AT&T $20 data plan

[mmjax]

Like a lot of people on these forums, I felt a little let down by the lack of any truly significant upgrades to the iPhone 3GS. Oh well.

I had an iPhone for about a week in February...right about the time the rumor mill kicked into gear. So I took it back and anxiously waited for the "new" iPhone. Needless to say, I will not wait another year in the hope that next years iPhone will have some revolutionary new feature that I just can't live without. After using my "first" iPhone for a week, the last few months have been agony enough.

So...next Friday I will be buying myself (and probably my Wife) new iPhone 3GS's. We have two little 'uns that are not yet in school and made the decision for my wife to stop working until they are in school. As you can imagine, money is tight. The thought of paying $30 a month extra for my wife's iPhone when she will be on the home wifi network 90% of the time is the #1 reason against buying her an iPhone. If they would allow me to pay full price and then not buy the data plan, then that's the way I would go. Unfortunately that's against AT&T's policy. I would even buy her an ebay 3G but AT&T still force you to purchase the data plan once they see the phone on their network.

I called up the local at&t store a little while ago and asked them about pre-purchasing the phones and about the data plan. He confirmed that I can come into the store ahead of time and buy the phones, and they will definitely be available to pick up first thing on Friday morning. About the data plan, he said they are still $30 for unlimited and he had not been informed of the rumored $20 capped plan.

I went on google and hunted around for a bit - I have not been able to find anything on the $20 capped plan since May 18th.

Anyone else hear anything more about the $20 data capped plan?

Thanks - MJ

 

[darngooddesign]

Or you could buy a used 2G phone and use the $20 unlimited EDGE data plan that the original phones have. Combine that with VOIP software and you won't need many minutes for her.

 

[ppc750fx]

Or you could buy a used 2G phone and use the $20 unlimited EDGE data plan that the original phones have. Combine that with VOIP software and you won't need many minutes for her.

VoIP over EDGE is downright painful. EDGE/GPRS are not low-latency connections, and the delay tends to be enough of a nuisance as to make it not worth it.

 

[The General]

Like a lot of people on these forums, I felt a little let down by the lack of any truly significant upgrades to the iPhone 3GS. Oh well.

What exactly IS a "truly significant upgrade" if doubling the processor speed isn't one?

 

[darngooddesign]

VoIP over EDGE is downright painful. EDGE/GPRS are not low-latency connections, and the delay tends to be enough of a nuisance as to make it not worth it.

Remember the part where he said the wife will be around wifi 90% of the time. Yeah, that's the part I was basing my post on.

 

[Mikey B]

What exactly IS a "truly significant upgrade" if doubling the processor speed isn't one?

Exactly.

 

[darngooddesign]

What exactly IS a "truly significant upgrade" if doubling the processor speed isn't one?

The 3G$ isn't phono-chromatic.

 

[mmjax]

Thanks for the input guys.

Regarding the comment about the processor speed, did someone say the processor is running at over 800MHz now? If they did, then I must have missed it. If I'm not mistaken, they said that some things were up to twice as fast. Yes they have a faster, more efficient processor, but would you really call that "significant"? If you bought a laptop this time last year, then went to buy a new one this year, would you even buy it if there wasn't at least a 20% improvement in speed/processing/etc? I would say that it is a given that the next version of a product should be faster than the last...unless you're talking about MS OS's of course.

So while it is great that the iPhone 3GS is faster than the 3G, and it includes compass, voice command, etc, I wouldn't call it a truly significant upgrade over the 3G. It's just an upgrade with a couple of extra features. Just my opinion of course. I'm still going to be buying at least one, and I'm glad I decided to return my 3G and wait for the 3GS. I still think that it's the coolest gadget ever...