AT&T iPhone 3G Pricing Details:

[iStefmac]

Anyone excited by todays news is a bigger sucker than I thought existed.

If you are a current or non-current iPhone user, you should be disgusted with these rate plans. If you are not, you have WAY TOO MUCH MONEY and need to start throwing it at homeless people.

 

[Invis]

I can't believe that in this day and age, a mobile phone service provider is rolling out plans that don't include texts. Is it 1999 in the USA?

No.. it is the 1800s, when businesses were run to make money. AT&T isn't your friend, they are your service provider, and they are in business to make money. They know everyone will be choosing a texting plan, it is just another way to make more money.

To let you know...Loss leaders are illegal and considered preditorial practice (sp?) which is not legal.

Oh really? Can you cite the laws governing that?

-- I honestly don't know why everyone is going crazy over this. Did you really think it would be the same price.. or cheaper? Really? Did you? When a carton of milk is $4, or filling up a tank of gas is $80? Here's a shocker.. everything is more expensive now, and AT&T is keeping up with the rest of the world.

Oh, so maybe for you guys who were complaining about the exclusivity of the iPhone (RAZR effect) here ya go.. that pricing will keep some of the people out.

My plan will go from $180 to $210 a month. I'm fine with that.

 

[bytethese]

Ugh. I love my iPhone, 3G would be sweet. But now I have to pay $15 more a month? I just got used to $10 more a month in my thinking but to my dismay, no text messaging included? What's next, the airlines are going to charge me to check in my bags? Oh wait...

 

[honeycrisp]

Well I'm excited about the 8am release! Wondering how that will work with Apple Retail stores though.

 

[arn]

Agreed. Although I'm still a mac/ipod fan, I'm looking forward to what Google can bring us...hopefully it will truly be the phone that will change the way telcos do business.

This is very unlikely to change anything. Google only offers a reference platform. The carriers decide what to do with it. So, it will likely be the same as their other plans and usual marketing tactics.

arn

 

[supmango]

Like it or not the ATT plan is inline with every other US Cellco. If you want a horrendous plan go over to Canada. Now THOSE are what bad plans look like.

What is interesting about this whole process is that ATT seems to be increasing their prices (granted in line with every other cell company). The current economic trend in this country indicates that we are headed for another depression like era which means that all of these expensive contracts and phone bills people are getting into will only further hurt the overall spending in other areas, thus economic growth. It will be interesting to see how many people have to drop (probably just stop paying) their cell phones since they are (arguably) still an extra expense that does not serve a survival need. Just watch ATT's stock and see what happens, I am pretty sure that this is already out of ATT's hands as it is.

 

[nxent]

Having only 200 SMS with the current iPhone was ridiculous. Charging extra for it, as with the new phone, is just insane. The messages are submitted without any cost to the telephone company with tracker signals that are sent to the phone routinely. They shouldn't charge for this. Pure money making machinery. Apple stopped being a company that is trying to build products for the people. I was an iPhone/Apple fan until today, now I'll patiently wait for Google's phone.

that's not apple dude, it's att. what apple should have done was openned the phone to multiple carriers in the us market.

 

[.:R2theT]

To let you know...Loss leaders are illegal and considered preditorial practice (sp?) which is not legal.

Hardly. It's how the business works. Now bait and switch...yes, that is illegal. But the the concept of selling strawberries at buy-one-get-one-free in hopes that those customers will also buy ketchup, buns, hotdogs and such is one of the main reasons most big grocery stores have those type of sales. Loss leaders are perfectly legitimate!

 

[Scooterman1]

Great Video in this Thread if you haven't watched it yet.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/508940/

 

[GfPQqmcRKUvP]

So not to sound like a complete fool but...

I'm on a family plan so I pay $10 for my current iPhone voice line and $30 for the data + 1500 text messages

If you wanted to upgrade from this plan, what would you end up paying?

I bought an iPhone on launch day, which I hope means I'm eligible for an upgrade. So, would I pay $299 for the 16 GB iPhone, same price for data without my text messaging plan, then have to pay for texting on top of that?



Any help on this?

 

[3kids]

If I get two phones on $129 Family Plan, can I have 1 phone with no text messaging, and 1 phone with $5 (200 per month) text messaging?

SOmeone in an earlier post said yes, but looking at the website, it looks like family plans dictate a minimum of $30 for txt. My guess is in the stores on that Friday, there will be as many different answers as here.

 

[Small White Car]

Agreed. Although I'm still a mac/ipod fan, I'm looking forward to what Google can bring us...hopefully it will truly be the phone that will change the way telcos do business.

Yeah, they're all going to suddenly decide they want to make less money.

And...why do you think THAT will happen?

 

[caccamolle]

stupid question guys, from someone who's basically never used txt msg.

If you have email who cares about txt msg ??

I know I am missing something ...

 

[Scooterman1]

A lot of phone owners/users don't have Email but have SMS Text Messaging.

 

[IJ Reilly]

To let you know...Loss leaders are illegal and considered preditorial practice (sp?) which is not legal.

This is not true. Selling at or below cost is not only legal, it is a very common practice. It can only be found to be predatory under specific circumstances.

 

[Small White Car]

stupid question guys, from someone who's basically never used txt msg.

If you have email who cares about txt msg ??

I know I am missing something ...

Most phones don't have e-mail. If you want to send a message to someone and NOT wait for them to get home to read it, you would text them.

