iPhone 5 Pricing Announced in Australia, Europe

Details have begun to emerge about Apple’s iPhone 5 pricing in other parts of the world shortly after the official announcement in San Francisco earlier this week.

Australia: Telstra, Optus and Vodafone

In Australia, the upfront cost for the iPhone 5 will be Australian $799 (approximately US $843 at current rates), as listed on Apple’s online Australia store and the websites of other Australian cellular providers. That’s for the 16GB version though; 32 GB and 64 GB versions cost A$899 and A$999 respectively.

Australia’s three biggest service providers announced pricing for iPhone 5 talk and data services. Telstra’s pricing starts at A$67 per month for the “S” (small) plan, which includes a “$600 value” talk and MMS, unlimited texting, 1 GB of data—and a two year contract. At the other end of the spectrum is $130 a month for unlimited talk/MMS/text with 3 GB of data.

Optus has a slightly different pricing model with iPhone 5 subsidies. The low-end plan—200MB data and “$200 value”–costs $30 a month, but an additional $18 in phone subsidy fees (a total of $48). Two other plans cost $66 and $80, with the high-end plan offering 2 GB data and a $850 value.

The third major Australian operator, Vodafone, hasn’t revealed pricing for the iPhone 5 yet, but is charging between $53 and $75 a month for phone/data plans for the iPhone 4S. 

All three operators have pricing options for a minimum 2-year contract. The iPhone 5 will be available in Australia on September 21.

Europe: Lack of True 4G

The situation with the iPhone 5 in Europe is more complicated. Most of Europe is laden with antiquated cellular technology, most of which only support 3G speeds, with some areas supporting a standard called HSPA+, which has a more friendly name—3G+, but is no 4G. 

Only the United Kingdom’s EE—which just announced its 4G capability—and Germany’s Deutsche Telekom (parent of the US’s T-Mobile) have true 4G connectivity and allow customers to utilize the full power of the iPhone 5’s LTE and 4G connectivity.

But that hasn’t stopped operators in Europe from announcing the iPhone 5 on their networks. The United Kingdom’s largest operators—Vodafone, Telefonica and Three UK—have all announced that the iPhone 5 will be available in their stores on launch. 

The iPhone 5 will launch on September 21st in the UK and Germany, and other countries in Europe over the following days.

The iPhone 5, which is 4 inches in screen size, is the first iPhone model to support 4G and LTE data connectivity.