3 Mobile’s iPhone 3GS – don’t buy it?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 18 June 2009 12:25

Your IT - Mobility

If you’re that kind of customer, i.e. one that is willing to pay around $100 per month, why would you spring for 3 Mobile’s $99 monthly capped plan, on top of which you still have to add a data plan, and which doesn’t offer unlimited calls to mobiles or landlines?

Well, one reason for those who travel to rural and regional areas on an irregular basis is because your iPhone 3G S on 3 Mobile should roam to 1 million square kilometers coverage of Telstra’s 2 million square kilometer 850MHz 3G network, but at a still mega expensive 50c per megabyte.

Vodafone’s won’t do that – it’ll fall back to the drastically slower GPRS data speeds when roaming to 2G. Perhaps if the 2010 iPhone 4.0 also includes a 900MHz frequency, which Vodafone offers, this will change, but until then, GPRS it is for roamers.

Regular travellers to rural and regional areas who need coverage and fast broadband speeds are probably already putting up with Telstra’s higher prices, but at least the iPhone 3G S on Telstra will theoretically work twice as fast thanks its faster 3.5G network.

We need to see the plans from everyone on offer from June 26, especially to see if Vodafone continues challenging the market with what appears to be the best “unlimited” voice calling plan, but unless 3 Mobile’s plans are significantly more attractive than Vodafone’s, why would you get 3’s iPhone over Voda’s?

There could well be some real pricing surprises next week, whether from being great value or from being not much different to what we have now.

Let’s hope any surprises are on the “great value” side of the ledger!