Editor’s Note: The following article is reprinted from Macworld UK. Visit Macworld U.K.’s blog page for the latest Mac news from across the Atlantic.
U.K. iPhone service provider O2 will offer the iPhone 3G to pay-as-you-go customers “later this year.”
While keeping any notion of a date off the table as the company tries to squeeze new contract sign-ups out of the iPhone 3G launch, the mobile operator has on Monday updated the relevant section of its Web site with the “later this year” promise.
Lack of a pay-as-you-go option has been cited as one of the reasons many more U.K. mobile phone users didn’t purchase an iPhone when it originally shipped.
News that the carrier would offer a pay-as-you-go option was welcomed, but we haven’t known until now if this would appear when the product ships, or after, once subscription customer orders have been dealt with.
It’s now clear pay as you go orders will be taken later. An official statement from Carphone Warehouse says the PAYG iPhone 3G will arrive “in time for the Christmas period.”
As well as the not yet available pay-as-you-go option, O2’s U.K. customers are offered four monthly plans with prices ranging from £30 (US$60) to £75 a month for the 8GB and 16GB models. £30/month gets 75 minutes of voice minutes, 125 texts and unlimited WiFi and data.
Also on Monday, O2 announced that the iPhone 3G was out of stock for online pre-orders.