AT&T prices iPhone 3G data plan at $30, nixes rev share deal

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  • Reply 81 of 103
    winterspanwinterspan Posts: 605member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by 4metta View Post


    I'll be getting one and unlocking it for TMobile. Those plan rates are horrendous. At least the iPhone price dropped!



    actually the AT&T iPhone 3G contracts aren't bad at all compared to their primary competitor Verizon Wireless.



    First of all, Most of Verizon's smartphones (like a Treo 700wx, new Blackberry, HTC Touch, etc) are all $300-400. So an iPhone is already $100-200+ cheaper.



    The AT&T base iPhone 3G Plan even at $70 month is still $20 cheaper compared to the same verizon Plan. Check it out



    Verizon Wireless "Smartphone/PDA" base plan

    - 450 voice minutes

    - "unlimited data" (5GB)

    - ZERO included text/mms messages (pay per txt)


    ========================================

    $79.95/month



    Add 500 text/mms messages

    +10.00/month



    GRAND TOTAL: $89.95/month





    EDIT: Apparently, Verizon has a $5 option for 200 text/MMS instead of the $10 500 text/MMS, so the final price would be $85/month instead of $90/month.
  • Reply 82 of 103
    4metta4metta Posts: 365member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Foo2 View Post


    How is it horrendous when the unlimited data plans for every other smart phone supported by AT&T and Verizon are $40/month? Over the life of a 2 year contract, the savings are enough to pay for the iPhone 3G.





    I have now figured out how so many people get suckered into horrendous cell phone service gouging...



    Did you bother to compare the basic service plan rates between carriers? Or are you only bothering to look at the data plan?





    And is Verizon the only other competitor out there?
  • Reply 83 of 103
    f1turbof1turbo Posts: 257member
    Here's another option:



    Sprint SERO, $30/month, includes:

    - 500 minutes voice

    - unlimited data

    - unlimited text

    - free roaming

    - unlimited weekends, 7PM - 7AM calls



    I've been using Palm and Treo devices for a long time, so take the 755P Treo for $200 or Centro for $100.



    Not an iPhone for sure, but $40/month, with unlimited text, unlimited weekends is a LOT cheaper. Throw in the local 25%+ tax rate here (FL), and you're paying $50 per month more for an iPhone. And I won't need to buy additional software, since I've already bought it for my current Treo.
  • Reply 84 of 103
    Damn you AT&T! $20 seemed reasonable for your data plan before. AT&T is now not paying Apple AND they are going to charge us $10 more per month??? That's almost as much as I spend on broadband at home. For that money I should be able to plug my iPhone into my Airport Extreme and use it as my home data connection as well. With steep prices like this I'm going to get my 3G iPhone and jump ship as soon as is humanly possible.
  • Reply 85 of 103
    nofeernofeer Posts: 2,427member
    OK i don't like the rise in data rate, but we don't have to pay for gps right like on other phones, gps is huge. just saved me from buying a nuvi 360



    OK my wife and i share minutes, rollover, which works for us. but with two iphones that will be at least 140 without fees and taxes, but does it include rollover or shared minutes, or is that another rate schedule?? we also added my mother in law (great cook) for $10, so i'm looking at a substantial increase in my monthly charges if i go with two iphones.



    the big questions for me is another form factor for Christmas sales period, maybe upgrade myself and then wait for Christmas for my wife. hmmmmm

    Boy, gps would sure help my wife when she travels. hmmmmm



    with the rate increase , no revenue sharing and decrease in price, i wonder if wallstreet feels apple can make this a revenue stream, maybe apple is going for market share, penetration, (att penetrated me enough ha ha) so this seems like huge gain for ATT, so how does apple win, and our stock price go up?



    one thing really irritated me is the lack of doing this at home with itunes, which is the apple way, i can't imagine another mind numbing time with att activation, takes tooo long and the apple experience is less. big customer loss imo
  • Reply 86 of 103
    WTF. I have a 3G HTC 8525, and I've been paying 60.00 bucks a month for unlimited data w/tethering. And the txt messages is another 19.99. I say quit your bitching about the data plans.
  • Reply 87 of 103
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post


    It could be better. Compared to people in the US complaining about a $30 a month plan, by the exchange rate, we are paying $60 a month on the lowest plan and the amount of call time just makes it a worthless option.



    75 minutes a month. Who only ever talks for just over an hour a month on their phone?



    The £35 a month contract is still the only viable one. For just £5, it jumps from 75 minutes to 600 minutes. But yep that borders on $70 a month. Maybe Apple should have enforced a global rates plan too.



