Orange UK reveals iPhone data limit

UK mobile operator Orange is attracting criticism this week as it prepares to go up against O2 with its own iPhone offer.

The bulk of the criticism is directed at Orange’s terms & conditions, which have revealed a fair usage policy of just 750MB per month on each of wifi and 3G.

Moreover, “non-Orange internet based streaming services, voice or video over the internet, instant messaging, peer to peer file sharing, non-Orange internet based video” are all banned under Orange’s rules. This could be interpreted to mean no YouTube, Spotify or social networking such as Twitter or Facebook, and no GoogleTalk.

To be fair however, this part of Orange’s Ts&Cs isn’t that different from O2’s, and plenty of stuff, including the apps mentioned above, seem to work fine on that network.

But this usage cap, which O2 does  not have, raises the ugly prospect of network congestion, and has prompted some of our readers to comment on how well Orange’s 3G network stands up to the onslaught of data usage, when the iPhone launches November 10. Saying that, the carrier isn’t shying away from offering tethering options for the iPhone, so it is a least expecting some customers to use the handset as a modem.

With pricing pretty much identical and Vodafone set to launch the device too, it looks like the UK battle for iPhone customers will come down to the quality of service each network operator can offer.

In other iPhone news, the device has apparently gone down a storm in China – only 5,000 or so devices were sold in the first weekend.

Meanwhile, the Motorola Droid, the company’s first Android 2.0 handset, has got a funky big budget advert running, see below.