BlackBerry Buyer's Guide: UK Edition (Part 1)

on 15 Sep 2011 12:42 PM

Here in the UK we have the top 5 networks for buying your mobile phone on - O2 UK, Vodafone UK, T-Mobile UK, Orange and Three. Although T-Mobile and Orange trade under an individual name they merged back in July 2010, so a lot of their tariffs end up being very similar if not the same. With a handful of networks it is sometimes hard to know what networks sells which BlackBerry and where the best deal lies. Of course you have Phones 4 U and Carphone Warehouse that deal with all the networks but first off we shall look at BlackBerry devices and tariffs available directly from the networks. The costs shown are for a 24-month contract. For an 18-month contract add £5 to the monthly cost, unless otherwise stated.

BlackBerry devices available:


Bold 9900	Bold 9790	Torch 9860	Curve 9360/9380	Curve 9300	Monthly Cost	Minutes	Texts	Data
£179.99	£79.99	£59.99	£59.99	Free	£16.50	50	250	500MB
£104.99	Free	Free	Free	Free	£21.50	200	Unlimited	500MB
£79.99	Free	Free	Free	Free	£27	300	Unlimited	500MB
£59.99	Free	Free	Free	Free	£32	600	Unlimited	500MB
Free	Free	Free	-	-	£37	900	Unlimited	750MB
Free	Free	Free	-	-	£42	1200	Unlimited	750MB
Free	Free	Free	-	-	£57	Unlimited	Unlimited	750MB
			9360 in Purple or Black	Purple or Black

The above prices are for O2's medium data plans that are either 500MB or 750MB per month. You can get a maximum of 1GB data per month paying adding about £4 on top of the above monthly prices.

For more information on BlackBerry deals on O2

Vodafone Logo

BlackBerry devices available on the network:


Bold 9900	Bold 9790	Curve 9360/9300/8520	Monthly Cost	Minutes	Texts	Data
£199	£99	Free	£20.50	100	500	250MB
£99	Free	Free	£26	500	Unlimited	500MB
Free	Free	Free	£31	600	Unlimited	500MB
Free	Free	Free	£36	1000	Unlimited	1GB
Free	Free	Free	£41	1200	Unlimited	1GB
Free	Free	Free	£57	3000	Unlimited	1GB
		8520 in Black or Violet, 9300 in Black or Red

For more information on BlackBerry deals on Vodafone

BlackBerry devices available on the network:


Bold 9900	Bold 9790	Curve 9320	Curve 9360	Curve 9300	Monthly Cost	Minutes	Texts	Data
-	-	Free	-	Free	£18	100	5000	Unlimited
-	-	-	-	Free	£21	300	5000	Unlimited
-	-	-	£69	-	£23	100	5000	Unlimited
-	-	Free	-	Free	£23	500	5000	Unlimited
-	-	Free	-	Free	£25	1000	5000	Unlimited
-	£99	-	-	-	£26	100	5000	Unlimited
-	-	-	Free	-	£26	300	5000	Unlimited
-	-	Free	Free	-	£28	500	5000	Unlimited
-	£69	-	-	-	£29	300	5000	Unlimited
£99	-	-	-	-	£30	100	5000	Unlimited
-	-	-	Free	-	£30	1000	5000	Unlimited
-	-	-	-	Free	£30	2000	5000	Unlimited
-	Free	-	-	-	£31	500	5000	Unlimited
£69	-	-	-	-	£33	300	5000	Unlimited
-	Free	-	-	-	£33	1000	5000	Unlimited
£39	-	-	-	-	£35	500	5000	Unlimited
-	-	-	Free	-	£35	2000	5000	Unlimited
-	Free	-	-	-	£38	2000	5000	Unlimited
Free	-	-	-	-	£39	1000	5000	Unlimited
-	-	-	-	-	£40	2000	5000	Unlimited
Free	-	-	-	-	£41	2000	5000	Unlimited
				Liquid Blue

Three does not offer an 18 month contract. Their unlimited data offer, known as All-You-Can-Eat, has no fair usage policy. Great for tethering.

For more information on BlackBerry deals on Three

BlackBerry devices available on the network:


Bold 9900	Bold 9790	Curve 9320/9360/9380	Monthly Cost	Minutes	Texts	Data
£209.99	£99.99	Free	£20.50	100	Unlimited	500MB
£159.99	Free	Free	£26	200	Unlimited	750MB
£109.99	Free	Free	£31	400	Unlimited	750MB
Free	Free	Free	£35	1000	Unlimited	750MB
Free	Free	Free	£36	600	Unlimited	1GB
Free	Free	Free	£41	900	Unlimited	1GB
		9360 In Black or White

The above tariffs are the Panther plans. There is the Dolphin plans at the same cost, you get more minutes but less data per month. The Curve 9360 and 9380 are available free from on £15.50 per month and the Curve 9320 is available from free on £10.50 per month. All contracts are 24 months.

