Real Cost of iPhone: Service Plan Revealed

Tue Jun 26, 2007 12:14PM EDT

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At long last the final shoe on iPhone has dropped: The cost of voice and data plans that you'll have to buy from AT&T when you purchase the device. The good news: It's not as bad as some had feared. The bad news: It's still going to cost you a pretty penny if you're used to paying $40 a month for a basic service plan.

Here's the damage: $60 a month for 450 minutes. $80 for 900 minutes. $100 for 1350 minutes. If you need even more minutes, plans continue to climb up to $220 a month for a whopping 6000 minutes. The good news: All plans include unlimited email and web, rollover minutes, unlimited mobile-to-mobile, and 200 text messages a month. All except the cheapest plan include unlimited nights and weekends minutes; the cheapest plan includes a mere 5000 of those. Contrary to earlier rumors there is no voice-only option for the iPhone: Remember you need data service to do all the cool email/web/mapping business that makes iPhone an iPhone, otherwise you've pretty much got a pretty brick in your pocket that can play Avril Lavigne tunes. Additional details are here.

Is this a good deal? Let's compare. AT&T's cheapest voice-only plan costs $40 a month for 450 minutes, 5000 nights and weekend minutes, and no data services at all. (Even text messages are about 15 cents a pop.) Adding $20 a month for unlimited web isn't a bad deal. For the $60 of the iPhone's cheapest plan, you can get AT&T's 900-minute plan with no data service.

Looking at it another way, AT&T's Messaging Unlimited plan (unlimited MMS/SMS messages) costs $20 a month extra. Its unlimited messaging and media plan (which gives you access to cellular video as well) costs another $40 a month. The company has a variety of data plans for web browsing phones. The closest to what the iPhone gets you is SmartPhone Max, at $30 extra per month.

Whew, that's a lot of numbers. Putting it all together, designing  a comparable plan to iPhone's $60 service on AT&T with a non-iPhone device would actually cost about $70 a month. Believe it or not, iPhone service is actually a bargain!

On the other hand, $60 a month or more isn't cheap. Over the life of the phone that equates to $1,440. Add in the price of the phone and activation fees and the cheapest amount you'll spend on an iPhone over the next two years is $1,975. You can almost buy a brand new MacBook Pro for that outlay. And don't forget the cancellation fee you'll pay on your old phone...

Overall I'm pleased. AT&T could have gouged consumers with a $100/month plan and few people would have flinched. Instead the company is offering an affordable option that should help to ease the sting of that initial $500 or $600 outlay. That said, I'm sure many will still find the plan too expensive. As always, I await your thoughts, opinions, and rants on the topic.

Comments on Real Cost of iPhone: Service Plan Revealed

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  • 46 Posted by mike18blue on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:19PM EDT Report Abuse

    I already have a Smartphone in the form of the Blackjack, and the plan cost match up so no extra for me not to mention I get 20% off because I work for a sponsored company :)

  • 47 Posted by pcwannabe on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:04PM EDT Report Abuse

    You could support 2 orphan children for 60 bucks a month.

  • 49 Posted by lamariem on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:56PM EDT Report Abuse

    I have a Cingular 8525 SmartPhone from AT&T and pay the higher charge they were referring to. Switching to the iPhone would actually be CHEAPER for me. Boo! (I love my phone thought and wouldn't give it up for the world-- send ing emails from baseball games claiming to be "home sick" is priceless).

  • 50 Posted by bobdesantis on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:10PM EDT Report Abuse

    This is cheaper than the pricing that I currently pay for a Blackberry with AT&T - $140 per month for 1350 minutes, which inlcudes $45 for unlimited Blackberry data service...if I understand what's in the article, that would now cost me only $100.

  • 51 Posted by sharittt on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:17PM EDT Report Abuse

    If it had more memory, I would buy it for the video and music capabilities and never turn on the phone. How long do we have to wait for apple to make a version without phone service and more memory?

  • 52 Posted by lee_parman2001 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:48PM EDT Report Abuse

    Been signed up with At&T for the last 7 years. NOt sure what is bad about them. No problems

  • 53 Posted by tja1172 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:12PM EDT Report Abuse

    i think its sad that a company as big as apple will launch a phone that you have to pay a thousand dollars on. why make it so expensive. and people will buy it if everyone waited they would have to give more reasonable prices

  • 54 Posted by ayottegreg on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:00PM EDT Report Abuse

    RIP-OFF!!!! ALL PLANS SHOULD BE UNLIMITED MINUTES, TEXT, WEB, VIDEO AND AROUND $30.00 A MONTH! THEY WOULD GET A LOT MORE CUSTOMERS!!!

  • 55 Posted by kmo727@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:52PM EDT Report Abuse

    Ouch! Still too pricey for me. For about a quarter of that amount of money, I can get a decent -- if not very good -- media-friendly phone that does most everything the iPhone does on a LOT faster network such as Verizon or Sprint. While the phone may not be large & white, and have a touch screen, I'll still be able to download videos, text message, read e-mails, etc. And, I won't have to fork out huge sums of $ for a phone that will be obsolete in 6 months or a year anyway.

  • 56 Posted by sminman2005 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:28PM EDT Report Abuse

    I will only be paying 20 dollars to upgrade to the iPhone. So I will just be adding visual voicemail, and the data plan to my current AT&T plan. No need to cancel my current plan, just add on to it. Can't Wait!!

  • 57 Posted by d_in_dc on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:50PM EDT Report Abuse

    well i cant believe u have to get a new plan, with different cost, they were really taking this overboard and I hope it back fires!!

  • 58 Posted by jimcantela on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:35PM EDT Report Abuse

    who really needs 'the web' as the web anyway...all i ever use the internet for is email, myspace, chatting and the blackberry is extremely far ahead as far as the email applicaitions are concerned. That is unless Apple has the same technology which begs the question which came first the berry or the apple? Apples are notoriuos for becoming non-respnsive and my blackberry 8830 even locks up from time to time. I hope for everyones sake this spring chicken isnt just a rotten egg.

  • 59 Posted by nflkb on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:36PM EDT Report Abuse

    2,000 for the price of a two year plan. Are you kidding me. What a joke. The entire mobile industry needs to wake up.

  • 60 Posted by ajdrew182 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:48PM EDT Report Abuse

    jus carry an ipod around, its not THAT hard

  • 61 Posted by heccubus1964 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:17PM EDT Report Abuse

    That's no where near as bad as I thought it was going to be. I'm still not signing on, but I might waver when they release newer versions.

  • 64 Posted by soldout_tix on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:32PM EDT Report Abuse

    The iPhone is the best thing to hit the planet. And now with the reasonable rates from AT&T the sky is the limit. Sprint and Verizon can’t match the price or the service. Sell you stock and buy Apple NOW!

  • 65 Posted by johnj26623 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:39PM EDT Report Abuse

    AT7T GETTING BACK TO THE SAME OLD THING,Trying to be the biggest

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