Iphone 3G pay-as-you-go dated

A PAY-AS-YOU-GO version of Apple's beleaguered Iphone is set to become available in the UK in just over two weeks.

O2 will be offering the device, faults and all, to the unwashed and uncontracted masses from 16 September for a mere £350 for the 8GB version and £400 for 16GB flavour.

Unlike the Iphone-specific contracts, customers will be able to choose one of the standard O2 Pay & Go tariffs and the more they spend topping up each month, the more free minutes or texts they will get.

This also includes unlimited browsing and Wi-Fi – within fair usage policies of course - for the first 12 months after activation, after which time data access will cost you £10 per month.

Visual voicemail and call merging will not be available to uncontracted customers. Also be warned that any voice mails you have saved will be lost in the transfer, even if you're already on O2.

To help encourage existing O2 pay-as-you-go customers to cough up the cash, the company is offering eligible users 10 per cent of the value of their top ups as call time worth up to £200. The exact amount is based on top-ups over the last 18 months or since connection or your last upgrade, whichever is the most recent.

Whether punters are will to pay upwards of £350 for the device remains to be seen, but the fact that this is months ahead of the rumoured schedule for an uncontracted version of the Iphone will certainly raise a few eyebrows.

For those who may be interested, full details can be found here. µ