We’ve got the official booklet of iPhone 3G plans in our hands, and they have been built to let you mix and match the data and voice levels to suit your needs. However, the prices on data are severe, clearly pointing to Telstra pushing customers toward using their Wi-Fi access points as much as possible.
In the all important data terms, $5 gets you 5MB with overuse charged at $1/MB. Then…
$10 / 20MB / $1/MB
$29 / 80MB / $1/MB
$59 / 200MB / $0.25/MB
$89 / 1GB / $0.25/MB
$119 / 3GB / $0.25/MB
Or you can just Pay As You Go for data at… $2/MB!!!
Jump for voice details and the plan pricing for an iPhone 3G.
Voice pretty much follows Telstra standard offerings, making the whole affair point to ‘business as usual’ plus some over the top data rates. Voice options include:
$30 minimum spend / $25 included voice/text / $5 included data / 46c / 30s call rate
$40 / $35 / $5 / 38c
$60 / $50 / $10 / 28c
$80 / $70 / $10 / 26c
$100 / $90 / $10 / 22c
$150 / $135 / $15 / 20c
$250 / $235 / $15 / 19c
$350 / 335 / $15 / 18c
SMS is at 25c, and the one very nice feature is free access at all Telstra Wi-Fi hotspots.
But what does it cost upfront?
8GB is $279 on a $30 plan; $169 on $40; $59 on $60; and free on higher
16GB is $399, $289, $179, $69 on $80 plan, and the free on higher
‘Bonus options’ include free 24/7 numbers, My Hour, Free 50 text, Per Second Saver, 20 for 10 Night, and Free text… you can change your bonus from month to month if you want to.
mark
Friday, July 11, 2008 at 6:54 AMCan anyone say rip off? They hardly have wifi spots to justify that pricing… that just so stupid!
nolaf
Friday, July 11, 2008 at 6:56 AMNeedless to say as an australian i feel violated by all three iphone data plans.
Because I live in country victoria the only 3g option for me is telstra, looks like Ill be sticking with my UNLIMITED blackberry data plan even it is not 3g.
Keeper
Friday, July 11, 2008 at 7:14 AMOk guys so heres what im wondering. Telstra plans are crap but they do have the best coverage and im already on one of their cap plans which im happy with. if i get a prepaid iphone from optus, get it unlocked…will it be a simple matter of just slipping my telstra sim into the phone and away i got like i would with a normal phone?
when i activate the unlocked iphone with itunes thats not going to try and sign me up on one of telstras new contracts is it?
I really just want to use my current sim and plan on a new iphone :) any help?
Greg Lipschitz
Friday, July 11, 2008 at 8:32 AMWell standing in line at Optus in Doncaster and stocks are already running low on the iPhone. Only 12 white 16gb 4 black 16gb and some 8gb left. The line outside voda is non existant and telstra has a small queue.
M@
Friday, July 11, 2008 at 8:35 AMI’m willing to bet that part of the reason Telstra’s plans are so god-awful (aside from the blatant money-grabbing as a result of having something a lot of people want, and many people buying through a business won’t really care about prices for) is that their transformation efforts are almost certainly hampering their ability to create and market new plans within their existing (and either virginal, or about to be out-moded) systems. The offerings presented are merely a mish-mash of their existing data and call offerings, not anything specifically created to reflect the uniqueness of this device.
I’m not trying to say that they would have gone to the effort if they could, but I’m fairly sure that they actually couldn’t…so…er…didn’t…
xrez
Friday, July 11, 2008 at 9:19 AMFYI you CANNOT unlock the optus iPhones. Although they state it on their website, its actually for prepaid on other phones and not the iPhone. If you get the prepaid version, you can only use it on that sim card…. unless someone jailbreaks it.
Becky
Friday, July 11, 2008 at 9:48 AMHey Gizmodo – can we get the lowdown on whether iphones on any of the Oz networks can be unlocked for use with other SIMs? There seems to be a bit of confusion. I spend a fair bit of time abroad and am not about to pay roaming prices. At the moment I have Oz, UK and Philippines SIMs that I just switch on landing. Being able to use different SIMs abroad is a dealbreaker for me, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.
xrez
Friday, July 11, 2008 at 10:57 AMScrape my last comment. you CAN unlock the phone according to the people i called up at Optus and the Apple store. The information i got that you can’t was from the a’hole of a salesperson in a south Melbourne Optus store that told me you cannot unlock it and its locked to that particular sim card
Nic
Friday, July 11, 2008 at 1:16 PMhey does anyone know if Telstra will be releasing iphone with business plans? and also does the GPS run off satellite coverage or is there a data usage charge associated with it? thanks
Macca
Friday, July 11, 2008 at 1:31 PMAs usual Australian carriers BUTT SLAM customers on data usage pricing. I have had a mobile phone in Australia for 10 years and I’m STILL not used to the fleecing that goes on here.
Karl Hardisty
Friday, July 11, 2008 at 6:35 PMThe prices are rude – almost as rude as your pricing here in NZ: http://mothership.co.nz/blog/index.php/2008/07/08/iphone-rate-plans/
In particular, check out the phone cost itself. To say the nation went into a state of shock is an understatement. We even had the Vodafone Marketing Manager make a fool of himself on TV trying to justify them (check link at bottom of article)
jono
Saturday, July 19, 2008 at 2:19 PMIf you get the Iphone with Telstra, does it have to be on a plan or can it be pre-paid?
toby
Monday, August 11, 2008 at 2:20 PMwell i reckon vodafones the way to go
yea its expencive upfront and evry mont but u get so much better
value than telstra and optus like $310 credit a month and 100 free txts a month and 250 mbs a month
u gotta b mad not 2