iPhone Exchange Support and Pricing

[msharpmu]

The only thing stopping me from getting an iPhone would be if I was forced to pay $45 a month for exchange access when my Blackjack 2 currently does it with the $30 plan. Anyway, I did an online chat and this is what happened.

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2:15 CST

Please wait for a chat representative to respond.
All chat representatives are currently assisting other customers. Thank you for your patience. A chat representative will be with you shortly.
You are now chatting with 'Gwen Sands'
rep: Welcome to the AT&T Live Support Chat. My name is ____, I will be happy to assist you with your phone issues.
me: Hello, I am trying to upgrade to the new iPhone and I have a question that I was hoping you could help me with.
rep: I will be happy to help you with the iphone questions.'
me: Great. Currently I have a Blackjack 2 with a $30 a month data service plan. I can access my exchange server with this plan. I can sync my email and calander. Will the $30 plan on the iphone allow me to still access all the same things I already use now (i.e push Calender, push email)?
rep: You will still be able to access this information. You will be able to do all of this with the iphone. We have not been told that it will change.
rep: Do you have any other questions?
me: Yes, then what is the $45 plan for?
rep: I have limited resources on all of this. You can contact customer service at 18003310500 or 611 from your cell phone as this is a free call. You can go online and review the plans there as well. I do apologize.
rep: Do you have any other questions?
me: So just to clarify, from what you understand, exchange services will work on the iphone with the $30 data plan just like it is currently working with my blackjack 2?
rep: It will allow you to access this information. It may be a different format as we have no new current operating information on this. We do know that it will access this internet and allow you to access this information. I do apologize if this was not clear. I do want to help you.
rep: This iphone will really be the updated version of the iphones now and it will have all of these functions. We have not had any information on exacts as in features etc, but as I understand, you will not have any issues using this with the internet access to your calendar, etc. I do not have any other specifics but we are expecting them soon.
rep: Do you have any other questions?
me: This has been helpful, I appreciate the information.
rep: Thank you. Is there any thing else that I may assist you with?
me: Nope, thanks.

What do you think about all this?

 

[JonboyDC]

We can all tell you what we think, or what we've read, or what our friends heard from an AT&T rep -- but the only way we'll know for sure is to see what happens in the days after the launch. I'm sure lots of us will be buying iPhones and activating with the $30 data plan and trying to use ActiveSync. And then we'll find out if AT&T has developed some method for blocking access for those without the enterprise data plan.

(As for what I think? There's no method to distinguish the data that is sent to and from the Exchange server from any other data, so AT&T wouldn't be able to block it even if they wanted to. I think the $45 data plan is just for phones that are owned by a company as opposed to an individual.)

 

[oxymoron2007]

I had the same question. My university uses an exchange server and I haven't been able to use the Mail app on the iPhone (had to use web access in Safari). Hopefully this is true and I can use Exchange on the $30 plan. I really don't feel like paying an additional $15 for Exchange because I'm already going to have to pay another $15 for texting with the 3G plan.