Cingular cell phone service - iPhone data plans: Cheap or pricey?

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iPhone data plans: Cheap or pricey?

Shelly

2007-06-26, 10:33 pm

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-97...l?tag=cnetfd.mt

The announcement today of AT&T's iPhone service plans puts one of the last
remaining pieces into the Apple puzzle. The data plans, which range in
price from $60 per month to $100 per month depending on the number of
anytime calling minutes, are unique to the iPhone and will not apply to
other AT&T handsets. The number of night weekend minutes will vary as well,
but all plans will include visual voice mail access, unlimited e-mail and
mobile Web surfing, free mobile-to-mobile minutes, and 200 text messages.
Current AT&T customers can add unlimited iPhone data features to their
existing account for $20 per month.

So what does this all mean for iPhone buyers? Are these plans cheap, or are
they expensive? It's an important question to ask, particularly since
iPhone owners will be shelling out $500 or $600 for the handset alone. And
remember that those service plans come with a two-year contract and a $36
activation fee.

On the whole, the iPhone data plans aren't a great deal more expensive, nor
are they significantly cheaper than plans options with other carriers. But
for some consumers, they might be easier to deal with. For example, AT&T's
data plans for its other phones include only the data access; calling
minutes are purchased through a separate plan. So if you buy a Samsung
BlackJack, you can get a PDA Personal Max plan for $44.99 per month. While
that will give you unlimited data access and 1,500 messages, you'll need to
purchase a calling plan if you want to talk to someone. At the very least,
that means an additional $39 per month for 450 anytime minutes. That's a
monthly total of $83.99. Options for BlackBerry devices are about the same;
a little more expensive, but not much.

Some of T-Mobile's options wind up being a batter bargain than the iPhone's
plans. The T-Mobile Sidekick data plan is a reasonable $29 per month for
unlimited data, though a calling plan is extra. The cheapest is $29 per
month for 300 anytime minutes and unlimited nights and weekends. Its
BlackBerry plans are quite a bit more, but they include some calling time.
The BlackBerry Minutes and Mail Ultra is $79 for 1,500 anytime minutes and
unlimited data and e-mail, while the BlackBerry Minutes and Mail plan is
$59 per month for 1,000 anytime minutes and unlimited data and e-mail. No
night and weekend minutes are included, but the plans are pretty comparable
just the same.

Verizon Wireless has bundled data and calling plans, which also rank
relatively well with the iPhone service. The carrier's Core Choice 450 will
give you 450 anytime minutes, unlimited nights and weekends, and unlimited
data. Or for a bit more, the Extra Choice 1350 plans will give you 1,350
anytime minutes, unlimited nights and weekends, and unlimited data for $109
per month.

karlkrandall@sbcglobal.net

2007-06-27, 10:33 am

On 27 Jun 2007 03:07:08 -0000, shellyu@yahoo.com (Shelly) wrote about
Verizon, verbatum from story:

>. Or for a bit more, the Extra Choice 1350 plans will give you 1,350
>anytime minutes, unlimited nights and weekends, and unlimited data for $109
>per month.
>
>

Same thing is $99 with the iPhone and that includes Visual VoiceMail,
and unlimited email, and 200 SMS Messages.

So Verizon is, yes pricey.

So that's why at Circuit City, their lame response is to waive
Activation Fees until July 9.

Larry

2007-06-27, 10:33 pm

shellyu@yahoo.com (Shelly) wrote in
news:I22PAO9X39259. 8799537037@anonymous
.poster:

> So what does this all mean for iPhone buyers? Are these plans cheap,
> or are they expensive? It's an important question to ask, particularly
> since iPhone owners will be shelling out $500 or $600 for the handset
> alone. And remember that those service plans come with a two-year
> contract and a $36 activation fee.
>

http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/a...phone-terms.jsp

I think the closer word will be "Useless". ATT has a special Iphone
terms-of-use webpage from the Iphone webpage. Click on FAQ from the
Iphone page, then click "Terms of use" and read:

