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Seeking Nerdvana Telstra iPhone data plans - expect nothing and you won't be disappointed
Seeking Nerdvana Telstra iPhone data plans - expect nothing and you won't be disappointed | Telstra iPhone data plans - expect nothing and you won't be disappointed |
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| by Adam Turner | |
| Thursday, 10 July 2008 | |
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Page 2 of 3 It's estimated there are around 50,000 first-gen hacked iPhones in Australia, such as the one in my pocket. Apple will be hoping these early adoptors rush out tomorrow to go legit and buy an iPhone 3G. Featured Whitepaper
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I have a first-gen iPhone from the US, with a Next G SIM card in it on a contract, and I've go no intention of paying an early adopter tax for an iPhone 3G just to line the pockets of Apple and the greedy telcos. The only thing that might tempt me is if Telstra's iPhone 3G data plans were such amazingly good value that it would cover the $AU500 it would take me to break my current Next G contract. Like I said, I don't think there's any likelihood of this. At the moment it seems Optus clearly has the best Australian iPhone plans - if I was silly enough to buy an iPhone 3G tomorrow that's where I'd be lining up. If Telstra has an ace up its sleeve it to lure in customers, it surely would have played it by now. Instead it's going to offer iPhone 3G owners the same crap data plans it offers now. A typical $100 NextG phone plan offers $90 of voice calls and $10 of data at a horrendous $2 a MB, which is only 5MB of data a month. The new iPhone 3G is likely to consume almost that amount of data in the background before customers even use any of the advanced features. Telstra Mobile's PR spokesman told me it might not release data pricing until Friday morning. This is the actions of a telco with something to hide, of a telco which would rather see headlines like "Telstra's data plans will probably be crap" rather than "Telstra's data plans are crap". Come this time tomorrow, expect to see plenty of headlines the words Telstra and crap in them. In the lead up to Christmas we'll certainly see better Australian deals on the iPhone 3G. When my Next G contract runs out in January, I'll look around to see what the telcos are offering. Hopefully by then the iPhone reality distortion field will have dissipated and better deals will be on offer for the iPhone 3G. If not I'll see what hackers and the grey market has to offer. From what we're hearing out of the US, the prospect of leveraging the weak greenback to import an iPhone 3G looks very promising. CONTINUED |
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