T-Mobile is desperately sourcing a large number of SIM-free iPhones in Europe to put off their customers from buying contracts from their rival O2. According to reports, staff at T-Mobile have already started recommending their customers that the handsets will shortly be available through them.
Based in Cupertino, Apple does not include any clause in its contract with O2 to prevent other companies from introducing SIM free iPhones from places outside Europe, where they are available legally. The iPhone 3G contract is about to expire in September 2009 following which Apple may provide handsets to T-Mobile and Orange in order to boost their sales.
Currently, an unlocked 32GB iPhone 3G S can be purchased from play.com for £900 including VAT. The online retailer also supplies the earlier 16 GB model, which is sold at £570 whereas the 8GB version is priced at £440.42 by mobiles.com. Therefore it is most probable that T-Mobile will invest a large sum of money in iPhones with an intention of locking their customers into a two-year contract wherein they would require paying around £40 plus monthly. T-Mobile and Orange had a discussion recently to consider how to break the monopoly of O2 on the iPhone 3G.