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AT&T's iPhone 3G Data Plan and No Longer Revenue Sharing

Regardless if you believe the service increase is warranted or not let me say this.
I've read a few post stating "There's nothing we can do". Sure there is! Don't buy into it! The less people that buy into the new service contracts the more likely they will make some adjustments in favor of the consumer.! "Strength in numbers"!

Additionally, it's insulting for Steve to stand up on stage with a lot of smoke and mirrors about price reduction when in fact it has increased. I know many look at this increase over a 2 year contractual period. How many of those consumers actually continue to pay the monthly fee after their contractual obligation is up? I bet it's more then you think. It’s not entirely about the price increase, it’s the principle of the matter.

Typical corporate monkeys... They think every consumer is a moron.

I have 3G access in my area however I won't be upgrading. I can live without 3G and the GPS for the time being. The firmware update really has everything in it I am looking for. i.e. Exchange support, mass e-mail deletion.
 
sananda said:
are you paying $10 extra for 3G? or are you just no longer getting special iphone plans which reflected that you were paying full price for the phone? these new plans are just the normal plans all other at&t users pay, aren't they?
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Valid questions. I'm looking at the total cost of the 3G iphone with basic SMS service over the 2 year contract. It's a $160 bump over what I would be paying for my first generation iPhone.

You are correct that most other 3G phone users on AT&T's network pay $5 for SMS on top of their data plan. It would appear that AT&T is now "standardizing" iPhone data and SMS plan pricing to match the rest of their phone lineup. It's still a bucket of cold water for people with first. gen phones looking to upgrade.

Anyways, I don't want to sound like a whiner. It's a simple decision to stick it out with my current plan and see what WWDC 2009 brings.
 
Here's a scenario i haven't been able to find a clear answer to regarding the new policies on upgrading:

My girlfriend had her iPhone stolen two weeks ago. Since she needed to have a phone, but couldn't find an iphone at any stores because they're sold out and discontinued, and since she migrated to at&t from verizon when she got her iPhone (meaning she didn't have a contract), she purchased a cheapy nokia using the low upgrade pricing....now, how will this affect her getting a 3G iPhone for the low price, which she DESPERATELY wants?
 
autrefois said:
Is it currently possible to get just a voice plan and use the Internet features of the iPhone at home/Wifi spots? If so, hopefully this will be possible under the new plans, also.

If the $39.99 voice plan is only 450 mins, then I think I'd want the next step up for minutes more than being able to use 3G anywhere (since nearly everywhere I go there's Wifi anyway). The next voice plan up will likely be $59.99, so with a data plan and tax that would be $100+ a month, which is a little steep...

EDIT: Finally found a site that indicates that you at least used to be able to do voice only. Good to know it may be an option. It wouldn't be my top choice to have an iPhone without the data plan, but then again paying $100 a month for phone service isn't my top choice, either.
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well when the phone is activated you HAVE to choose a data plan through iTunes... but u can always come to a store and have it taken off and replaced with just a text plan or nothing at all.

so worst case scenario u keep it for a week or two after u activate it then delete the web.
 
Lopes said:
...purchased a cheapy nokia using the low upgrade pricing....now, how will this affect her getting a 3G iPhone for the low price, which she DESPERATELY wants?
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Unfortunately, iPhones don't qualify for upgrade pricing through AT&T. So it wouldn't have mattered anyway, she'd still have to pay $199 for the phone.
 
jayray said:
I'm 'hyped up' over $10 a month . . . that is $240 over the life of the contract. Regardless of who pays for this (SS, Daddy), this hurts. Apple is trying to pull one over on us. Low blow. Cheaper my behind.
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Is everyone an idiot? The price increase is AT&T not Apple. Apple will no longer get part of your phone bill as they did with the previous phone. And, AT&T has subsidized $200 to lower the phone costs from $399 to $199. The REAL difference is $40 over the life of the contract (not $240) and it is AT&T, not Apple, collecting it.
 
czachorski said:
If the data plan was mandatory, you might have a point there.
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Well unless you live in a city with 1000s of hotspots or live on campus. Buying a Iphone without a data plan is similar to buying a sport car without tires. :p
 
rolex54 said:
the old one was $60 a month, 10 extra bucks, big deal, with 3G EVERY iPhone user is gonna tax the network A LOT more
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No, not true. No 3G in my Big 10 University town! How, exactly will I tax the network? No 3G for over a year! Sucks a rotten egg.

D
 
ziggyonice said:
Unfortunately, iPhones don't qualify for upgrade pricing through AT&T. So it wouldn't have mattered anyway, she'd still have to pay $199 for the phone.
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well my concern is that she has now used her upgrade discount, and won't have another one for 18 months. Boygeniusreports.com has posted the interal at&t emails that were just sent, and it said that it has not yet determined a price for the 3G phone for people who are ineligible for a discount.

And if that's the case, this is a major amount of bull*****.
 
