Skip to main content

iPod/iPhone > News

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 O2 boss confirms customers will be allowed to unlock iPhones

Why is your 3G coverage so appalling? asks Times reader

Macworld staff

  • Email to a friend
  • Print this article
  • Bookmark this page
  • RSS feed

In a Q&A with readers of The Times newspaper, Matthew Key, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Telefónica Europe answers questions related to O2 and the iPhone. Key admits selling the iPhone for the last two years has proved a steep learning curve.

During the Ask the Boss: Matthew Key feature a reader Andy asks: "Is there any truth in the rumour that after Orange and Vodafone are able to sell the iPhone you will not allow people to unlock their iPhone, even if they are out of their contract period?"

Question of the day!

Mark Hattersley
Editor in Chief

Do you share your creations online?

Question of the day!

Do you share your creations online?

% of Macworld readers agree with you

Yes
TBC
No
TBC

What do you create and how do you share it?

124 characters remaining

Follow the conversation at @TabletChat

paintings & illustrations, mostly, which i upload to flickr.RT @fragmentedm

I draw manga/anime characters. I also do graphic design and photography.RT @spialelo

Yes. I usually put them up on my #deviantart account for feedback on how to improve.RT @spialelo

Key replies: "There is absolutely no truth in that rumour. Once the iPhone becomes available on other UK networks, we will allow O2 customers to unlock their iPhones, although of course they will still need to honour any outstanding contract period they have. At the end of their contract period, they are entirely free to move to another operator - though naturally we hope they won’t want to!"

Another Times reader Nikesh asks a question on many O2 iPhone users minds: "Why is your 3G coverage so appalling? Now that Orange and Vodafone, both of whom have better coverage, have the iPhone, will O2 be improving theirs?"

Key replies: "I accept that our network has been under pressure in parts of London, where we see the highest concentration of smartphone users. For two years we have been the exclusive provider of the Apple iPhone - the fastest selling and most powerful phone in the world. It’s been a steep learning curve for the industry and ourselves - the O2 network has seen an 18-fold increase in data carried over the network in the last year and traffic continues to double every three months."

"This level of throughput increase would cause pressure on any business. To put this into some context, watching an average YouTube video on a smartphone can be the network equivalent of sending 500,000 text messages."

"We are constantly increasing the capacity of our networks and the good news is that we now better understand and know what fixes we need to put in place to improve our levels of service."

"Fortunately, it’s not about needing new mast sites and we are investing more than £30 million to address capacity issues in London alone between now and Christmas and I’m confident that we’ll see much improved levels of service as a result."

The full Q&A can be found here.

Before joining O2, Key worked with Vodafone as UK Operations Finance Director for four years. He has also held various financial positions with Kingfisher, Coca-Cola, Schweppes and Grand Metropolitan.

Check out our new Macworld Mobile site.

Follow Macworld UK on twitter: www.twitter.com/macworlduk

Email A Friend

Email this article to a friend or colleague:



PLEASE NOTE: Your name is used only to let the recipient know who sent the story, and in case of transmission error. Both your name and the recipient's name and address will not be used for any other purpose.

<<prev article | back to news index | next article>>

Comments received


Neil Hardie said on Fri, 06 Nov 2009

Good for London. Now what about the rest of the country, where most of the population lives? For most of us, 3G doesn't even exist. I would appreciate ANY signal that doesn't drop to zero as soon as I try to make a call. This is all the more annoying considering that I can see the O2 mast 1500 metres away from my window.

Naz said on Fri, 06 Nov 2009

London = about 7 to 8 million people
Rest of UK = about 52 million people

Makes sense to focus on London.

Stupid people. Watch the mass exodus. However, I doubt much it will really happen, as Orange has hardly released revolutionary pricing for their iPhone launch.

I suspect when it's available on Vodafone as well, most likely will be the time when real competition begins.

I get this feeling, that there is a hidden message between Orange and O2: don't upset, that way we won't upset you.

Heckie Cormack said on Fri, 06 Nov 2009

The smart time to upgrade is when the NEW iphone comes out next year.

MurrayHenson said on Fri, 06 Nov 2009

An SMS can be up to 140 characters aka 140 bytes. Even with handful of bytes as overhead... if a YouTube video is 5MB, then it would be equivalent to sending ~35,000 SMS's. Except that it wouldn't. The bandwidth that SMS's use is overhead that is built-in to the networks. It essentially costs a mobile phone provider nothing in terms of cost of bandwidth or financial cost to deal with them.

When users started sending/receiving actual content, be it emails, web traffic, ssh/vnc or whatever... that's when they started to see these huge, almost exponential increases in traffic. But that's because there was almost no traffic before and now there is loads.

@MurrayHenson said on Fri, 06 Nov 2009

A short message can be up to 160 characters, encoded as 7-bits and transmitted as 140 bytes.

SMS traffic is not built-in to the networks. Extra signalling is needed to transmit them. SMSC has to process them. Thus during Christmas and New Year's eve, your celebration messages may not be instant.

dave said on Fri, 06 Nov 2009

I wonder why this isn't happening in the US? Both AT&T and Apple deny being able to unlock iPhones, even after you have completed the two-year contract fee. Even buying the phone outright, paying full retail price, still doesn't get you an unlocked phone.

@dave said on Fri, 06 Nov 2009

It's not happening in the US because AT&T is the only provider. There's no competition, so allowing unlocking would drive customers to other networks, rather than allowing the network to compete with others.

Mr Lizard said on Fri, 06 Nov 2009

Even if they wanted to, they're not allowed to prevent people from unlocking their phones once the contract is up. It's illegal.

Christiaan said on Fri, 06 Nov 2009

What I want to know is will I be able to unlock any national restriction, so I can use it overseas without incurring large roaming charges?

Christiaan said on Fri, 06 Nov 2009

And, by the way, it's up to O2 to "allow" *our* phones to be unlocked. I think Ofcom would have something to say about a network provider that tried to stop unlocking.

Barloo said on Sat, 07 Nov 2009

Their 3G covergae in London is pretty good. Only in Crystal Palace do I not get a signal.
But that man from O2, Matthew Key, likes to lick male prostitutes anus's on a regular basis.

Andy said on Sat, 07 Nov 2009

Barloo, how old are you? Twelve? Grow up. It's one thing to debate the merits of phone companies' networks, but you're just being unpleasant without an ounce of wit.

Tom said on Sat, 07 Nov 2009

Macworld, when are you going to remove the idiot Barloo's comment. It's completely unwarranted.

Stefano said on Sat, 07 Nov 2009

Glad to see that O2 will finally allow us to legally unlock our iPhones, one of the main reasons for jailbreaking.Now, if only they could see to letting us use skype and voip over 3G...

@Christiaan said on Sat, 07 Nov 2009

once the phone is unlocked, in whatever way you do it, you can use any sim card you wish.

@Christiaan said on Sat, 07 Nov 2009

PS. Any sim that will work in an iPhone, as far as I know, the Three ones do not.

@Stefano said on Mon, 09 Nov 2009

The "Thought Police" will never allow Skype.

Disclaimer
Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Macworld. Macworld accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content.
Click here to read the house rules.

Click here for the latest reader comments

Latest News


More news...