"Prohibited and Permissible Uses: Data Service sessions may be conducted
only for the following purposes: (i) Internet browsing; (ii) email; and
(iii) corporate intranet access (including access to corporate email,
customer relationship management, sales force automation, and field
service automation applications). PROHIBITED USES INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT
LIMITED TO, USING SERVICES: (I) WITH SERVER DEVICES OR WITH HOST COMPUTER
APPLICATIONS, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, WEB CAMERA POSTS OR
BROADCASTS, CONTINUOUS JPEG FILE TRANSFERS, AUTOMATIC DATA FEEDS,
TELEMETRY APPLICATIONS, PEER-TO-PEER (P2P) FILE SHARING, AUTOMATED
FUNCTIONS OR ANY OTHER MACHINE-TO-MACHINE APPLICATIONS; (II) AS
SUBSTITUTE OR BACKUP FOR PRIVATE LINES OR DEDICATED DATA CONNECTIONS;
(III) FOR VOICE OVER IP; (IV) IN CONJUNCTION WITH WWAN OR OTHER
APPLICATIONS OR DEVICES WHICH AGGREGATE USAGE FROM MULTIPLE SOURCES PRIOR
TO TRANSMISSION; (V) USING THE SERVICES FOR ANY ACTIVITY THAT ADVERSELY
AFFECTS THE ABILITY OF OTHER PEOPLE OR SYSTEMS TO USE EITHER THE SERVICES
OR OTHER PARTIES' INTERNET-BASED RESOURCES INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO
EXCESSIVE CONSUMPTION OF NETWORK OR SYSTEM RESOURCES (WHETHER INTENTIONAL
OR UNINTENTIONAL) AND "DENIAL OF SERVICE" (DOS) ATTACKS AGAINST ANOTHER
NETWORK HOST OR INDIVIDUAL USER; OR (VI) INTERFERENCE WITH OR DISRUPTION
OF OTHER NETWORK USERS, NETWORK SERVICES OR NETWORK EQUIPMENT. EXCEPT FOR
CONTENT FORMATTED IN ACCORDANCE WITH AT&T'S CONTENT STANDARDS, UNLIMITED
PLANS CANNOT BE USED FOR UPLOADING, DOWNLOADING OR STREAMING OF VIDEO
CONTENT (E.G. MOVIES, TV), MUSIC OR GAMES. FURTHERMORE, UNLIMITED PLANS
(EXCEPT FOR DATACONNECT AND BLACKBERRY TETHERED) CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY
APPLICATIONS THAT TETHER THE DEVICE (THROUGH USE OF, INCLUDING WITHOUT
LIMITATION, CONNECTION KITS, OTHER PHONE/PDA-TO-COMPUTER ACCESSORIES,
BLUETOOTH® OR ANY OTHER WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY) TO LAPTOPS, PCS, OR OTHER
EQUIPMENT FOR ANY PURPOSE. Service is not intended to provide full-time
connections, and the Service may be discontinued after a significant
period of inactivity or after sessions of excessive usage. AT&T reserves
the right to (i) limit throughput or amount of data transferred, deny
Service and/or terminate Service, without notice, to anyone it believes
is using the Service in any manner prohibited above or whose usage
adversely impacts its network or service levels or hinders access to its
network and (ii) protect its network from harm, which may impact
legitimate data flows. You may not send solicitations to AT&T subscribers
without their consent. You may not use the Services other than as
intended by AT&T and applicable law. Plans are for individual, non-
commercial use only and are not for resale."

EXACTLY like every other cellular phone gadget from all the carriers, you
CAN look at spam-soaked webpages....as long as those webpages aren't
YouTube where there is STREAMING, a forbidden usage of ATT's data
service. You can get your email....as long as it doesn't have a lot of
"downloading" associated with it (see above legaleze BS). EVERYTHING
ELSE IS FORBIDDEN, unless you have a company intranet and are a business
bigshot. Unlike Verizon Wireless, ATT doesn't SAY, up front, 5GB/month
is the data limit we're going to hack off service to your new $600
toyphone iPod, I'm sure the limit is somewhere around that figure,
between there and 10GB/month. If you look at the rest of the VERY LONG
legal document, you'll soon see ATT is still old Ma Bell, selling data by
the KILObyte whenever they can....like in Canada.

