Engadget have upped these charts of the tarrifs you can expect for the iPhone 4 on Vodafone. This network is of particular interest as they are usually the most expensive however that, debatably, provide the better service. It’s nice to see the 18 month option creep in here. However these tarrifs might not be set in stone as they were removed as quickly as they went up. Note the data cap on wi-fi hotspots, does that interfere with video calling? Check after the break for the rest:

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Mobile operators have lost their battle to to overturn an EU plan to reduce the amount they can charge for using mobiles abroad.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) backed a Parliamentary ruling made in 2007 that operators cap the maximum charge for making an inter-Europe call to 35 cents (29p) and 11 cents to receive a call by 2011.

The UK’s four biggest mobile operators – O2, Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile – challenged this ruling but their claims were dismissed.

Orange was highly critial of the decision. A spokesperson said: "We are disappointed with the decision expressed today by the European Court of Justice and feel that this does not reflect the best interests of the European market. We will of course continue to comply with European regulations in force."

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Basically you order a sim card for o2, top up £15, register it (one per person), and then you can either get £5 for each goal England score, or if you don’t like England, £5 for each goal England concede. After the tournament is over o2 will send you a cheque!!! No Penalties though.

The Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixi Plus have both arrived on O2 but are Palm making the same mistake twice or have O2 promised to make an effort to push the device that than saying “you’d be better off with an iPhone”. Mobile New have offered up an article pointing out why Palm remarried the ex-wife that had given they so many problems since their engagement all that time ago:

Palm defends its choice to launch its Pre Plus and Pixie Plus handsets exclusively through O2 but says it may take longer to establish the brand in the UK

US manufacturer Palm has defended its ‘one network’ strategy in the UK despite admitting it will take longer to establish the company’s brand here than in any other European country.

Palm will launch its Pre Plus and Pixie Plus handsets in the UK in the next few days exclusively with O2.

Palm has been dogged by criticism since the release of the Pre last year that launching it through one network has been an error as sales have struggled.

Palm vice president for sales in EMEA Paul Ghent said: "The Palm brand in the UK is still limited and it’s an incredibly crowded market place here. You just have to look at the plethora of devices out there and the number of Android devices around so for the end user it’s pretty confusing.

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So the iPad is arriving in UK Apple shops today for a handful of people to get. By the time you read this the first person will have gotten theirs. Causing outright panic in Belfast this morning scores of people lined up outside the Victoria Centre to be first to get it, and by scores I mean … 3.

Oh okay. Should be enough for everyone then.

Techradar have stolen a march on the rest of us and got the official word from Apple on the iPad price and availability here in the UK.

We already know that it will be available to pre-order on the 10th May but added to this we now know the release date is the 28th May:-

iPad UK pricing

Apple’s suggested retail prices are as follows:

£429 (inc. VAT) for 16GB Wi-Fi iPad

£499 (inc. VAT) for 32GB Wi-Fi iPad

£599 (inc. VAT) for 64GB Wi-Fi iPad

£529 (inc. VAT) for 16GB Wi-Fi + 3G iPad

£599 (inc. VAT) for 32GB Wi-Fi + 3G iPad

£699 (inc. VAT) for 64GB Wi-Fi + 3G iPad

iPad will be sold through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorised Resellers. The iBooks app for iPad including Apple’s iBookstore will be available as a free download from the App Store on 28 May. Full Press Release is here.

Via Tech Radar

Independent retailer Phones 4u has launched its biggest instant cashback deal ahead of the bank holiday weekend. However, I wouldn’t get too excited.
Customers are being offered instant cashback or trade in up to the value of £350 from 29 April until the end of the bank holiday weekend when they sign up to one of the bank holiday special deals on offer.
The offer is available on the Nokia 5230 and Samsung Tocco Lite when taken out on a massive 24 month contract.
The Nokia 5230 is being offered for £25 a month with 200 cashback and 300 minutes and 3000 texts. The Samsung Tocco Lite is being offered for £35 a month with 300 cashback, 900 minutes and 3000 texts. The amount of cashback on both offers increases when a handset is traded in.
Phones 4u spokesperson, Russell Braterman said: ‘This is a really significant promotion for Phones 4u as its the biggest instant cash back deal we have ever run. We constantly strive to provide the best deals for our customers and are delighted to offer such incredible cash back value for everyone to enjoy this bank holiday weekend!’

