Upgrades - Why do i get them for free?

[Ripper]

My dad started a contract a couple of years ago (i think its roughly about 23/24 pound a month on orange) and had an spv e200 handset.

He NEVER goes over the tariff, yet last year his c500 upgrade was free, and today we rung up and got a c600 for free. He's never changed his atriff either.

I always hear about people struggling to get free handsets when its time to upgrade. Yet every year all we've done is rang up and there's been no problems. So whats the deal? :s

I'm not complaining or anything, as it happens my dad always keeps his current phone and gives me the new one, so i'll have a c600 this time tomorrow hopefully

 

[stoofa]

Depends entirely on which phone you are after.
As far as I can see the SPV C600 is actually free on all Orange tariffs including the cheapest direct plan at £20 per month (new contracts).

Upgrade price on that handset is listed as between £0 & £80.

Phone up as somebody who never uses any more minutes that they pay for on a pretty low tariff and ask for say the M2000 for free and see how far you get.

 

[sl33pyhead]

I suspect if you'd wanted a handset other than an SPV the price would have been somewhat different too.
Since the SPV range is made specifically for Orange by HTC the cost to Orange to purchase/subsidise the handset is much less than with a third party brand.