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O2 has released the first UK prices and ‘Refresh’ tariffs for the iPhone 5S and 5C.
The iPhone 5S, to be released on September 20th, will be available from £37 a month with an upfront fee of £119.99.
The money will net customers a 16GB 5S, unlimited minutes and texts and 1GB of 3G data.
For an extra £10, the 5S will come with the same storage, minutes and texts, but adds 5GB of faster speed 4G data.
The iPhone 5C, seen by many to be Apple’s “budget” iPhone model, has also been priced, for less than expected.
For an upfront £49.99 followed by monthly payments of £32, the 5C will comes with 600 minutes, unlimited texts and 750MB of 3G data.
Like the 5S, for £10 more the 5C will comes with 5GB of 4G data, and makes the calltime allowance unlimited.
O2 says that both phones should run on its upcoming 4G network, which should launch in the next few weeks, hopefully by the time of the phones’ launch on September 20th.
O2 is offering customers who opt for the 4G tariff for either phone £5 off their bill until the network goes live. The data included in the contract will still be accessible.
Both new and existing O2 customers can receive the tariffs. Customers not already on an O2 Refresh tariff can buy out their remaining contract using the ‘Speed to Refresh’ service, which also lets customers change from a 3G to 4G contract, with O2 footing 25 per cent of the remainder of each user’s contract.
Customers who took the 4G Price Promise offered by O2 are also eligible to upgrade to 4G, if they purchased an iPhone 5, which isn’t 4G-compatible, from September 21st 2012 to March 31st 2013.
O2 is also offering a recycling service to knock up to £280 (dependant on condition and the model of the phone) off of a new phone’s price or an old phone’s remaining contract when customers trade in their old handset.
The iPhone 5C is available to preorder from tomorrow (September 13th) onwards, while the 5S will only be available on launch day for both of the phones (September 20th).
What remains to be seen is whether customers will be interested enough to purchase the 5S, and if the new prices for the 5C are low enough to tempt those previously scared off.