It doesn’t take a bargain hunter to realise you are probably better off keeping whatever phone you have and staying far, far away from contracts that last over 2 years with a phone that might last 12 months.

Tesco has launched an all-out assault on Carphone Warehouse, with plans to open Tesco ‘Phone Shops’ on every high street and a major push into the contracts market.
The supermarket giant is speeding up the rollout of 500 new phone shops. From this week, it will open three phone stores each week to deliver at least 100 per year. With 107 Phone Shops already open, Tesco Mobile should hit its target of 500 shops by the end of 2013. Tesco anticipates it will create around 750 jobs this year through the rollout, made up of both Tesco staff and external recruitment.

It is estimated up to 3,000 jobs will be created over a three-year period. The first 200 Phone Shops will be in Tesco’s larger Extra stores. A further 300 phone stores will open in Tesco’s superstores and its high street Metro shops. Each will be customised to fit the store’s profile. In an exclusive interview, Tesco Telecoms chief Lance Batchelor told Mobile: ‘We are working out how to put a full service Phone Shop in our Metro stores and we are trialling different ways of doing this. This will give us the ability to be on every high street in the country.’

Tesco is also targeting the contracts market, adding 28 new handsets to its contract range this month. Batchelor forecasts at least 333,000 contract sales in Tesco Phone Shops this year. Batchelor said: ‘With prepay, we were only playing in half the market. Now, with our Phone Shops and the addition of 28 new handsets in our contracts range, we have moved into the whole of the consumer market.’ No commissions are on offer to Phone Shop staff in order to discourage ‘hard sell’ tactics. Tesco is also wooing the networks, with plans to deliver operator upgrades later this year.

I don’t think this has hit their main website yet but I received a text from 3 with a link to their mobile portal (which unfortunately I can’t link to as you need to be connected via 3′s 3G to view it) which details a raft of price increases as of April 22.

I won’t list them all, but here are the main ones:
* Voicemail access is going from free to 15p/min
* Calls to other networks and landlines increasing from 20p/min to 25p/min
* Picture messages increasing from 25p to 30p
* Calling other countries in band 0,1,2 increasing by 5p/min 
* Calls while roaming in band 0 increasing 4p/min
* Receiving calls in band 1 countries increasing 9p/min, band 2 increasing 25p/min
* Calling most 084 and 087 numbers increasing 5p/min or per call

Free texts, data, and 3 to 3 minutes when topping up remain unchanged, and data prices also seem to remain unchanged.

I’m quite disappointed that they’ve decided to start charging for voicemail when they were the only network not charging for it (it was a selling point for me when joining them) – and that they decided to go with per minute charges for voicemail instead of per call as some of the networks.
This gives the ridiculous situation where you could ring someone also on the 3 network to make use of free 3 to 3 calls, and if you get through to them it is free to talk to them, but if you leave a message, it will now cost them to play that message back…

I’m struggling to see the rationale behind them raising calling prices pretty much across the board without an obvious precedent, and when you have MVNO’s like Asda offering rates as cheap as 8p/min, 3 increasing their off network calls from 20p to 25p/min just makes them look silly.

Following the last press release whereby O2 decided to rip off their customers they have pulled a bit of a U-turn following a backlash from dealers.

O2 was to do away with their 18 month and 36 month SME contracts by the end of March to include a 12 month fixed line promotion with all 24 month deals. Now, following a upset from the dealers, O2 has reversed its decision and will retain all its original packages at least until the end of the year.

The new tariffs will be available through it’s business gateway.