All Articles Tagged plans

Have an iPhone on AT&T and want to travel internationally without re-mortgaging your house to pay for the data roaming? You’re in luck… mostly. Engadget says the USA’s exclusive iPhone carrier has just released two new plans to help mitigate your risk: $119.99 for 100MB and $199.99 for 200MB.

Realizing AT&T does have to pay other carriers for any users on their networks, we still can’t help but wonder if there’s an ulterior motive… Given the poor marks AT&T’s network received in Wired’s survey when compared to European carriers, maybe Ma Bell is trying to dissuade frustrated users from fleeing the country? Unfortunately, these new plans are pretty much Rogers’ 2006 domestic rates, and probably still competitive with several international carrier-gougers!

So, AT&T travelers, will these new plans encourage you to keep the data roaming enabled for your next trip?

Thanks to reader, Adam R. who wrote in to let us know Australian rates have been revealed, and his Blackberry can now “go the way of the dodo”.

First up is Optus who’ve announced both pre-paid and post-paid plans. Pre-paid Turbo Caps start at AUS$30 for an AUS$30 “mycredit”, AUS$110 “mybonus”, and AUS$30 “mytime money” — but no “mydata”. At AUS$100 you get 100/800/100 and Plus 1GB “mydata”. On these plans, and 8GB iPhone 3G will run you AUS$729 and 16GB, AUS$849. Not confusing enough for non-Ozzies, plan rates weigh in at AUS$0.78/min. for national calls,AUS$0.35 per “Flagfall” call, and AUS$02.2/KB weekdays and AUS$1.1/KB for “iZoo Browsing”.

Read on for Post-paid, Telestra’s first statement, Canadian craziness, and some Swedish relief!

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Two of the Scandinavian nations have just released their iPhone 3G plans. First up is TeliaSonera, with iMini plans starting with 18 month contracts at 299 SEK for 100 min./SMS/MB, with 8GB handsets for 2495 SEK and 16GB for 3295 SEK. iMidi is 250/250/250, and topping out with iMaxi at 859 SEK for 1000/1000/1000 and handsets for 1395 SEK or 2195 SEK.

There’s an iMidi plan as well, and 2-year contracts gets a handset discount. Still, that a US$145 a month obligation for 1GB of data… Ouch.

But it’s not as bad as Netcom in Norway! iTalk Small is 399 NOR for 100/100/100, with 1390 NOR or 2290 NOR for the handset, and iTalk Large is 1099 NOR for 1000/1000/1000 with 1 NOR or 890 NOR for the handset. That’s $221 a month for 1GB!

And I thought Canadians were getting hosed. What happened to mythical Midgard data pipes, where costs are negligible and speeds are the stuff of legend? Is the evil Loki… er… Nokia behind it? iPhone 3G Thor, taste them thine hammer!

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Although the date of July 17 is a bit confusing, given the international 22-country rollout is set for July 11, Orange is at least doing a better job than some other countries by delivering unlimited data with their plans.

And what plans are those?

€149 for the 8GB iPhone 3G, and €199 for the 16GB. Plans start at €49 for 2hrs of voice, 2hrs of night/weekend voice, and 50 SMS and top out at €149 for 12hrs/12hrs and 1000 SMS.

Special offers will be made for business customers to “change their mobile”, and for upgrades from existing iPhone (2G) sets/plans.

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Counting down to its July 11 multi-national debut, Japan’s Softbank has announced (in Japanese, ‘natch) their official iPhone 3G prices and plans. The hardware itself will cost ¥23,040 for 8GB and ¥34,560 for 16GB, a roughly 7% premium over Steve Jobs’ US$199 maximum, amortized over the length of the pre-requisite 2 year contract.

Plans will be color coded, primarily in white, but rumor has it also in orange and blue. Based on the linked-to details, this color system is impenetrable enough I can’t believe North American carriers haven’t rushed to adopt it!