    The lowest O2 option = (75 minutes + 125 texts) * 18 = 1350 minutes + 2250 texts = £540

    The next highest = (600 minutes + 500 texts) * 18 = 10,800 minutes + 9000 texts = £630



    You'd be crazy to get the £30 a month contract.



    Still none of the other phone providers in the UK are better, they are all rip-offs.



    I'd check out the Pay as you go one but the rates for Pay as you go in the UK are horrendous - it's usually 25-50p a minute to make a peak time call to another network.



    The $30 is just for data. That's on top of the $40 voice plan. 450 minutes + 200 texts, provided AT&T keeps the same number of texting minutes. So you'll actually get more from the same priced plan.
  • Reply 88 of 103
    jimdkcjimdkc Posts: 17member
    Shame you have to pay for voice too. I don't want voice. I don't wanna talk on this thing! I don't even frickin' like people!
  • Reply 89 of 103
    nofeernofeer Posts: 2,427member
    i found this from time, i wondered why the stock price fell 2% yesterday, this gives some insight look down the page. but it also tells me SJ is looking at market share before others get much foothold on the new moble platform (android et al)

    makes a lot of sense. I need to look at the iphone as part of an apple "package" phone, mac os, app store, mobleme, etc, that builds the platform and mac loyalty....



    http://www.time.com/time/business/ar...813117,00.html
  • Reply 90 of 103
    f1turbof1turbo Posts: 257member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by BlackSummerNight View Post


    WTF. I have a 3G HTC 8525, and I've been paying 60.00 bucks a month for unlimited data w/tethering. And the txt messages is another 19.99. I say quit your bitching about the data plans.





    Wow, that's ridiculous! On the other hand, does include tethering. Does the iPhone plan include tethering?
  • Reply 91 of 103
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rbonner View Post


    Very interesting, they are charging us $10 bucks more per month for the data and developing a yellow pages application so they can charge more for the advertising. This feels more and more like a traditional copper line phone company.



    What would really be a good value is a family data plan so when we upgrade we can pass the iPhones down to the kids.



    Does anyone know if my son buys a data plan on my old 2G phone, does the old data plan rates stick?



    Not much to fret about. AT&T has does a bang up job getting 3G widespread and fast in a very short. Though more than the usual amount have lost their lives doing it.



    It's $40 more total for the use of 3g up to 24 months. For me, I'll probably be getting a new phone every year so that is $3.33 per month to use much faster speeds. Not a bad deal.



    We can't have it both ways. Either way we are paying the piper.
  • Reply 92 of 103
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by F1Turbo View Post


    Wow, that's ridiculous! On the other hand, does include tethering. Does the iPhone plan include tethering?



    That would be nice, but it won't be included. I pay $60 from AT&T for unlimited use with an AT&T 3G USB stick.
  • Reply 93 of 103
    shawnjshawnj Posts: 6,656member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by acslater017 View Post


    Great.



    The iPhone now costs me $200 LESS upfront. And only $240 dollars MORE over a 2-year contract! Sweet!



    No.



    It's $40 more expensive; not $240.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by boobooq88 View Post


    Are people really complaining about paying $40 more in the long run?



    No.



    The complaint is with Apple billing the iPhone as "cheaper," not whether the price increase is worth it or whether it's negligible compared to the total cost of owning the phone over the life of the contract.
  • Reply 94 of 103
    gqbgqb Posts: 1,934member
    Is the additional $10 for 3G optional, or is that required for 3G phones?

    I have to assume its not required for Gen 1 phones.

    For the amount of non-wifi internet access find myself wanting, Edge has always seemed sufficient.
  • Reply 95 of 103
    winterspanwinterspan Posts: 605member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by juggernaut30 View Post


    With steep prices like this I'm going to get my 3G iPhone and jump ship as soon as is humanly possible.



    Jump ship to where? T-mobile with no 3G (doesn't work on iPhone anyways), or Verizon and Sprint that have CDMA networks? There is nowhere to go. If the iPhone is not worth it to you, then don't buy it.





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by F1Turbo View Post


    Here's another option:



    Sprint SERO, $30/month, includes:

    - 500 minutes voice

    - unlimited data

    - unlimited text

    - free roaming

    - unlimited weekends, 7PM - 7AM calls



    Not an iPhone for sure, but $40/month, with unlimited text, unlimited weekends is a LOT cheaper. Throw in the local 25%+ tax rate here (FL), and you're paying $50 per month more for an iPhone. And I won't need to buy additional software, since I've already bought it for my current Treo.



