O2

In a somewhat surprising move today, wireless carrier O2 Ireland announced that its customers would be able to unlock Apple's iPhone. Per the O2 forum, Rod Coleman, head of O2's Customer Care unit, discussed the decision surrounding the unlocking on iPhones, especially those who want to pass on old handsets.

In order to unlock their handsets, O2 customers must meet the following criteria:

AT&T isn't the only wireless carrier to see its network strained by iPhone traffic.  Over the course of 2009, UK-based carrier O2  reportedly faced the same technical challenges for the past six months. Since the iPhone's release, O2's London network has seen an 18-fold increase in traffic from the iPhone, the network itself crashing numerous times since the summer.

The carrier has stated that a $48 million investment in its London network has eased the problems and allowed for deployment of 200 extra mobile stations.

Given Tesco's expansion throughout the United Kingdom as a bix box store, a gas station and a wireless carrier in a joint venture with O2, it should come as no surprise that the outfit will offer the iPhone in its stores within the region.

A spokesperson was recently quoted as saying that the iPhone will arrive "in time for Christmas."

O2 has started unlocking iPhones in the UK for users who want to switch from their network to Orange UK, the newest carrier to get the iPhone there. Users who signed up to have their devices unlocked have begun receiving texts messages instructing them to replace the O2 SIM card with that of a different carrier (in their case, Orange), and connect the device to iTunes. It's as simple as that.

A little competition never hurt anyone and in the case of Apple's iPhone, actually picked up sales quite a bit. On Tuesday, the iPhone stopped being exclusively offered by wireless carrier O2 in the UK. The device went on sale at 7 a.m. at Orange retailers with the carrier already claiming that the iPhone has gone over exceedingly well with consumers, despite already having been available to O2 customers since its initial launch.
By the end of business today, the newest UK iPhone carrier on the block will have sold well more than 30,000 iPhones.

UK iPhone owners subscribed to O2 will be allowed to unlock for other carriers, according to the CEO of O2's parent company, Telefonica Europe. "Once the iPhone becomes available on other UK networks," says Matthew Key, "we will allow O2 customers to unlock their iPhones, although of course they will still need to honour any outstanding contract period they have. At the end of their contract period, they are entirely free to move to another operator -- though naturally we hope they won't want to!"

In spite of an upcoming price war and a potential influx of iPhone handsets being returned, O2's UK division has temporarily run out of both the 16 and 32 GB iPhone 3GS models from the company's online store. According to The Telegraph, most physical outlets are said to have been without phones for two weeks. Supplies of the 32GB model were only depleted on or after September 28th.

UK wireless carrier O2 is bracing itself for what may be up to 30,000 returned iPhones as recent customers send back their iPhones to wait for better deals from rivals Orange and Vodafone. Per The Telegraph, the 30,000 customers that bought the iPhone from O2 within the last two weeks are therefore entitled to end their contracts. O2 has stated the company is not planning to offer such users a better deal in order to convince them not to cancel their contract.

On Friday, wireless carrier T-Mobile confirmed last month's rumors that the operator was scouring Europe for contract-free Apple iPhones to offer as incentives for customers to stay with them.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Richard Moat, UK managing director of T-Mobile stated that T-Mobile had supplied iPhones "to a few hundred" high-value contract customers.

Wireless carrier O2 may be set to lose its exclusive deal as the iPhone's mobile network on October 9th. The Mobile Entertainment web site has claimed to have seen documentation confirming that O2 will lose its exclusive license on this date. Per the article, O2 will retain the rights to sell the device until 2012; but its period as the exclusive seller is only for two years.