Apple Announces iPhone Service Plans

[3282872]

this may have been asked and answered, but…

I have 11 months on my current contract with AT&T…if I buy the iPhone on Friday, do I get 2 years from that date? or 2 years from the expiration of my current AT&T contract?

You basically sign a new contract, so it becomes two years from the purchase/activation of the iPhone.

I believe it is because customers are not getting a break on the phone price with activation. For new customers to get a break, most cell providers require a year or more with a new contract for a customer to get the discount price, otherwise it is full price for the phone. The RAZR costs any where from $49.99 to $99.99 with a contract renewal, but $299.99 or so without renewing. Since the iPhone is always at full price, you can buy it at any time with ATT, of course no discount.

 

[bytethese]

2yr Agreement

I just got off the phone with an AT&T rep and I was told that for any existing customers, they will renegotiate your contract. Meaning you will have a 2yr contract from the day you buy the iPhone. This is great for me since I was not eligible for "an upgrade discount" ($50, yippie freakin-do), so all I have to do is actually get one on Friday and sign up for the 450 min plan, same as I have now, same cost. w00t!

 

[penguy]

WAIT!!!

So the INCLUDED free mobile-mobile means that any call I make to another Cingular customer, and it won't dock my minutes at all?!

Please, can someone confirm I'm interpreting this correctly.

If so, this is great news. I'm moving away from my girlfriend for college in the fall, and I planned on getting a 2000+ minutes a month for her. But, she's getting an iPhone on Friday, too. It'd be great if we can call each other for free!

yes...they've had that for years

 

[Project]

I was willing to pay a little more to use the iPhone, and really expected to do just that. Just called Alltel, my current cell phone provider, and found out that the family plans on the iPhone are all cheaper and allow me to do more than the current plan I am on. I will be paying $30 less a month, and will get a lot of extras, like rollover minutes, that I currently did not have. I don't text message, but now I get 200 for free. Might try it out. I pay $7 per line ($14) for free nights and weekends. Alltel has 300 text messages for $6 and unlimited for $20, a month per line.


BETTER PHONE.
BETTER PLAN.

My current contract with Alltel ends June 28th. A coincidence? I think not. Hello iPhone.

$30 saving per month over 2 years would effectively pay for the price of the iPhone. You're in luck.

 

[mrowl]

WAIT!!!

So the INCLUDED free mobile-mobile means that any call I make to another Cingular customer, and it won't dock my minutes at all?!

Please, can someone confirm I'm interpreting this correctly.

If so, this is great news. I'm moving away from my girlfriend for college in the fall, and I planned on getting a 2000+ minutes a month for her. But, she's getting an iPhone on Friday, too. It'd be great if we can call each other for free!

its always been that way with at&t \ cingular, yes, calls to other at&t customers are unlimited.

 

[aristobrat]

So it's NOT free mobile to mobile then, but rather free AT&T mobile to AT&T mobile.

How is US marketing allowed these blatant lies over there?

Lies? Marketing? When it comes to the major US carriers, free M2M calls have always been restricted to "in-network".

It's far more accurate to describe the reaction as a collective sigh of relief - relief that Apple/AT&T chose not to charge the way everyone expected.

Describe it as what you will, but you can see what the overwhelming reaction to it is.

This should include unlimited SMS... My Sidekick 3 plan does as part of its unlimited data package.

Not cool, and potentially off-putting for this switcher.

To put things in perspective, I'm unaware of *any* other plan offered by any major carrier that gives you the same unlimited SMS and data for $19.99, like your current Sidekick plan does. If you're committed to staying at the same pricepoint, you're pretty much locked into Sidekicks forever...

 

[penguy]

You basically sign a new contract, so it becomes two years from the purchase/activation of the iPhone.

that's great! now I just need to see whether I can keep my current family share plan…I already have the unlimited $19.99 data for my Treo…so no change for me! fingers crossed

 

[3282872]

WAIT!!!

So the INCLUDED free mobile-mobile means that any call I make to another Cingular customer, and it won't dock my minutes at all?!

Please, can someone confirm I'm interpreting this correctly.

