O2 Clarifies UK iPhone Data Limits

The UK cell carrier O2 will not enforce a “fair usage” policy on iPhone data plans, the British newspaper The Telegraph reports. Although I could never nail down precisely what “fair usage” meant in this context, the Telegraph writes that O2 was planning a 200 MB per month limit (see “iPhone Launch Set for UK and Germany, with Murky Data Plan,” 2007-09-20). That limit has now been lifted, and the contract terms on the O2 Web site changed.

The O2 head said, “Customers find ‘unlimited with limits’ confusing,” which shouldn’t be a surprise. Verizon Wireless just settled with the Attorney General of New York over the firm’s advertising its cell data service as unlimited, while limiting customers to 5 GB per month and restricting permitted activities in certain ways.