Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Upgrading to iPhone 4... Should I keep the Unlimited Data plan ??

S

Sounds Good

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 8, 2007
1,692
57
Hey guys, I'm finally going to upgrade my old original 2G iPhone. :)

AT&T says that since I'm grandfathered, I can have an unlimited data plan for $30/month --or-- I can get the regular iPhone 4 data plans at $25 for 2 GB or $15 for 200 MB.

Currently I'm only using around 200-325MB per month, but...

Should I go with unlimited, just in case? Is there any reason to keep myself "grandfathered", or should I just let it go?

Thanks!
 
if you using that amount with edge with 3G you definitely would use way more, just keep the unlimited but that's something you should answer on your own..
 
If you don't take the unlimited plan and then find out later that you use more data than expected, what are you going to do?
 
True. I guess I'll keep it for a few months and re-think it then.

Now the only choice is: 16 or 32 GB ?? :)
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

You are only going to save $5/month by switching to the 2GB plan... As long as you can afford it, I would keep the unlimited data plan for as long as you can.
 
What do you do now with the 2g in terms of MP3's? What do you want to do in the future?

If you get the 16GB and then find out later that you can only have 14 or 15 high def vidcasts on it, and are going on that 2 week vacation, what'cha going to do? It's not like you can pop open the back and add more memory.
 
I just went through this decision a few weeks ago.

Kept the unlimited plan and got the 32gig. No regrets yet.

If you end up jailbreaking, then use 3G Unrestrictor (like for Netflix, or some of the other WiFi only network apps), it's easy to hit over the 2gig cap on the new plan.
 
All good points.

Well, the Unlimited Data decision is made: For only 5 bucks difference, I'll be keeping the unlimited plan.

The hard-drive size question is tougher, since I currently use very little space on my phone (heck, I haven't even filled up the 8GB on my current 2G iPhone!). I'm actually pretty good about deleting unused stuff or transferring to the computer.

Really, my only reason for even considering the 32GB size is because of video. It obviously eats up a good amount of space. Then again, I'd probably be pretty good about transferring the videos over to the computer, so ??? :confused:
 
Sounds Good said:
All good points.

Well, the Unlimited Data decision is made: For only 5 bucks difference, I'll be keeping the unlimited plan.

The hard-drive size question is tougher, since I currently use very little space on my phone (heck, I haven't even filled up the 8GB on my current 2G iPhone!). I'm actually pretty good about deleting unused stuff or transferring to the computer.

Really, my only reason for even considering the 32GB size is because of video. It obviously eats up a good amount of space. Then again, I'd probably be pretty good about transferring the videos over to the computer, so ??? :confused:
Click to expand...

The same answer as for saving $5 vs. having unlimited data: You get an extra 16 GB for just $100. If you need more space later, you’re screwed if you need it.
 
-aggie- said:
The same answer as for saving $5 vs. having unlimited data: You get an extra 16 GB for just $100. If you need more space later, you’re screwed if you need it.
Click to expand...
Yep, I hear ya. Thanks.

Full disclosure: It's not just the fact that I probably won't need the extra space. I'm more concerned about this new phone being a lot more fragile than my old one... so if I drop it and it breaks -- or if it slips into the toilet ;) -- I'm just throwin' away an extra $100 for nothing. THAT is my REAL concern. :)

Otherwise, I tend to agree with all of the above.
 
When I got the i4, I didn't need the unlimited plan but kept it anyway. Now that I have netflix, I'm glad I didn't choose the 2GB plan.
 
I watch a number of vidcasts on the "This Week In" network at www.thisweekin.com. They're running 800-900 megs for an hour of high quality video on the iPhone 4. They're one of the higher quality vidcasts I've been watching so far, and I've been using them as the "high mark". Other vidcasts I watch have varied in quality and size.

The point being is let's say you're watching 4 of their shows, roughly 4 gigs. You're behind a week, so you've got a couple shows for each of them. Boom, 8 gigs down. And so on.

On the other hand, you don't watch vidcasts/listen to music. Well, why do you want to get an i4 anyways? :)
 
Use unlimited for a few months to check approximately how much data you use. If it's not above 1GB, switch to 2GB plan. No reason to throw $5 away every month.
 
If you can barely fill the 8 GB you've already had, you might as well go with the 16 GB. My 16 GB iPhone 3G only felt claustrophobic because I have about 15 GB of music in iTunes.

