A Mobile World - Buying a 3G iPhone

[Foggy_UK]

So now we know what to expect from iPhone 3G.

 

[thiggins]

The lower (subsidized) phone cost is irrelevant. The monthly cost was the deal-killer before, and is even more so with the increased data service price.

 

[scotty]

I'm in Canada, so the 3G unit is the first for us, short of buying one stateside and doing the jailbreak-unlock thing. I think most of us up here are pretty excited to see it come. Not from the perspective of the iPhone itself, but the impact it could have on our wireless industry. We have less competition and our pricing is way more expensive than it is stateside. AT&T's current plans are pretty amazing by Canadian standards. Our current data plans are about $1/MB/month, so a 25MB mobile internet plan is about $25/mo, on top of voice. 'Unlimited' data plans or plans over a gig/mo are around $100/mo. Obviously, the very nature of the iPhone will cause prices to go way down. And supposedly Apple stipulates that the carriers have to offer unlimited data for a reasonable price. Nevertheless, exciting news for us.

I'm excited to get one personally. Hopefully we'll get some decent plans, as that's a hell of a phone for $199.

 

[Brandon]

My understanding, the current iPhone users will get grandfathered in, at the current rate of $20. I will have to ask my sister to be 100% sure however.

I paid $40 a month for unlimited internet on my blackjack II, before my iPhone, so going from $20 to $30 isn't to big of a deal for me.

I'm just trying to figure out who to pawn my current iPhone off on to.. (Hii honey, I want you to have this!)

 

[Bart]

Here in Belgium the first iPhone was not available (officially). The reason for this was because it's forbidden here to sell both the phone and the subscription as a package.

Now the 2nd iPhone will be available, but only in the fall though. I have no idea what's keeping them. If the price is right ($199 - about 130 euro, my guess is they'll charge 199 euro or even more anyway) I predict a lot of sales for Apple.

The only thing that might get in the way is that Apple has decided to team up only with Mobistar, one of the three mobile phone providers in Belgium. Mobistar is not the biggest one of the three, so this might cause problems.