First A Little History

When the original iPhone came out in the UK the deal with O2 was that part of each monthly bill would be given to Apple. No big deal for O2, when they sell a subsidised phone, they use part of the monthly bill to pay of the subsidy. With the iPhone they just sell the phone at full price and still pay Apple.

With the 3G Apple was no longer able to demand a cut of the bill due to the deals it has worked out for other territories. O2 could subsidise the phone and customers where happy. Because we were not paying of a subsidy O2 where happy to get us all to extend our contracts at NO COST TO THEM.

Now that people are wanting to upgrade from a subsidised phone to another subsidised phone, O2 has a problem. And that is why they are currently unwilling to do a deal for existing users.

I get this and understand why O2 are doing what they are doing. I might not be happy with it, but I feel that they have a valid reason for how they are handling this upgrade. Just because we got special treatment with the last upgrade, iPhone users assume now that the circumstances are different we should still get that special treatment.