No love for iPhone 3G users, forced to break contract to get iPhone 3GS

Posted Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 1:12 pm by Jason Cartwright |

After Apple’s announcement this morning of a new iPhone model, the iPhone 3G S (S for Speed), the reasons to upgrade are reasonably compelling on June 26th – the Australian release date.

iPhone 3GS vs iPhone 3G

Unfortunately after a phone call to Optus, I was informed the only way for an existing iPhone 3G contract customer to get the new device is to break the existing contract resulting in early termination fees. Then sign up for the new phone contract of 2 years.

This is absolutely ridiculous !! Optus, I seriously hope you reconsider. I, like the majority of other Australian iPhone customers are with Optus, this is they’re chance to extend customer contracts for another year. Sounds like a good deal to me, after all the lions share of a telco’s revenue is from the monthly ongoing charges rather than the cost of the handset.

So with an iPhone 3G and an $89 per month plan.. it looks like I’ll be stuck with the iPhone 3G for quite a while longer..

http://twitter.com/danslatts danslatts

This is disappointing but expected. To Optus the iPhone is just another phone. They want to drain as much money as they can from their users.

It is only the day of the announcement, so it may (hopefully) be that they haven't finalized on an upgrade path (or made their staff aware of it)

It would be in Optus' best interest to allow those on a 24 month contract to be able to just pay out what is left on their old phone, extend the contract and start paying off the 3GS. But I am really not holding my breath for this.
Jimmyville

Because i changed providers from Vodafone to Optus to get my iPhone 3G, i was skeptical of long term contracts & luckily signed up for 12 months instead of 24.

Given the likelihood of a new iPhone each year, i think this will be my preferred contract length moving forward.

Did Optus mention if the iPhone 3GS will be available on shorter contracts than 24-months?
http://www.cccommunications.com.au/ CC Communications

Ahh and we will be having this same discussion in a years time on numerous bits of tech. Its just how the game is these days! Constantly evolving. Our desire to have the latest and greatest will eventually get us unstuck!

I think the only rule that might save you a few dollars is to wait 1 year after a product comes out to buy it. Exactly why i dont have an iphone….yet….so now i can purchase the 3g s with no dramas, im even going to buy one for my employees.

However,
i can garuntee i will be in your position in 1 years time anyways. Its a vicious circle! One option would be to factor in upgrades, possibly pay extra so that when a new model comes out you can swap it! not a crazy concept, just common ssense really!
krnageskillz

I'm not surprised that Optu$ do not have an early upgrade option. I think I will be sticking to my 3G iPhone until the next iPhone model is released next year…
morgan

bugger… i was hoping to be able to get the iphone 3GS when it is released, but i am on an iphone 3G plan where i pay about $70 a month with optus at the moment, and cannot warrant nor afford the cancellation fee to break my plan, especially since i've only had my plan for a matter of months rather than a year or so, 6 months?? maybe 7 or 8. but, the updates in the 3GS are not sufficient enough to make me need it that bad.
all this will do is increase the amount of people that jailbreak their iphones because it is all nothing you can't do with a jailbroken iphone.
if they wont help out their customers then that is what will happen.

idiotic

No love for iPhone 3G users, forced to break contract to get iPhone 3GS

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