For more information on BlackBerry deals on Orange

BlackBerry devices available on the network:

BlackBerry Bold 9900
BlackBerry Torch 9860
BlackBerry Torch 9800
BlackBerry Bold 9780
BlackBerry Curve 9300
BlackBerry Curve 8520


Bold 9900	Bold 9790	Curve 9380	Curve 9360	Curve 9300 / Curve 8520	Monthly Cost	Minutes	Texts	Data
£300	£200	£50	£100	Free	£10.50	50	250	250MB
£250	£150	Free	£50	Free	£15.50	50	250	750MB
£200	£100	Free	Free	Free	£21	50	250	1.5GB
£150	£50	Free	Free	Free	£26	300/100/600	Unlimited Texts or Landline Calls	750MB/1.5GB/250MB
£100	Free	Free	Free	Free	£31	900/600/300	Unlimited Texts or Landline Calls	250MB/750MB/1.5GB
50	Free	Free	Free	Free	£36	2000	Unlimited T-Mob call and texts	Unlimited
Free	Free	Free	Free	Free	£41	Unlimited mins, texts and data
Free	Free	Free	Free	Free	£46
Free	Free	Free	Free	Free	£61
			In Black or White

For more information on BlackBerry deals on T-Mobile

Don't forget we have our international forums where you can interact with other members for more information. If you're new to BlackBerry then you may also want to check out our BlackBerry 101 section for tips, tricks and how-to guides.

Check out the BlackBerry Buyer's Guide: UK Edition (Part 2)
Hit the International Forums for more discussion
Check out all of our BlackBerry 101 articles

Filed Under: News & Rumors, International News; Tags: carriers, networks, O2 UK, Orange, T-Mobile UK, Three UK, Vodafone UK

19 Comments

Posted by Ebscer Thursday, Sep 15, 2011 251 days ago

So only 40% of UK carriers have the 9900 so far?

Posted by noscsenan Thursday, Sep 15, 2011 251 days ago

Deals in UK are so much BETTER than what we get in Canada!!

Posted by EGerhardt Thursday, Sep 15, 2011 251 days ago

It's more that since mobile phones became an everyday thing the UK networks have always been into 'free phone' type deals and tbh people over here react really badly to deals that they have to pay for upfront.

Honestly, I think that people over here don't really know how much phones are worth exactly because of this, and that's why they've stuck so hard to paying more per month and getting the handset free.

As for things being cheaper ? Well yes and no. Thing is that its a lot cheaper to run infrastructure here. We're a a little smaller than Arizona with ten times the people in it. If you look at it like that it starts to make more sense. You need far fewer towers to cover the whole population, and that radically reduces both investment and maintenance.

As well as cheap phones, lots of netowrks are literally giving away tablets. Starting a new contract on a BB or a high end android phone (~£30 for 2 years) will, if I ask for one, give me a free playbook (with a BB) or a Xoom/Flyer (with a droid phone). As soon as the 9810 drop here, I'm definitely going to start another contract to get a new handset and a PB, because why the hell not. a £500 handset and a £400 and I pay less than 800 over 2 years. Winner! Check it out: http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/ipad-and-tablets/smartphones-plus-free-....

Oh and there is no dataocolypse here. Every contract comes with data included, and vodafone will let you tether for free too, so the prices quoted are absolutely all you pay.

Of course, the flip side of that is that there is no such thing as 4G over here and the companies don't seem particularly interested in bringing it to us. Also, we lag MONTHS behind in terms of device releases and the networks pretty much please themselves as to what devices they do and don't carry.

But cheap devices are indeed really cool, thanks to heightened subsidies from the carriers. IIRC, the UK has way higher percentage of smartphone users simply because you can get a slightly older/lower end smartphone for practically nothing. £14 for a Curve 3g, £20 for a desire S.

Posted by spcurtis81 Thursday, Sep 15, 2011 251 days ago

I'm inclined to agree with all of this. One thing I would say is that these phone companies aren't stupid. What they give you in a free handset, they take back in monthly payments. That said, I agree that our infrastructure is probably cheaper to run and lack of investment in 3G (for which coverage isn't great dependant on location) let alone 4G probably supports the ability to offer cheaper contracts. Having said that, it would also be interesting to see what happens to our contract/phone prices as the European Unionk starts to push forward on on it's plans to bring down the cost of roaming charges and also to increase 3G coverage. This may increase the cost of running phone networks which will inevitably be passed on to the customer.

Posted by EGerhardt Thursday, Sep 15, 2011 251 days ago

Oh yeah the networks are ALWAYS looking to get something back, but you can't deny that from a consumer standpoint giving out a tablet and a smartphone for a few bucks more than just the smartphone is a really good offer :P.

