rate plans/tariffs

According to a report from Kaufman Brothers analyst Saw Wu, Apple and AT&T are discussing the possibility of offering tiered data plans with the next generation of iPhone. In the report, he says Apple and AT&T are worried that an increasing number of customers will turn down the iPhone due to it's expensive mandatory $70+/month data and voice plans.

An anonymous source for iPhone Canada is claiming that Rogers Wireless is planning to revamp their highly-criticized data plans for the iPhone 3G on October 1st. It's no secret that most people in Canada think that the original plans offered by Rogers were pretty outdated and grossly overpriced. The source says that Rogers is planning to update their plans to include more daytime minutes, MY5, and an extra 600MB of data.

AT&T announced new international roaming plans yesterday. Starting today, AT&T is offering two international data plans that offer discounts on data in 67 countries (or so they claim). The cheapest plan is available for an additional $119.99/month and adds 100MB of international data to your iPhone, and the other is $199.00 for 200MB. This is in addition to the 20MB and 50BM international data plans currently available.

We thought Australia was pretty lucky to have the choice between Optus, Telstra, or Vodafone for their iPhone 3G plan, but they're about to get even luckier. While us poor saps in the US get to make due with just AT&T, the people in Australia are going from three official iPhone carriers to four; Virgin Mobile has announced that they too will be carrying the iPhone soon.

We knew from early on that AT&T had agreed to pay Apple in exchange for exclusivity in the US after which the iPhone would be unlocked, but the exact date that their deal would expire has remained a mystery until today. Similarly, little is known about why AT&T changed from their previous payments to Apple to heavily subsidizing the devices. In what is a rare peak at the inner dealings between Apple and a carrier, USA Today claims to have inside information on both subjects.

In late April, AT&T announced their special Text Accessibility Plan (TAP) for the hearing or vocally disabled for the iPhone. Now AT&T has announced the TAP plan for iPhone 3G users. Like the first plan, the one for the 3G includes unlimited text messages, data, and email access for the same rate as before, but with the addition of unlimited 3G for an extra $10, totaling $50 per month.

It appears that Rogers Wireless may have finally heard the complaints of its thousands of potential customers. Earlier today Rogers and sub-brand Fido announced that they will be offering a limited-time promotional plan for the iPhone 3G. Customers that sign up before the end of August will be eligible to sign up for a $30 monthly data plan that includes a whole 6GB of data per month when purchased with a voice plan.

Since you'll be standing in line for quite a while, it would be wise to chose which plan you want before you line up outside your local store. If you're new to the iPhone and are still having a hard time choosing which one you want, here's a little tool to help you decide. It's called BillShrink, and it can help you pick one of the new AT&T iPhone 3G plans based on the number of text messages you use, the number of lines you want, etc., and it will tell you how much it will cost. You can check it out here.

Both Australian iPhone carriers Optus and Telstra have announced their plans and prices for the iPhone 3G. Both carriers will be offering more traditional iPhone 3G plans. On Optus, pricing of the handset is listed at the monthly "handset repayment" charge, which ranges from $0/month to $59/month depending on model and plan. Plans range from 19/month for 100MB data and "$50 of calls and text", to $179/month for 1GB of data and "$1500 of calls and text".

Austrian iPhone 3G carrier One has announced their plans for the iPhone 3G. They will be charging €149 for the 8GB and €229 for the 16GB, and from what I can tell from the Google translation, they will be offering one data plan for the iPhone called the iPhone Pack that will cost €14 for 100 SMS and 3GB data, and will require a 24-month contract. The translation was pretty sketchy though, so if you speak German you better see it for yourself at their website.