Any Japanese readers who can shed further light on how these charges will shake out on a data-hungry iPhone-class device, please let us know in the comments!

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I should have put this into my post yesterday about the Top 5 Reasons I’m SO Upgrading to the iPhone 3G, but it didn’t completely sink in until just now that this was really an issue for some people. It was that off my radar — but I guess it shouldn’t have been, given this is the blogsphere.

DaringFireball did the math and figured that, even if the iPhone 3G costs some $200 less upfront than it’s 2G ancestor, due to AT&T charging $10 more per month for 3G data, and potentially $5 more for SMS, that works out to $240 or $360 more over the course of the mandatory 2 year (24 month) contract, and ends up making the overall TCO (Total Cost of Ownership/Operation) some $40 to $160 more for the iPhone 3G than the previous generation model.

But here’s the thing. TCO is only one buzz acronym. Another is ROI — Return on Investment. No cell phone at all is cheaper than the iPhone, but what functionality do you give up by not having a mobile device? Dial-up (analogous to 2.5/2.75G EDGE service) is cheaper than broadband (analogous to 3G HSPDA service), but what amount of productivity (not to mention patience!) do you lose to the slower speed? Cell/Wi-Fi “triangulation” is included in the old iPhone, and thus cheaper than the A-GPS in the iPhone 3G, but what features — including new App Store apps — will you lose out on by not having precise location services?

There will always be cheaper. You can probably pick up a great deal on a 486 running Windows 3.1 if you look hard enough. But cheaper is not always better. If it was, that Internet University that keeps spamming everyone would look better on a CV than Harvard, Starbucks would have gone broke long ago, and a Yaris would smoke the Reventon on a straight away!

In the end, you typically get what you pay for, and new usually costs more than old (until newer comes along and continues the cycle). AT&T (and other carriers) are no doubt subsidizing the heck out of the iPhone 3G, and are making that money back via the service plans. That’s their business. Our business is deciding whether the handset that comes with that service is worth what they’re asking for it.

$40 over 2 years for an iPhone 3G? For that investment you get a 3G speed and A-GPS location services (not to mention a flush headphone jack!) return.

TCO be d@mned, that’s a pretty compelling ROI.

Although Rogers Wireless, the GSM monopoly and hence both de facto and exclusive iPhone 3G carrier in Canada has yet to announce rate plans for Apple’s second generation data monster, they have let slip the following in their PR:

Starting July 11, iPhone 3G will sell for $199 for the 8Gb model and $299 for the 16Gb model, on a three-year plan.

That’s right, 3 (three!) big years for the contract as opposed to 2 years in the US, or 18 months and even Pay-as-You-Go in Europe. Who said we were the new world?

We’ve already discussed some of the challenges that previously faced the iPhone in Canada, now we have confirmed release date, confirmed handset price, and all that remains is confirmation on what have been, until now, globally ridiculous data rates.

Come one Rogers. You’ve come this far. Don’t spoil it now with something silly like $100 a month for 1GB. Give us the 3G Unlimited for $30, just like the US.

I’d have more faith, but it’s not like the Canadian government has anything remotely resembling consumer interests at heart, not with their new DMCA — set for introduction today — which includes provisions “Making it illegal to unlock cellphones or copy music from protected CDs to iPods.”

Thanks Antonic for the tip!

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Current iPhone user on UK’s O2 network eager to get your hands on the hot new iPhone 3G, yeah? Ready to act fast, are you? Willing to sign up for O2’s premium £45 or £75 per month plans, eh? If so — and for a limited time only — you could qualify for a free iPhone 3G 8GB or 16GB respectively. Cracking deal, innit?

Bargain hunters looking for the £35 plan will have to fork over £99 or £159 for their handsets, as will any newcomers to the platform. Doesn’t seem cricket, does it?

Chins up, though, unlike AT&T in the States, O2 will be offering Pay & Go options, though no details have been provided yet.

Take a right little look at the read link for more on O2’s iPhone 3G rates and plans…

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