And yeah, this situation probably won't last too much longer. Doesn't matter if the networks like it or not, people aren't going to put up with less the universal 3g and some 4g within the next year or so and thats going to cost them a lot.

Still, make hey while the sun shines I say :P I know at least a few people who have, with the aid of friends over here, gotten great deals on phones. In fact thats how I got my current SIM. I pay the monthly and keep the sim and a friend of mine paid me half the value of a Bold for my 'free' handset. He gets a cheap phone, I get a good contract and a few extra quid to do whatever with.

Posted by CGSCOT Thursday, Sep 15, 2011 251 days ago

02 & carphone warehouse have just released the Torch 9860 on pre-order / 5 day delivery
just ordered mine on upgrade 12 month contract.

Posted by seb.hebert Thursday, Sep 15, 2011 251 days ago

Glad to see some crackberry love for my brothers and sister across the pond.

Posted by CGSCOT Thursday, Sep 15, 2011 251 days ago

BlackBerry is all over the place in UK now which is great to see, when I got my first BB (9100) I had to place a special order as 02 didnt have any on display, none in stock & 2 assistants didnt even know what it was !

Posted by somenextgeezer Thursday, Sep 15, 2011 251 days ago

Soooo frustrating for us guys on Orange/T-Mo-/3 who are STILL waiting for the 9900!!

Posted by jegitoe Thursday, Sep 15, 2011 251 days ago

Im waiting to upgrade my contract on vodafone to a 9900. Will be taking 600mins unlim text and 1gig data. Still savouring the 1gb contract from 2 yrs ago. the iphone boom rocked for a while

Posted by nvious Thursday, Sep 15, 2011 251 days ago

Vodafone have the 9860 in stock as well… http://ukmr.co/bw, O2 should have the 9860 in stock in the next few weeks and all the networks are expecting/have the 9360!

Posted by cones688 Thursday, Sep 15, 2011 251 days ago

I NEVER just renew my contract in the UK ring up everytime and say im going to cancel, get through to retentions, they love to keep you and literally can do anything with their magical computers... throw some deal by another network or make your own up at them and just keep playing hardball, 45mins on the phones pays off. Few months back got my 9700 on 18mnth, unlim (including tethering) internet, 250 mins and unlim texts for 20 quid a month. Don't hand over your money without a fight people!

Posted by ScoobyDoo555 Tuesday, Sep 27, 2011 239 days ago

Got to admit that O2 didn't do me any favours when I requested my PAC. They said, "here it is".

Needless to say, I replied with, "thanks, and good-bye"

Posted by thepinkcurve Thursday, Sep 15, 2011 251 days ago

My contract:

Phone: Curve 9300

Colour:Pink

Carrier: O2

Where I got the deal: Carphone wearhouse
Price: 13.50 a month

What I get: 250 mins, 1 gig internet, 150 texts and unlimated blackberry data.

Only had it two and a bit months(3 months on 21st sept)

Posted by oliverlock Thursday, Sep 15, 2011 251 days ago

Vofafone is brilliant for roaming. With my 9900 I pay £34 per month and when I go abroad I get 25MB of data free per DAY. Never have to worry about stopping emails or RSS feeds or browsing the web.

Posted by BlueandWhiteBerry Friday, Sep 16, 2011 250 days ago

I live in the UK and my sister moved to the states a few years back. When she was back home visiting she asked me to help sort her a new phone deal out for her as she isn't clued up on phones. She wanted a BB so I looked online with her and couldn't believe how much you guys have to pay!! I suppose we are just so used to having free phones thrown at us and pay via monthly tarrif.
Also the free gifts you can get here are pretty good, I have had a free psp and a free wii in the past and next will be a free playbook I think. (Yes I know you get nothing for free but I've been paying 40 quid a month for my phone for ever now so it may as well be free)

Posted by feeddagoat Tuesday, Sep 27, 2011 239 days ago

Just to point out on Orange the panther plans "unlimited" data is capped at 750mb where as the dolphin is capped at 250mb.
Most networks also require the blackberry addon which orange lables as "free emails" on dolphin and panther tarriffs but lower ons don't include that from memory.
Lastly Orange have an extras scheme where you get B.O.G.O.F. cinema tickets and pizza and on panther plans you get one free "extra" from a list of "free" tv (not counted in your data), free independent news, free sky sports and free music. On panther 25 and over you get to choose 2.

Orange and Tmobile also share towers so you can freely roam between the two.

Posted by Pilchard Tuesday, Sep 27, 2011 239 days ago

Bold 9000
Playbook 16MB

The O2 handset costs on 200 minutes is £149.99 not £104.99

Posted by thepinkcurve Wednesday, Sep 28, 2011 238 days ago

9300 on o2 is also adavable in pink, through carphone werehouse.(Cba with spelling!!!)