iPhone 4 Hits all Five UK Networks

The iPhone 4 was announced on Monday, and will be available to buy in just two weeks time. And for consumers in the UK, the good news this week is following the announcement of the release date, availability of Apple's new handset has been confirmed for all five main UK networks. O2, the network who originally brought the iPhone to the UK will be carrying the handset, as will Orange and Vodafone who were the first networks to break O2's exclusive iPhone deal.

Now the remaining two networks yet to deliver the iPhone, T-Mobile and Three, have both confirmed that they will have the iPhone 4 ready to sell on launch day. This is clearly good news for loyal T-Mobile and Three customers, and will hopefully stimulate some fierce competition between the networks as they fight for a share of the lucrative smartphone market.

It will be interesting to see just what kind of tariffs the two new entrants will offer, and also what kind of data bundles they will deliver, particularly in light of the news that O2 will no longer be offering unlimited data to their smartphone customers. The new iPhone tariffs on O2 will deliver 500MB of inclusive data on price plans below £40, 750MB of inclusive data on tariffs above £40, and 1GB of inclusive data on the £60 a month tariff. This follows on from the recent changes Vodafone made to their own data bundles, and Orange have also been hinting in the last day or two that they will also be looking to realign their own data offerings. Which leaves T-Mobile and Three to either follow suit, or deliver some top draw deals to tempt people to move to them.

The problem with delivering open data tariffs is the strain heavy usage puts on parts of the network. O2 in the UK, and AT&T in the US have both suffered in the past with issues surrounding the quality of their data connections, as iPhone users in particular started to take advantage of their new devices, browsing the web and accessing a host of online services. Three in particular are proud to promote their network as designed for the mobile internet, and may well feel inclined to offer an enticing data rich package. We shall know in the next few days.

Whichever way it pans out, the Apple iPhone 4 is set to hog the headlines over the next few weeks.