you listen to a streamed song, why not download those you want to listen to regularly and save a little?

Let’s also not forget that Orange’s T&Cs forbid accessing streaming music or video at all (although they have stated “popular streaming sites will not be banned for iPhone users”, but will of course still come out of their smaller 750MB 3G data limit per month); at least 3UK have an open policy towards their internet pipe in the first place, else a deal like this with Spotify would never exist.

Although I would like to see 3UK raise this Internet Access limit higher, it seems they are offering a compromise between too much and too little; although whether all networks will need to reconsider their limits over the next year will be interesting to see as more music streaming promotions such as Spotify are offered to mobile users.

Yet again, we’re very unhappy with the liberal use of the word “unlimited”, so let’s start with the sting in the tail; Orange are not providing unlimited tariffs with the iPhone; however, some of their plans are interesting, and worthy of a mention.  As a long term Orange user, it will be interesting to see what the offers are for existing customers, but with Orange’s past performance, you can guess that they won’t be as “good” as these…

So, the new iPhone 3GS will be available from 10th November, and will be free on contracts over £45 per month for 24-month contracts, whereas the iPhone 3G will be free on £30 per month for 24-month contracts.  Orange, however, have stated that “all plans” with come with “unlimited” 750MB per month UK data, and there is free “unlimited” 750MB per month data access to BT OpenZone Wi-Fi too.

For PAYG, the iPhone 3G (note not 3GS) will be £333 if you TopUp with £50 on purchase (so that’s £383 with £50 credit), and you will automatically get 250MB of UK data per month plus 12 months “unlimited” 750MB per month of BT OpenZone Wi-Fi access.

If you want to tether your iPhone (to allow you to access the net on your laptop / other device via the iPhone), plans are available that “start” at £5 per month (so I guess we can expect this to have a data limit, which increases with the tariff).

Orange have also launched a new high end “Traveller” tariff for £125 per month, which gives inclusive (note the lack of the word unlimited) call and data allowance.

Head off to here to see the full details; for example, a 32GB iPhone 3GS on a £30 per month 18-month contract will cost you £274 upfront!

As part of 3UK’s major plans to improve their network across the UK, 3UK have to start somewhere, and that somewhere is London.  Already hitting capacity in certain areas, it makes sense to me to start with London to roll out what should end up as a faster, better network, which is one of the two areas 3UK really still need to work on (the other being Customer Services, but that’s not unique to 3UK).  So, to achieve this, there are going to be some outages required, but 3UK are being open and upfront about this, and have even produced a webpage dedicated to these upgrades showing when and where they will happen.  If you go to www.three.co.uk/london, you will see the information for yourself (although over time this webpage may well change to reflect other areas of the country), and you can also sign up for text alerts to be alerted to these issues (which allows you to enter a 3UK mobile number, a non-3UK mobile number; nice option!, and up to 4 postcodes, to allow you to cover home and work, and a couple of other places too!).

Importantly, it looks like from next week until just before Christmas, you may find you lose 3G signal for around 6-8 hours; a mobile phone should drop to Orange’s 2G network for the period (although watch out, mobile data will be less reliable, and much slower), whereas Mobile Broadband users will not be able to connect at all during the outage.

Also from that page, you can enter your postcode (or town name) and it will tell you about any planned outages in your area; for the area around my home, for example, it tells me they performed some work last week, and have more planned for today, which might result in an outage for me; now, if they improve my home 3UK network signal, that’s no bad thing as far as I’m concerned, and well worthy of a few hours of no signal.

These upgrades are all part of 3UK’s plans to build their “Monster Network”, which I first covered briefly when I met with 3UK last month, and they plan to have all these major outages completed by the Summer of 2010 when their much improved network should be fully online.  Having seen their planned coverage map at the end of these works, we should all see a lot less areas of no 3G coverage, and improved capacity in key areas too.

After Orange announced it would be selling the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS before the end of the year, Vodafone then announced they would be selling the same 2 devices in early 2010.  Now, having read a lot of articles and suggestions since then, it appears that T-Mobile are likely to carry the iPhone too, although it may too not be until 2010.  This information seems based on the fact that by then, Orange and T-Mobile will have formally merged, allowing T-Mobile to sell the device.

That’s 4 out of the 5 UK networks then; so what about 3UK…?  Well, it would be a shame if they don’t pick up the phone; generally they support unhindered internet access from their devices, and as they are happy to only sell Android phones with a net connection so they shouldn’t have a problem with that side of things, but will the overall cost put off both them and their customers…?  Only time will tell if 3UK pick up the device, but we’re hearing that we may well see the device available on all networks at some point in 2010.  Of course, what will happen when the next iPhone device gets launched around June 2010 is anyone’s guess…!

Although we’re all waiting to hear more news and more details about the deal and the exact pricing options, Orange have confirmed that they will be selling the Apple iPhone 3GS “later this year”.  This ends the “multi-year agreement” that O2 have had in place since 2007 (which for some while has been rumoured to have only been 2 years).  Little more has been announced by Orange, except that you can pre-register your interest by accessing this web page.

With a lot of people coming to the end of their 18-month contract for the original iPhone 3G in the next few months, it will be interesting to see how many remain on O2, and how many jump across (or back) to Orange to get the latest version of the phone.  For existing Orange customers, it will be interesting to see how supportive of keeping their own customers Orange is; traditionally most of the UK networks offer worse “upgrade” deals than the deals they offer to “new” customers, forcing many to move away from their preferred network.

Of course, if you are an Orange customer, and want the new iPhone 3GS, and Orange don’t offer you a good upgrade deal; one option is to port your number to another network and take out a 1 month rolling contract, then cancel that after 1 month, and port back to Orange as a “new” customer.  Isn’t it daft how we have to go through these hoops; I wonder if Orange will just offer their existing customers the same deals; I also wonder whether any other network will be selling the iPhone in the coming months too…