Vodafone cuts iPhone minimum spend - but where's the data?

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 15 July 2008 06:25

Business IT - Technology

People who rushed out an bought an iPhone 3G from Vodafone even though they expect to use little or no mobile data may be regretting their decision with the arrival of a new low-end plan. But Optus remains Australia's iPhone 3G king because it understands the importance of data to iPhone users.

Vodafone has added the $49 maxi cap to the range of plans offered with the iPhone 3G.

That $49 provides enough credit to cover 114 three-minute voice calls or 1240 SMSes. The catch is that there's no data included in the plan.

If you want mobile data, you have the choice of paying $1 per five-minute block, or bolting on 100M of data for $11.95.

What makes us laugh is that Vodafone talks in terms of "just $11.95"! Apart from this being a ludicrously high rate for mobile data (remember, 3 charges $15 for 1G to a wireless dongle, and offers 1G for $30 per month to selected handsets), a comparison with the Optus $49 cap shows that the latter provides a very slightly smaller amount of voice and SMS per month, but also includes 250M of data.

As usual, you still have to pay for the iPhone 3G itself with Vodafone's $49 plan. The 8G model is $242 upfront, or $363 for the 16G version. If you want to spread the cost, repayments are $10.09 or $15.13 per month.

How does that compare with Optus? Badly. On the Optus $49 cap, the iPhone 3G costs $7 (8G) or $12 (16G) over 24 months.

But it's not that we think Optus is perfect - please read on to find out why.