Orange have finally announced a launch date for the Apple iPhone on their network. Since Orange said last month that they will be offering the iPhone, Orange have kept details of the deal very close to their chests. That is until now, as they today announced that the iPhone will be available to purchase from November 10th.

The iPhone will be available from all of Orange's 402 UK stores and to mark the event some stores will be open at 7am on November 10th and close later to cater for the large queues of people they are expecting. If you can't get into one of the Orange stores then you will be able to pop into places like Phones4U, Carphone Warehouse, Orange HMC concessions, Apple stores and other privileged mobile phone stores to grab your iPhone.

Tom Alexander, CEO of Orange UK, welcomed the announcement and said, "The excitement for the iPhone is immense, and this is a great day for our customers, our company and our employees. Since we announced the iPhone on Orange we have already seen more than a quarter of a million customers register their interest on our website. We will be matching their enthusiasm with a 3G mobile broadband network that covers more people in the UK than any other operator, a commitment to deliver the best 3G experience on the iPhone and best-in-class applications and plans. Earlier this year we stated our ambition to become the destination brand of choice for high end mobile users in the UK. With the launch of the iPhone on November 10 we’re pleased to be fulfilling that ambition".

Pricing and Tariffs

Now to the important information that we have all been waiting for...

Basic rundown -18 month contracts 

These start at £29.36 (as opposed to £29.38 on O2 for 18 months) and work their way up to a dizzying £74.40 per month. The cheapest contract will give you just 150 minutes and 250 texts per month. The most expensive contract in contrast will give you 3000 minutes and 500 texts per month.

If you want a free iPhone with an 18 month contract you will have to shell out a minimum of £44 per month and that's just for the 3G 8GB version. This will give you 1200 minutes and 500 texts per month.

To get your hands on the 3GS 16GB for free you will need to spend a whopping £73.40 per month, which will give you 3000 minutes and 500 texts per month, total cost by the end of the contract will total over £1300, Yikes!.

The 32GB model is not offered for free on any 18 month contract. The cheapest you can get the 32GB handset for on an 18 month contract is on the £74.40pm contract and the handset will still set you back £96.50. If your in the market for spending over £1300 on a phone then you might as well go full hog and spend another £96.50 for the 32GB model as that amount extra is nothing for what you will finally be paying to use an iPhone and you will be doubling your storage capacity.

Basic run down - 24 month contracts

24 month contracts start at 29.36 (24 month contracts on O2 start at £34.26) and work their way right up to £122.34 per month (frowns). If your after the older 3G 8GB model then it is free on all 24 month contracts. Like the 18 month contract the 24 month 29.36pm contract gives you 150 minutes and 250 texts per month.

The iPhone 3GS 16GB is available for free from £44.04 per month which will give you 1200 minutes and 500 texts per month just as with the 18 month contract, but the iPhone is not free at this monthly price with the 18 month contract.

Unlike with the 18 month contract the 24 month contract offers the iPhone for free at £74.40 per month and offers the same 3000 minutes and 500 texts per month as the same contract over 18 months.

The mammoth £122.34pm contract offers unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and iPhone tethering, though this is limited to just 3GB per month. To put things into perceptive a bit, by the time the contract ends, you would have paid out the grotesque sum of nearly £3000 just to have use of an iPhone. Which ever way you look at it, no sane person will agree that £3000 for the use of a device such as the iPhone is going to be 'value for money' over 24 months, regardless of whichever company brands the device. Bear in mind that even at this price point you are still subject to a whimsical fair Internet and WiFi usage policy of just 750MB per month.

iPhone on pay monthly tariff pricing

Source: Orange UK - Click to see an enlarged view

Pay As You Go

There are a range of PAYG Plans to choose from these being Monkey, Dolphin, Canary, Racoon and Camel:

• Monkey offers free music and text
• Dolphin offers unlimited texts
• Canary offers free evening and weekend calls
• Racoon offers 15p calls and 10p texts
• Camel offers calls to abroad from 5p

Handset prices for all plans are the same:

• £343 - iPhone 3G 8GB black
• £440 - iPhone 3GS 16GB black or white
• £539 - iPhone 3GS 32GB black or white

If you top Up by £50 in your first month then you can get a whopping £10 off the purchase of your £343 iPhone 3G 8GB. You will also get free Internet usage up to 250MB per month across all plans, which is pointless on such a device in our opinion. Even WiFi usage on Orange's WiFi networks is subject to a 750MB fair usage policy. You will however get "unlimited" access to BT Openzone for 12 months. Given that Orange and most other service providers fail to grasp the simple concept of what unlimited actually means, it is reasonable to assume that "unlimited" access to the BT Openzone will actually have limitations.

iPhone on Pay As You Go Plans

Source: Orange UK - Click to see an enlarged view

Business Plans

Prices per month include £30, £40 and £50 tariffs as well as an unlimited Business Infinity tariff.

iPhone Business Tariffs

Source: Orange UK - Click to see an enlarged view

iPhone tethering

If you want to get broadband on a laptop you can pay an extra £5 per month for that luxury as a minimum.

We now await Vodafone's iPhone plans as they too said last month that they would also be offering the iPhone to it's customers.