If so, this is great news. I'm moving away from my girlfriend for college in the fall, and I planned on getting a 2000+ minutes a month for her. But, she's getting an iPhone on Friday, too. It'd be great if we can call each other for free!

Yup, like most cell companies, in Network calls are unlimited.

 

[Agathon]

You have to wonder why yg17 posts on macrumors, since all he seems to do lately is spew irrational hatred for Apple.

AnthonyMoody made the best post in the thread. The prices are very reasonable, and while not insanely cheap, remove an excuse people might have had not to get one.

 

[aristobrat]

However, I don't even want to go NEAR an Apple store in NYC, it will be a madhouse. I'm sure they will sell out and have a wait list or something, so looks like I'll just hold off until iPhone 2.0 comes out (and has 3G and maybe video conferencing?).

'cause when the iPhone 2.0 comes out, there won't be a line?

 

[slffl]

YES! Now that's what I'm talking about! This is almost what I guessed in a previous thread (except I guessed unlimited SMS). This is great compared to those rumors yesterday.

I am now 100% getting the iPhone on Friday!!

 

[PLin]

I currently pay $10 for a third line on a family plan that is no longer on contract. Ideally, I'd like to add the $20 iPhone plan for existing customers, but I wonder if I would have to renew the contract for the entire account or simply be contracted into paying $10 + $20 for 2 years.

 

[JPyre]

Grab and go unactivated Apple store only...

Just to let everyone with bad credit know, you should probably goto the AT&T store, because Apple store does't look like they're activating phones.

If you have good credit, it'd be a good idea to goto the Apple store, no wait.

I talked to an AT&T rep and he said "it's company policy, phones doen't leave the store until activated, if they did we wouldn't get our comission" Basicly saying "over his dead body it'll leave unactivated"

So the grab and go process appears to be only an Apple Store benefit.

 

[ISMPlus]

WHat is this???

*Includes one line. Additional iPhone lines are $29.99 each.

On the family family plan, is it $80 for the 1st line/plan and then an additional $30 each for other lines?? That's A LOT!! Does that mean we're going to pay $110+tax every month, as oppose to $78, tax included with Sprint??! (Yes, with unlimited data!)

 

[3282872]

'cause when the iPhone 2.0 comes out, there won't be a line?

lol possibly...

 

[beannyc]

those are great rates! way better than my crummy sprint plan. with sprint i pay those rates, but get zilch for data! YAY! Unlimited data. i can't contain myself. Hip Hip Hooray. Hip Hip Hooray!

 

[Timpdude]

Called in and talked to an AT&T Rep this morning after the posts went up for rate plans because I was concerned about being able to upgrade my phone.

This information may be good for a lot of you out there. As I know I was quite concerned about it when I saw the pricing because typically if it appears to good to be true it usually is, but in this case it isn't.

----
The AT&T Rep that I talked to had already obviously been trained well on the plans for the iPhone (impressive enough) as she had ALL the answers and didn't have to look anything up. She also thanked me for knowing enough about everything to not A) Sound like an idiot and B) annoy her with questions as to why we can't get 200 bucks off the iPhone.

Ok.. So here is my issue.

My wife and I share a Family Plan with My Parents basically as a way to save my parents money on a cell phone bill (they don't use much and see no reason to pay 100 bucks a month for a phone that they use 100 minutes a month on) so the 4 of us have 1 single family plan and I pay the full bill with my parents simply paying the 9.99 a line for their 2 lines. I pay $59.99 for my main line (Palm Treo), and then 9.99 for each of the other 3 lines. I pay $39.99 for the unlimited PDA Connect Data plan for my Treo and no one else has any data (other than the typical pay for play whenever my wife downloads ringtones, etc...).

So.. It appeared that I would be able to keep my Family plan $59.99, drop the $39.99 PDA Connect Plan and ADD the $20.00 iPhone plan. Which would save me $20 bucks a month. This is where it looked to good to be true. Why in the world would i actually save money to upgrade?!?!?

