Real competition
As the smallest UK mobile operator, 3 tries to offer deals - be they unique handsets or better rates - to differentiate itself from the others.
3 has published its iPhone 4 tariffs today and, to stress how competitive they are compared to the other three operators, has also published tables comparing all of them.
The long and short of it is that 3 seems to offer more minutes for less money than the major network operators. For example at the £30 per month level (3 is only offering 24 month contracts) you pay £99 up front for a 16GB iPhone 4 and get 500 minutes. With all the others you pay more up front and get less minutes for your £720.
On top of that, 3 is also offering SIM-only plans that start at £15 per month for 300 minutes and 1GB of data.
Here are the tables. It looks like 3 is determined to capitalise on the iPhone 4 opportunity, but it still hasn't revealed when you can get one.
iPhone 4 16GB
iPhone 4 32GB