Now, note CAREFULLY this webpage is SPECIFICALLY formulated with these
forbidden uses on a SPECIAL iPHONE TERMS OF USE page.....not just the
run-of-the-mill Blackberry usage terms....Leaving no room for nonsense
that ATT has no intention of letting you use the iPhone for any kind of
new uses....like Skype for instance. That wasn't, obviously, part of the
deal with Jobs and Apple, to let iPhone users stream video/audio,
download music, videos, pictures, ad nauseum or use any kind of new,
radical iPhone use over their little cellular network...NAY, NAY! iPhone
will have the same usage privies as the guy with the little dataphone
from Nokia.....WEBPAGES - EMAIL - COMPANY INTRANET ONLY!

Notice how it connects to iTunes on your COMPUTER? So, you'll need your
COMPUTER to download iTunes and MP3s with it as downloading music is
SPECIFICALLY FORBIDDEN by your usage agreement with the ATT lawyers!

Poopoo it all we want, kiddies, but ATT isn't gonna let you play with
your iPhone on THEIR network!....and say so!

Larry
--
http://www.spp.gov/
The end of the USA and its Constitution....RIP

Oxford

2007-06-27, 10:33 pm

Larry <noone@home.com> wrote:

> Poopoo it all we want, kiddies, but ATT isn't gonna let you play with
> your iPhone on THEIR network!....and say so!

"Their" network isn't worth a hill of beans, so it's not a problem to
any iPhone user anyway. They are just (lawyers / IT are just) protecting
themselves...

But who really cares once you have an iPhone? ATT matters very little at
that point.

2007-06-27, 10:33 pm

"Larry" <noone@home.com> wrote:
> Unlike Verizon Wireless, ATT doesn't SAY, up front, 5GB/month
> is the data limit we're going to hack off service to your new $600
> toyphone iPod, I'm sure the limit is somewhere around that figure,
> between there and 10GB/month.

No-one is ever going to reach those limits, as AT&T's EDGE network is
pitifully slow. Best speed I've had is 40 kbps - that was with line-of-sight
of a cell tower and standing very still... EDGE users, regardless of what
device they use, will be lucky to download 5 GB in a year. God help any
iPhone user that visits an iWeb-created website...

Kevin K

2007-06-28, 10:33 pm

On Thu, 28 Jun 2007 01:26:05 UTC, "Al" <nospam@invalid.com> wrote:

>
> "Larry" <noone@home.com> wrote:
>
> No-one is ever going to reach those limits, as AT&T's EDGE network is
> pitifully slow. Best speed I've had is 40 kbps - that was with line-of-sight
> of a cell tower and standing very still... EDGE users, regardless of what
> device they use, will be lucky to download 5 GB in a year. God help any
> iPhone user that visits an iWeb-created website...
>

I've done considerably faster than that with Edge. Speed tests well
over 100kb/sec. 40kbs sounds like GPRS speeds.

But still, one of the many reasons I didn't go with the current iPhone
is lack of 3G.

Larry

2007-06-28, 10:33 pm

"Kevin K" <kevink4@gmail.com> wrote in news:KIRoJuEXw9g9-pn2-
tiMKL0OWv5xZ@localho
st:

> But still, one of the many reasons I didn't go with the current iPhone
> is lack of 3G.
>

I think the carriers trash data speeds and throughput on purpose to prevent
users from actually doing something useful that the carrier might have SOLD
them, if they couldn't do it on the net.....like VoIP and streaming....

Larry
--
http://www.spp.gov/
The end of the USA and its Constitution....RIP

Rod Speed

2007-06-29, 4:33 am

Larry <noone@home.com> wrote

> Kevin K <kevink4@gmail.com> wrote

[color=darkred]
> I think the carriers trash data speeds and throughput on purpose to
> prevent users from actually doing something useful that the carrier
> might have SOLD them, if they couldn't do it on the net.....like VoIP
> and streaming....

Mindless conspiracy theory, you dont see that with 3G phones.

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