    Yeah, let's compare normal AT&T pricing to Sprint's pricing for employees and their family members.. Are you trying to mislead people, or is it just ignorance?





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by 4metta View Post


    Did you bother to compare the basic service plan rates between carriers? Or are you only bothering to look at the data plan?



    And is Verizon the only other competitor out there?



    Did i compare "basic service plan rates"? Umm.. yes, and they are exactly the same for the 450 minutes. The difference is that the iPhone 3G unlimited data service is cheaper than verizon wireless.



    And Verizon wireless is always brought up because they are the largest carrier in the USA (after buying Alltel), and they are the main competition to AT&T. T-Mobile USA has nowhere near the coverage of either of them, and they don't have a 3G network. The only other major carrier, Sprint, is hemorrhaging customers by the tens of thousands a month.
  • Reply 96 of 103
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by quinney View Post


    Really? So are you saying that it would be an acceptable accounting practice for a

    company to arbitrarily recognize revenue whenever it feels like it, regardless of

    when the revenue was actually received?



    I think you have the revenue sharing (att giving part of the monthly fee to apple) confused with deferred revenue (the accounting model used for iPhone and apple tv)



    The iPhone is still on the deferred revenue model and is no longer on revenue sharing.



    If I understand correctly, deferred revenue spreads the earnings over two years. Whereas if you buy an iPod on July 1, the accountants at apple report that they made $299 on July 1. If you bought an iPhone on July 1, they report that $299 not on July 1, but rather divided up and spread out over two years.



    That is why they can do free upgrades to the iPhone. They aren't able to report the full revenue until two years later. Hurts the bottom line in the short run (would you rather have $300 now, or $300 that you can only use spread out over two years) but it makes a better product that can be improved and keep competitive as technology improves.



    So its a completely different topic from the now extinct revenue sharing
  • Reply 97 of 103
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by acslater017 View Post


    Great.



    The iPhone now costs me $200 LESS upfront. And only $240 dollars MORE over a 2-year contract! Sweet!



    yes you are paying more with the extra $10 a month. But you are getting more. 3g is incredibly superior to the old edge phone. It's standard capitalism. If you want better service it costs more money.



    "Nobody cheated you ike. Just go home. "
  • Reply 98 of 103
    4metta4metta Posts: 365member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by winterspan View Post


    Jump ship to where? T-mobile with no 3G (doesn't work on iPhone anyways), or Verizon and Sprint that have CDMA networks? There is nowhere to go. If the iPhone is not worth it to you, then don't buy it.




    Wrong. There are other options.



    The new iPhone will run on 2G and get double the battery life while doing it. 3G speeds on it remain to be seen but even at it's most optimistic will not be better than WiFi which is very accessible to many people at work, school, home, etc.





    To anybody who is hesitant to sign the contract with AT&T (with good reason), just wait a bit and watch the hackers do their work. You can rest assured it will be unlocked.
  • Reply 99 of 103
    f1turbof1turbo Posts: 257member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by winterspan View Post




    Yeah, let's compare normal AT&T pricing to Sprint's pricing for employees and their family members.. Are you trying to mislead people, or is it just ignorance?




    Neither. Don't put too much stock in the name. Go to Sprint.com. Search "SERO." Go to the link from the search result. Click on "View SERO Details" to see more info. This program has been around in one form or another for a long time. You do not have to be an employee or family member. To order a phone and start the plan, you need a Sprint email address. You used to have to get one from a salesman or knowing someone (never even meant to be Sprint employees and family only), but all you really needed to do was google @sprint.com or some variation. Sprint realized this and now you can just use "[email protected]."



    This program is well documented in other forums, such as treocentral.com and sprintusers.com. Only disadvantage I know of is that you have to start a new line (same as iPhone), buy a new phone, and get a new number. There are some ways around the last two, but I don't think it's worth the effort--see the forums listed.



    You do all this online...easier than buying and activating a new iPhone ;-)
  • Reply 100 of 103
    bsenkabsenka Posts: 799member
    Unless I'm missing something, these rates seem pretty expensive to me too. Canadian mobile rates are generally considered to be unfairly high, and yet my carrier's posted smartphone rates (for Manitoba anyway) are lower and more flexible than what I'm seeing attributed to at&t for the iPhone. Granted, the phones that I can get these rates for are crap, but still.



    It will be very interesting to see what Rogers does for rate plans here, as I can see this being a serious impediment to iPhone adoption, even among people who are salivating for this phone.
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