Vodafone UK launches the iPhone on 14th of January - order today

Finally, Vodafone is able to announce the launch date of the iPhone. You can almost feel the relief sweeping over the company this morning. First it was Orange, waving it in their faces — then Tesco — TESCO! — and now, we’ve got a launch date of the 14th of January 2010.

But you can get stuck into the iPhone on Vodafone right now by pre-ordering today at http://www.vodafone.co.uk/iphone.

There are a few interesting points with their announcement. The iPhone 3G 8GB is free on a £35 24-month contract and each consumer will qualify for unlimited text messaging. There’s also a reward to customers who pre-registered:

As a thank you to consumer customers who have already registered interest in iPhone and choose to pre-order, Vodafone will give them free Vodafone to Vodafone phone calls, for the life of their initial contract.

Here’s the pricing table:

For anyone mad enough to want to tether their iPhone as a modem, you can do that too:

Customers wishing to use their iPhone as a modem can do so for £5 for 500MB, £10 for 1.5GB or £15 for 3GB.