Lopes said:
Here's a scenario i haven't been able to find a clear answer to regarding the new policies on upgrading:

My girlfriend had her iPhone stolen two weeks ago. Since she needed to have a phone, but couldn't find an iphone at any stores because they're sold out and discontinued, and since she migrated to at&t from verizon when she got her iPhone (meaning she didn't have a contract), she purchased a cheapy nokia using the low upgrade pricing....now, how will this affect her getting a 3G iPhone for the low price, which she DESPERATELY wants?
Click to expand...

so when she purchased the cheapy nokia she renewed her agreement?? was it the nokia 2610 candybar phone for $40? i kno that one would not have renewed her agreement....

if her contract was recently renewed she wont be eligable for an upgrade next month for sure... but if she hasnt signed an agreement since her first iphone purchse she should be alright.
 
i want mms! :p

i severely hope FANs apply.

also, will there be a student discount on the phone now?
 
ziggyonice said:
Unfortunately, iPhones don't qualify for upgrade pricing through AT&T. So it wouldn't have mattered anyway, she'd still have to pay $199 for the phone.
Click to expand...

NO, that IS the upgraded price.... $199 is the 2yr discounted price, you just cant buy it at retail price w/ no discount, you have to sign the agreement and get the discount.
 
I can't believe I just read that many posts. What a bunch of idiots.


Who the hell blames Apple over AT&T's pricing. And who the hell blames AT&T for charging more for an additional service?
 
Buschmaster said:
I can't believe I just read that many posts. What a bunch of idiots.


Who the hell blames Apple over AT&T's pricing. And who the hell blames AT&T for charging more for an additional service?
Click to expand...

Apparently lots of people. Too bad they are foolish dweebs.
 
I'll be sticking with my 1st gen for awhile it seems. No reason to raise my bill by $15/month just for GPS (my area doesn't have 3g and it appears they have not plans for it anytime soon).

I think what people are most irked about is that the price increase was stealth. You had Jobs on stage saying how it's cheaper now and even their ad says something along the lines of surf the internet twice as fast for 1/2 the cost, when in reality that's just not true. To stay with 1500 texts and data you end up paying $160 more over the life of the contract than the original, more expensive phone.
 
cWeems said:
so when she purchased the cheapy nokia she renewed her agreement?? was it the nokia 2610 candybar phone for $40? i kno that one would not have renewed her agreement....

if her contract was recently renewed she wont be eligable for an upgrade next month for sure... but if she hasnt signed an agreement since her first iphone purchse she should be alright.
Click to expand...

actually i think it was the 2610. And i do remember her saying it was $40 at the store. So she wouldn't have had to renew anything with that phone? It wouldn't set her upgrade discount back 18 months?
 
Diode said:
That sort of makes me want to go back to my corporate discounted 31.99 plan with 450minutes and forget the whole iphone rather then more then doubling the price for the addition of unlimited data .....

Were talking close to $80/month for the base plan!

Not to mention I have to agree for another year of service.

If this holds true for existing customers I might wait and see what google offers with the android.
Click to expand...

I know your joking, Android !!? They introduced that garbage like a day after the first iPhone was announced. I saw google as being that spoiled rotten kid who could never do what you could and because of that still wanted attention so they made any garbage up just to be noticed & not feel left out. Android?! Please. I dont usually down anyone but man.. as far as this iPhone, for the first time I actually feel Apple should have waited and put more into it even though we were all whining. The only real upside here is gps functionality. If worse came to worse, I could have waited a while if bringing out the phone now meant sacrificing other hardware. Now we have all these weak plans with greedy at&t also.
 
2 year contract at $840 per year????? Monthly $40 for voice, $30 for unlimited 3g data.

70x12=840 x 2=$1,680.+$200 for the iPhone=$1,880 for two years.

IMO, you need to be a serious business user to make that worth it.
 
How would everyone react if Apple didn't lower the prices and AT&T kept the data plan as is ($20)? Doesn't it work out to be very close but instead of paying it upfront, we'd be paying it over a couple years? After a couple years, we'd be ready to upgrade again.

Not much of a difference but in general, I don't like having that increasingly growing cell phone bill. I might wait it out for a little longer until the stars align -- real cost and function improvements.
 
cWeems said:
NO, that IS the upgraded price.... $199 is the 2yr discounted price, you just cant buy it at retail price w/ no discount, you have to sign the agreement and get the discount.
Click to expand...

@cWeems

So if I just got a new contract (saturday) with a new phone, would I still qualify for a $199-8GB/$299-16GB?

edit: it's an AT&T contract family plan
 
Lopes said:
actually i think it was the 2610. And i do remember her saying it was $40 at the store. So she wouldn't have had to renew anything with that phone? It wouldn't set her upgrade discount back 18 months?
Click to expand...

nope, thats our "my phone is lost/stolen i need somthing temporarily" phone.... so no contract extension for her, unless someone screwed her pretty bad, in which case a manager would gladly override the upgrade so she can get the discount on the new iphone :D
 
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