I have had my Treo since April 2006 and am available for Upgrade at this time. I figured that I would have to pay an enormous disconnect fee to get rid of my PDAConnect since I had not had it for 2 years, but... According to the AT&T rep she said that all would be good. I wasn't disconnecting my service I was simply changing services for which I would be charged the 36 dollar activation fee and buy the phone (obviously). Then while in the store I would activate the phone plan as an 'existing' customer simply adding $20.00 to my $59.99 plan and then dropping my PDAConnect plan thus saving $20 bucks a month in data while upgrading phones!!!!!!!

With all of the information going around out there about this and that I figured it would be good to have some real information out there from the source... So.. If you already have a Blackberry, Treo, Nokia or any other PDA that AT&T offers and you are paying for the Blackberry Connect or PDAConnect plan then you will simply SAVE money!!!

Who saves money these days?!?!?!?

LOVE IT!

 

[iMikeT]

They had me at unlimited data and web!

 

[gri]

Hey i too have a family plan, and i took the iphone website to mean that if you were the sole person in the household getting an iPhone, you should just get a regular family plan, and pay the 20-40 a month, depending on what you want. I am a kid on my pop's family plan, and thats exactly what i'm going to do. Our plan expires in july, so i will tell him to get the regular family plan, then i will give him the addition media MAX money that is required for existing customers w/iphone. You're line will cost 29.99, and all the other lines will continue to be 9.99 each. So: Choose a regular plan, add as many lines as needed, then take the iphone line and pay the 20 bucks extra for the media MAX package. It's all on the iPhone website.

So that means If I want a family plan with one iPhone (for me ) and a normal phone for the miss than we should get a regular family plan with her phone, get me the iPhone and the additional $20 for the data plan, correct?

 

[JPark]

What's with all the negativity?

I don't get it? What's with all the people saying these plans suck 'cause you're paying for a data plan whether you want one or not? YOU DON"T HAVE TO USE THESE PLANS!!! It says right in the release you can go with a data-free plan if you choose to. You can keep paying $39/month for your 450 minutes.

All these plans do is bundle data and voice at a discount. They don't replace your existing options. How is that not a good thing?

 

[mterlouw]

Better deal?

So if you sign up for service and get a new non-iPhone, add that to your family plan (e.g., 550 minute plan @$60), then activate the iPhone as an existing customer data plan ($20), you end up paying $10 less (assuming adding a non-iPhone to an iPhone family plan is $10) AND get a spare phone (Blackberry Pearl is free today after rebate on AT&T's website)? Granted that only gives you 550 vs. 700 peak minutes/month.

 

[number9]

confused

Ok, so in the part of the video where iTunes shows the summary of what you're signing up for, it shoes that he got a 900 minute plan for 59.99 and then the iPhone data plan including 1500 sms for another $20, for a grand total of $79.99. Unless its another error like the 80GB iPhone, how did he get the extra sms without paying another $10 on the 900 minute plan if hes a new ATT user??

 

[3282872]

Just to let everyone with bad credit know, you should probably goto the AT&T store, because Apple store does't look like they're activating phones.

If you have good credit, it'd be a good idea to goto the Apple store, no wait.

I talked to an AT&T rep and he said "it's company policy, phones doen't leave the store until activated, if they did we wouldn't get our comission" Basicly saying "over his dead body it'll leave unactivated"

So the grab and go process appears to be only an Apple Store benefit.

Do you mean if you have BAD credit go to the Apple store? ATT won't activate a phone with bad credit.

 

[bytethese]

this may have been asked and answered, but…

I have 11 months on my current contract with AT&T…if I buy the iPhone on Friday, do I get 2 years from that date? or 2 years from the expiration of my current AT&T contract?

I have 11mo as well, I posted before but posts are getting SWAMPED. I was told this morning by an AT&T Service Rep that they'd redo my contract from that day. So, 2yrs from this Fri if I can get an iPhone. Good luck to you as well!

 

[johnee]

I'm in. Unlimited data and 450 minutes for $59.99?

Awesome.

*goes to watch AAPL*

Buy, buy, buy!

Interesting that they announce this right before trading opens.

Not a surprise! I love it!! Watch AAPL today, should jump.

sorry, not even the iphone can change market trends...
as of 10:47 am eastern time, AAPL is DOWN 1.21