Carriers hampering iPhone 3G with stingy data plans

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 10 July 2008 10:45

Your IT - Mobility

They've combined voice and data into fixed bundles, forcing customers to pay for more voice calls even if they don't need them in order to get a larger data allowance.

Admittedly, the Optus Yes plans do provide a better ratio of data to calls,  but where's the plan that offers (for example) 1G of data and no minimum call spend?

Let's look at the details. Our 'value' analysis is based on 3 minute calls, and ignores any off-peak or same-carrier bonuses (which is especially to the detriment of Optus Yes plans, which give options including cheaper calls to mobiles than the standard rate).

Data use is harder to quantify. The average web page size is thought to be over 300K, and many of the most popular sites run pages of around 1M. Facebook and MySpace pages of that size are said to be commonplace. We'll work on the basis of 500k per page, but note that sites such as Google are far more lightweight.

Handset prices are either upfront or calculated from repayments over 24 months, and are shown as 8G/16G

Optus $19 Yes, $456/$576, 4 calls or 56 texts, 200 pages

Optus $19 cap, $504/624, 15 calls or 200 texts, 200 pages

Optus $29 Yes, $288/$408, 8 calls or 96 texts, 500 pages

Telstra $30, $279/$399, N/A, N/A

Optus $39 Yes, $168/$288, 14 calls or 136 texts, 1000 pages

Optus $49 Yes, $84/$288, 21 calls or 176 texts, 1000 pages

Optus $49 cap, $168/$288, 109 calls or 1200 texts, 500 pages

Optus $59 Yes, $48/$168, 30 calls or 216 texts, 1400 pages

Optus $59 cap, $48/$84, 127 calls or 1400 texts, 1000 pages

Vodafone $69 cap, $189/$309, N/A, 500 pages

Optus $79 Yes, $0/$48, 45 calls or 216 texts, 1400 pages

Optus $79 cap, $0/$48, 224 calls or 2200 texts, 1400 pages

Telstra $80, $0/$?, N/A, N/A

Optus $89 cap, $0/$0, 244 calls or 2400 texts, 1700 pages

Optus $99 Yes, $0/$0, 63 calls or 376 texts, 2000 pages

Vodafone $99 cap, $99/$219, N/A, 1000 pages

Telstra $100, $0/$0, N/A, N/A

Vodafone $119 cap, $59/$179, N/A, 1000 pages

Optus $149 Yes, $0/$0, 96 calls or 576 texts, 2000 pages

Optus $149 cap, $0/$0, 489 calls or 4800 texts, 2000 pages

Vodafone $169 cap, $0/$89, N/A, 2000 pages

Optus $179 cap, $0/$0, 612 calls or 6000 texts, 1000 pages

CONTINUED