back to article O2 tries something completely new: Honesty

O2 UK hired circus performers at a PR event this week to launch its new Refresh tariff, which it was forced to confirm ahead of schedule thanks to a media leak. But despite its use of a cut-price Derren Brown, the payment plan really does represent something completely new: honesty. As in, one can see exactly how much of the …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.

Page:

      1. Number6

        Re: Still no good with custom firmware and locked bootloaders

        I suspect this is one of those things that many people have to learn the hard way the first time. The lucky ones get to read about it in the comment section of El Reg and revise their target spec for a phone accordingly.

        My HTC phone can be rooted with the manufacturer's 'blessing' (can be done via their website), at the expense of voiding the warranty. I guess I ought to get around to that now it's over a year old :-)

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: Still no good with custom firmware and locked bootloaders

      Still got it? Did you try this?

      1. djstardust

        Re: Still no good with custom firmware and locked bootloaders

        Yeah, tried that but status says "NO" as O2 have deliberately locked it. After many calls to CS and no-one knowing what a bootloader was I just gave up!

        1. Dan 55 Silver badge

          Re: Still no good with custom firmware and locked bootloaders

          Okay, try this.

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    > Let's say a punter wants an HTC One, so agrees to pay £50 upfront and enter into a credit agreement costing £20 a month for two years. The total payback is £529.99, exactly the same price as Expansys will bill you for the handset.

    So it's an unlocked HTC One running a stock OS?

  2. Anon the mouse

    Separating the phone and line rental costs is a side effect of the main purpose of these style contracts.

    At present a "subsidised" contract is line rental only and the phone is a "free gift" that forms no part of the contract.

    By doing the parts separately you don't actually own the phone until it's fully paid for, it's separate from the service, and therefore stops people from getting a contract which they only pay 6 months of and then selling the phone.

  3. Glostermeteor

    I have played around with this Honesty package on the O2 website, and its not as 'honest' as it seems, as the supposed 'phone cost' changes depending on the airtime package you choose. So for example the phone 'costs' 389 GBP when buying an airtime plan of 17 per month or above (which is around what you would pay on Amazon for the phone SIM free), but if you change the airtime package down to 12 GBP per month, the supposed phone 'cost' rockets to 539, i.e. they then rip you off on the phone cost because you have chosen a cheaper airtime package. I have found a much better and simpler way of doing this, you buy the phone off Amazon or another online retailer and you buy a SIM only deal from an airtime provider of your choice. I got my phone off Amazon and am on a 30 day rolling SIM only deal with Virgin Mobile and it costs me 7 GBP per month. I am struggling to see where this phone subsidy actually comes into play as it seems to be cheaper to buy phones SIM free and get a separate SIM only deal than actually doing it all with the airtime provider.

    1. Phil W

      I suspect that they would argue that rather than ripping you off on the cheaper airtime tariff they're giving you a discount on the phone on the more expensive tariffs.

      Which is not a wholly unreasonable position.

  4. Alan Brown Silver badge

    Comparing with expansys

    Means they're making a tidy sum on the handset, given that company is amongst most expensive retailers out there. I'd hazard it's about 300% markup on bulk pricing they're actually paying.

    No wonder they don't need to charge "interest"

Page:

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like