 

[extraextra]

What is interesting about this whole process is that ATT seems to be increasing their prices (granted in line with every other cell company). The current economic trend in this country indicates that we are headed for another depression like era which means that all of these expensive contracts and phone bills people are getting into will only further hurt the overall spending in other areas, thus economic growth. It will be interesting to see how many people have to drop (probably just stop paying) their cell phones since they are (arguably) still an extra expense that does not serve a survival need. Just watch ATT's stock and see what happens, I am pretty sure that this is already out of ATT's hands as it is.

What prices did AT&T raise? These prices look like they've been the same for a while now. If you're referring to the $20 -> $30 well that's the standard pricing for data for most carriers.

AT&T should've treated the iPhone like any other smartphone in the beginning - charging $30 for data and $5 for SMS's like the others. There would've been far less confusion and (later) outrage.

SOmeone in an earlier post said yes, but looking at the website, it looks like family plans dictate a minimum of $30 for txt. My guess is in the stores on that Friday, there will be as many different answers as here.

No, you can have a line with text and other lines without.

Like,

Phone #1 - 1500 texts ($15 a month)
Phone #2 - gets no text plan ($.20 per text)

If you want EVERYONE on the family plan to have texting, the only option is the $30 unlimited.

 

[jplan2008]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you're an existing ATT customer who is not eligible for upgrade, wouldn't it be cheaper to cancel you contract for 175 (or less, actually it would be only 90 or so for me) and pay the 199/299?

So Cancel and Sign a new contract: 199+175=374 or 299+175=474

that's cheaper than 399/499

It's $199 + $175 + $36 (new activation) = $410 ($510 for 16 GB)
vs.

$399+$18 activation = $417 ($517 for 16GB)

Change your number and hassle for $7

Plus you'd have to change names on account, you can't cancel then sign up immediately. You should confirm about your ETF, I thought reduced ETF's just started a few months ago, and like Arn said, aren't retroactive?

 

[caccamolle]

got it, stupid me indeed, not everyone had email ! Thx dudes.

oh well, in my case at least, the vast majority of the people I talk to have email 🙂 (iphone or bb)

 

[Diode]

To let you know...Loss leaders are illegal and considered preditorial practice (sp?) which is not legal.

Apple and ATT dropped the ball on this one for sure.

Snake oil salesmen are we?

Selling for below cost is only considered predatory pricing if the intent of the price is to drive out competition.

This is not the case with subsidized cell phones.

 

[mciarlo]

The thing that bothers me is I see a lot of people telling me "Well this is how it works with the huge discount AT&T gave you on your last phone."

My phone is the Samsung Slider which retails for $25. I knew I wanted an iPhone so I purposely did not buy a subsidized phone. I paid that $25, AFTER a mail in rebate. It seems to me I got ripped off by AT&T and now they want more money?

Corporate America strikes again! Why are we all such peons.

 

[ActionJax]

Disappointing, but not surprising

Remember, if you feel like AT&T/Apple are capitalizing just a little bit too much on the iPhone 3G with these rates, then do not buy an iPhone. It's that simple. Or buy a Blackberry from Verizon to really rub it in (not they Verizon's rates are all that much better).

Paying extra for text messaging is simply garbage. In fact, the only reasonable text message fee that I could just barely stomach would be $5 for unlimited. Everything else is nonsense and AT&T should be ashamed of themselves for participating in text message price fixing (that's what it is, right?). At least throwing in 200 txts with the previous iPhone plan was enough to keep people quiet. (Then again, you can just send emails with the iPhone...). I feel like the cell phone industry is actually traveling back in time.

The lowest-cost family plan starts at 700 minutes. Why can't I get a family plan with 450 shared minutes? We don't need 700 minutes. Oh yeah, it's because AT&T has no incentive to offer such a plan.

The thing that bothers me the most is that I can just imagine the discussions inside the AT&T boardrooms about how much they can jack up the rates, and how all the stupid iPhone lovers will still pay. Then they high-five each other as they talk about how rich they're gonna get no matter what they charge.

The whole thing disappoints me, but it doesn't surprise me. And to say Apple's not a part of this would be wildly naive. AT&T and Apple really aren't that different when it comes down to it.

 

[Donz0r]

It's $199 + $175 + $36 (new activation) = $410 ($510 for 16 GB)
vs.

$399+$18 activation = $417 ($517 for 16GB)

Change your number and hassle for $7

Plus you'd have to change names on account, you can't cancel then sign up immediately. You should confirm about your ETF, I thought reduced ETF's just started a few months ago, and like Arn said, aren't retroactive?

Yeah, idk about that. Weird thing is though, one of the lines on my family plan is Eligible for the upgrade, but my line and the 2 others are not eligible for 2 more months!! (all non iphones) They were all activated on the same day (Jan 07)
So maybe with some arguing at the att store i'll be able to get one for 199/299.

 

[swordfish5736]

There is but you need to have a current (IE non-grandfathered) rate plan.

I have a standard family plan that my current iPhone data is tacked onto. Though if AT&T allows adding a regular line at 9.99 to the new iPhone family plans that will end being cheaper I think

 

[iPaul]

SOmeone in an earlier post said yes, but looking at the website, it looks like family plans dictate a minimum of $30 for txt. My guess is in the stores on that Friday, there will be as many different answers as here.

I don't know why there is such difficulty understanding the text plans. It's so simple.

You can apply the 200 ($5), 1500 ($15), or unlimited text plans ($20) to any individual phone line on any plan, even a family plan. So if you have just one iPhone on your contract, you can pick one of these plans. But if you have a family plan with two iPhones, you could apply the 200 message plan to one and the 1500 to the other, etc. etc.

The $30 unlimited family plan is another option to give everyone on a family plan unlimited messaging and to save you money (as opposed to you paying $20 for unlimited for each of the iPhones on your plan)

Being on a family plan does not lock you into that $30 messaging package