Optus iPhone 3G pricing leak (Australia)
Now that the iPhone 3G is official, and waiting only for July 11 to roll around before launching simultaneously in the first wave of 22 countries, questions over the range of pricing have sprung up, as well as questions over whether or not Telstra and Three Mobile will also join the iParty.
Of course, it’s now common knowledge that Vodafone and Optus are going to sell the iPhone.
But in answer to the pricing question comes an Optus iPhone 3G price leak, courtesy of the gadget gurus at Gizmodo Australia who have provided the following naturally unconfirmed but still very juicy details:
The iPhone will only be available on a 24 month contract – no outright purchase, with the 8GB model to sell at AUD $220, and the 16GB model at $330, with only the 16GB model in white as Steve Jobs announced at the WWDC keynote.
Accessories will only be available through Apple stores – Optus will only carry the iPhone 3G itself, and the all important voice and data plans are as follows: $79 cap for $300 worth of calls and 1GB of data, or a $99 cap with $400 worth of calls and a 3G data download limit.
Visual voicemail is included, and the cap is whittled away in 35c per 30 second chunks, 25c per SMS message and the always annoying but always present flagfall which is set at 30c.
One immediate question: what’s the fee for going over the 1GB or 3GB data cap? And will there be any easy way to see - in real time - how much data you’ve chewed through during each month, so as to avoid bill shock?
Click the Gizmodo link above to see the scanned image of the Optus pricing plan. As Giz notes, it’s unconfirmed – they say they’ll call tomorrow for confirmation, and hey, I’ll do it too, but I’m sure we’ll both get the same answer: no comment… or at least, not yet!
It’s also common knowledge that both Optus and Vodafone have 2100MHz 3.5G networks in the capital cities, which is perfect for the iPhone 3G, but it’s also common knowledge that both carriers are largely building out 900MHz 3.5G networks in rural and regional Australia – a frequency that is simply not supported by the iPhone 3G in its current incarnation.
This is, sadly, bad news for Optus and Vodafone customers who either want to travel to rural and regional Australia and use their iPhones for data usage at the same speeds as in city areas, or who live in city areas where a 3.5G network is available (or will be available) that their shiny new mega fantastic and amazing iPhone 3G doesn’t support.
Please read on to page 2 for why Optus CEO Paul Sullivan’s comments are questionable on the iPhone 3G launch, and a warning from analyst firm Ovum.
Not a huge fan of $79/month and no outright purchase. My current plan is only $20/month, and i hardly ever max it out. I was hoping it would be more like $39/month for the cheapest plan, even if it was only 100mg data transfer, I’d be happy with that. But atleast it’s here.
Filed under: iPhone
