Any AT&T Employees, what does this mean for Corporate accounts?

[essential]

My father has a corporate account, he's had it for like 14 years (from Cellular One, to Cingular, to AT&T) but it’s basically just a family plan registered as a corporate account. I’ve been upset about this because I figured I’d have to pay the $45 a month data plan even though I’m not a corporate user. This is a quote from the recently leaked AT&T memo about the iPhone 3G:

http://gizmodo.com/5014909/att-memo-to-retail-managers-shows-iphone-3g-policy

“All iPhone 3G customers are required to have one of the new data plans and qualifying voice plan.

Customers intending to use the iPhone 3G for access to corporate e-mail, business applications, or access to corporate intranet are required to activate with Enterprise Data Plan for iPhone.

Data Pricing will be as follows:
Consumer Data Plan (must be added to qualified voice plan):
$30 - Unlimited Data (E-mail/Web), includes Visual Voicemail

Enterprise Data Plan (must be added to qualified voice plan):
$45 – Unlimited Data with personal and corporate e-mail, web, includes Visual Voicemail”

This makes it sound like you are only required to pay the corporate iPhone data rates if you are using the iPhone for corporate e-mail, business applications, or access to corporate intranets. Since I am not, I would be using it for the same stuff any normal user would be, when activating will I be able to choose the $30 data plan even though the main number on my account is corporate?

And for any of you who say, “well why don’t you just switch your plan from a corporate plan to a regular family plan,” my father is very old-school, and he wants his line registered under his company name. My mother and I are secondary lines on the plan, but have nothing to do with the business. There is no chance he will switch the plan, so I’m just trying to figure a way to pay $30 a month instead of $45 a month for the same thing since I wouldn’t be using any of the features that AT&T uses to classify the corporate data plan as corporate.

Thanks.

 

[FarSeide]

the difference in data plan on depicts how your planning on using your iPhone. Corporate data plan allows you to connect to your corporate exchange server just like Blackberry BES Services.

Since your entire bill is being paid by your father's company, the pricing structure will depend on the negotiation between your Rep and the company.

I hope that makes sense.

 

[mshoo1]

It's a shame that AT&T appears to be making 3G iPhone users pay extra for Exchange access--Enterprise data plan versus personal data plan. It's like Apple saying, "we've added Exchange support, but oh by the way, if you actually want to use it you'll need to pay $15 extra per month."

 

[FarSeide]

It's a shame that AT&T appears to be making 3G iPhone users pay extra for Exchange access. It's like Apple saying, "we've added Exchange support, but oh by the way, if you actually want to use it you'll need to pay $15 extra per month."

Blackberry BES is also $45 so its nothing new.

 

[essential]

That makes sense, i'm just glad there seems like there might be some flexability. I think it's crazy to have to pay $15 more a month if you aren't using anything more than basic email and web, which is $30 for everyone else.

I'll call AT&T later. I'll post if I get any information worth sharing.