If your main concern is video, consider the Air Video app-- you can stream videos from your computer, even over 3G. A good use for the unlimited plan you retained. :)
 
F123D said:
When I got the i4, I didn't need the unlimited plan but kept it anyway. Now that I have netflix, I'm glad I didn't choose the 2GB plan.
Click to expand...
Funny, I just remembered that my 7 year old son discovered Netflix on my iPhone last week. I'd really better keep the unlimited plan! ;)

jacollins said:
On the other hand, you don't watch vidcasts/listen to music. Well, why do you want to get an i4 anyways? :)
Click to expand...
Actually, my biggest uses on the iPhone by far are 1) email and 2) web browsing. To be honest, I really don't need to have 32GB. Plus, I might wanna pick up an iPad once the iPad2 is released, so a lot of my media consumption with probably be on the iPad, not the iPhone.

However!... For $100 extra, I'll probably spring for the 32 gigs, just because. :)
 
jacollins said:
What do you do now with the 2g in terms of MP3's? What do you want to do in the future?

If you get the 16GB and then find out later that you can only have 14 or 15 high def vidcasts on it, and are going on that 2 week vacation, what'cha going to do? It's not like you can pop open the back and add more memory.
Click to expand...

Doesn't mobile me provide more space as a web based solution?

Marc
 
rectifiability said:
If your main concern is video, consider the Air Video app-- you can stream videos from your computer, even over 3G. A good use for the unlimited plan you retained. :)
Click to expand...
ooooh, I'm not familiar with this. Time to do some research. :)

Thanks!!
 
mpossoff said:
Doesn't mobile me provide more space as a web based solution?
Click to expand...

I've never used Mobile Me. Didn't want to pay the bucks for something I didn't have a need for.

So, it could be it has the extra storage that would work out for storing new vidcasts, and that itunes will sync with automatically. Plus, you may be able to stream or something from there. However, seems like a lot of work on an ongoing basis to save $100. Plus, 3g streaming, not so good for high def video...
 
Sounds Good said:
Hey guys, I'm finally going to upgrade my old original 2G iPhone. :)

AT&T says that since I'm grandfathered, I can have an unlimited data plan for $30/month --or-- I can get the regular iPhone 4 data plans at $25 for 2 GB or $15 for 200 MB.

Currently I'm only using around 200-325MB per month, but...

Should I go with unlimited, just in case? Is there any reason to keep myself "grandfathered", or should I just let it go?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

At 200 to 325 MB, you're most likely going to go over the 200MB plan every month. At $15 extra for another 200 MB over the original 200 MB, you'll end up paying $30 anyway.

For me, I use around 400 MB per month, so I could get away with the 2 GB $25 plan, but for a savings of only $5 a month, staying with the unlimited $30 plan seemed like a no brainer. My fiance, on the other hand, hardly ever goes over 100 MB, only sending emails and checking Facebook for the most part. So in her case, the $15 savings going from the $30 unlimited to the $15 200MB plan made a lot of sense.

My opinion would be to stay with the $30 unlimited, especially if you don't care about tethering. If your usage doesn't go up a lot and the $5 savings is worth it to you, switch to the $25 plan.
 
the data plan for the original iPhone 2G wasn't $30 for data

it came in the following options:
$20.00 per month - unlimited data and 200 text messages
$30.00 per month - unlimited data and 1500 text messages
$40.00 per month - unlimited data and unlimited text messages

if you have the old 2G data plan, you are not grandfathered in.... you will likely be forced to upgrade your data plan since you now have a 3G device and the phone now connects through a different APN.

the current plans dont include text FYI
 
Carl G35c said:
the data plan for the original iPhone 2G wasn't $30 for data

it came in the following options:
$20.00 per month - unlimited data and 200 text messages
$30.00 per month - unlimited data and 1500 text messages
$40.00 per month - unlimited data and unlimited text messages

if you have the old 2G data plan, you are not grandfathered in.... you will likely be forced to upgrade your data plan since you now have a 3G device and the phone now connects through a different APN.

the current plans dont include text FYI
Click to expand...
Right. I didn't mean that I was grandfathered in to the price, I meant that I was grandfathered in to being able to have unlimited data.

So my new price would be $30 for unlimited data + $5 for 200 text messages.
 
I made the same change two months ago. I left the unlimited data for now, but I'm actually not using much more than I did before--still under 200 MB. If this continues through the end of the year, I'll drop to the $15 plan.

But I did opt to go with the 32 GB model. I don't use mine for viewing video at all, only have about 10 GB of music on it, so you'd think that the 16 GB would've been fine. But the camera is OUTSTANDING, and I wanted the extra room for both taking and editing images. No regrets in spending the extra $100--I can take a week's vacation and not have to frantically find a way to dump images and make space for new ones.

Enjoy! The difference between your old phone and your new one is incredible in so many ways.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back