First of all, you have to make a decision not just on price, but on usability. 200 minutes in a plan is just not useable, infact, anything under 500 minutes in rubbish, especially if you project your needs over the next 18 - 24 months. So, I made the decision that any plan for the iPhone HAD to have over 500 minutes as a minimum requirement. Based on that here are my findings, the results might surprise you:

(Note: All the £UK prices include 17.5% tax)

I now have my iPhone running on T-Mobile in the UK. I bought the plan last week, so was pissed when O2 announced their packages, but got a lot happier when I looked into it.

On the face of it, the O2 plan gives you one thing T-Mobile does not, Free WiFi.

Now, I am on an 18 month contract (Flext 35 + web'n'walk (18 months)), paying £37.50 a month for "Use your allowance on any mix of UK calls, voicemail, texts & picture messages. £180 allowance gets you up to 900 minutes or 1800 texts. Don't decide in advance, just use your phone and use it up." Treat that £180 allowance as 1800 credits, where 2 credits gets me 1 minute of voice time and a text message costs 1 credit (say 650 minutes 500 texts).I get unlimited (* fair use policy yada yada) data access. I also get free weekend calls.

To get the same Voice/Text/Data package on O2, you need to go for the £45 per month plan. 600 minutes and 500 texts, unlimited data. However, it DOES give you free access to TheCloud Wifi service (I'll come back to TheCloud in a moment).

The AT&T equivalent plan is $79.99 a month, approximately £40. That gets you 900 minutes, 200 texts, unlimited data, no WiFi (my T-Mobile plan by comparison would give me 800 minutes and 200 texts). The the AT&T plan is more expensive because there is a $36 activation fee, $1.75 a month "Regulatory Cost Recovery Charge" AND the prices do not include Tax.

So, in short, based upon Voice/Text and Data, AT&T in the USA and T-Mobile in the UK are no different and O2 is a bit pricey, but it does have that free WiFi, so lets look at that.

The Cloud has two types of plans, pay as you go (extortionate prices, so we won't even go there) and monthly. The two monthly plan are either £9.99 for unlimited access to all your devices (i.e. your phone, your laptop etc) or £6.99 a month for a single device.

So, if I were to really, really want TheCloud, then I could have my T-Mobile plan + TheCloud for £44.49, a whopping saving of 51 pence. I guess that 51 pence is the cost of the visual voice mail that I don't get ;-)

If you want roaming Wifi access with your iPhone, then T-Mobile+TheCloud is about the same as O2, otherwise, get the iPhone, don't activate it, hack it and put your own SIM in. T-Mobile is currently the best, but that might change in the future. Also, don't fret that USA users are getting a better Voice/Text/Data deal because they are not, it is almost exactly the same :-)