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So is that 30 pound ($45) per month just for the data? If so I won't feel bad if they are getting a price cut, that's quite outrageous.

I just phoned t-mobile and they wouldn't adjust my price plan down, said i had to stay on the 40 pounds a month contract

Does anyone think this is part of the reason?

I do know people steal phones over here and when they get reported lost/stolen the mobile service providers all share a database of lost/stolen phones with the reported IMEI number, so the phone is useless to any service provider.

BUT

To get out of the boundarys of that database you can sell your lost/stolen phone to someone in the UK and the IMEI number would come up clean in the same kind of database over there.

Now IF the prices were the same over there and not free and cheaper, we could report our phone lost or stolen (while paying for insurance on the phone) and sell it to someone in the UK for say $300, and easily pay the deductable with a lot of money left over. If so this would be a routine with every G1 sold, just buy insurance and report it lost/stolen and sell it to someone in the UK. but now... who in the UK is gonna pay 300$ for that phone when their giving them away for free with SD cards that hold more then ours come with.... no one.... right?

@NinjaKnight
No that is the full monthly cost. The £30 option gets you Up to 700 mins or 1400 texts or any mix you use + Unlimited internet
£35 gets 700 minutes and unlimited texts + Unlimited internet

@telliksemoh
No I don't think that is the case, I have been told that the IMEI number issue works both ways, so a stolen phone from the UK can work in Europe. I believe there is quite a market for it. I could be wrong though.

Is there 4 main providers in the states? Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, Alltel? With a mixture of networks (EV-DO & HSDPA)?

There are big 4 operators in the UK (Orange, T-Mobile, O2, Vodafone) and also 3 but they have a much smaller number of subscribers. They also all operate on the same networks (UMTS, HSDPA). As we use the same networks it has allowed companies such as T-Mobile and 3 to merge their 3G and HSDPA networks

So you have 4 operators in a country with a population of 300 million covering 9,161,923 SQ KM while the UK has 4 operators in a country with a population of 60 Million covering 241,590 SQ KM.

I am probably completely wrong, but I would guess the UK is cheaper to build the mobile infrastructure due to our size, it is also highly competitive as 4 of out operators each have around 15 million subscribers while in the US the competition does look quite as even with AT&T & Verizon having 70 million each. Sprint 50 million, T -Mobile 30 Million and the other smaller operators have 15 million or less each.

So the cheaper infrastructure and high competition has driven the prices of phones down.

Bit of a long reply sorry!

oh and them numbers are all rounded and from wikipedia so probably not 100% accurate.

I ordered one on Sunday as an upgrade from t-mobile UK.

£30/month for 18months including plenty of free mins and texts and a 3Gb-capped data plan.

arrived Tuesday, and I'm in love.

I have also spoken to t-mobile uk who have told me that they would not be reducing my priceplan. I have contacted pocket-lint to get details who this spokesperson is who apparently informed them we could.

New customers now get an 8gb memory card and can pay £30 a month. I took the phone out the day it came out, 2gb and pay £40 a month

I raised a complaint with t-mobile and am apparently getting a call back, I'll post here if I know anymore.

@ NinjaKnight

No the £30 is for up to 700 mins of calls and up to 1400 text texts, or mix of each.

I got it on day of release here, and got a 2gb card, and pay £40 pm.

Guess that's what happens why I buy something I want when I want instead of waiting for prices to drop...'tis a bit rubbish they're dropping the price within a month though!

That's £180 extra I'm paying over the course of the 18 month contract because I couldn't wait a month!

D'oh!

I'm about to get one of these deals hopefully tomorrow, especially if it includes 3GB fair usage

As I have just posted, no joy on the downgrade front here either.

They are perfectly in their rights to not roll out the change to early adopters, it doesn't exactly make me feel that good about them that they are screwing me over before I even get my second bill though

Yep, I've call T-Mobile too and they told me they'd rather not reduce my plan as continuing to shaft their early adopting customers is much more fun. T-Mobile suck.

Can confirm T-Mobile also refused to downgrade my plan - "we operate a no downgrade policy until the last month of your contract, so you will not be able to downgrade until March 2010"