The iPhone is back in business

David M Williams
Wednesday, 06 August 2008 13:40

Your IT - Mobility

Previously I bemoaned the telco’s lack of iPhone vision for enterprise customers. Despite Apple touting push mail as a business benefit, it seemed impossible to get an iPhone and use it with an existing SIM card or company plan. Not so, the powers that be have changed their mind and I’m happy to report my wishes came true. The iPhone is back in business.



My Telstra representative had given me the best advice he could which was that his department would not be selling the iPhone. He told me the only option was to purchase it through the ordinary retail sales arm.

That wasn’t so bad, but what was terrible was the news on pricing. I expected I could buy an iPhone outright and put in an existing SIM card – on an existing company plan with lower call charges, uncharged company mobile to company mobile calls and hopefully better value data plans. Telstra wouldn’t allow this; the message they continued to give me was the iPhone would only work on a special, magical “Apple plan” – the plans which had atrocious costs and which required a new contract.

On the eve of the iPhone launch I talked to Peter Taylor, Telstra’s media relations spokesperson, who was surprised that any company would be interested in the iPhone anyway. He implicitly expressed companies ought not to trial new phones (despite Telstra’s earlier desires to get businesses on board with NextG handsets at the time of launch.)

So that was it, to paraphrase the Seinfeld soup nazi there was no iPhone for me. I lambasted the telcos for their disappointing lack of vision here as well as the mixed messages given the whole idea behind push mail was largely for corporate types. I don’t imagine many home users run Microsoft Exchange at home.

Happily, turning forward a few weeks this is no longer the case. I have been using an iPhone for a week and a half in precisely the manner I wanted. Maybe my story hit the spot (though most likely there were a variety of contributing factors) because finally Telstra announced business customers could buy an iPhone outright and use an existing SIM card. There was no more guff about the special Apple plans.

I was told that without the Apple plan I would not benefit from free Telstra Wi-Fi hotspots but that’s no big deal. Believe me, Telstra, the inclusion of your Wi-Fi hotspots is hardly an incentive to take up an outrageous new plan.

I was also told the iPhones had to be activated prior to arriving so the box would be opened. I didn’t know what this activation involved but, as you’ll see soon, it was a trite process anyway.
I placed the order with my Telstra rep. The iPhone arrived. I had my hands on a fabled Jesus phone, the stuff of legends.

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