Which iPhone 4 plan is best for you?

Anthony Caruana
Wednesday, 28 July 2010 01:59

Your IT - Mobility

Now that all the carriers have released their iPhone plans it’s time to look at them and work out where the best bang for buck lies. We look at the best plan for light, moderate and heavy data users.

We’re just a couple of days away from the Australian release. That means that buyers need to start making some decisions. The first option is to buy an iPhone 4 outright. The advantage is that you won’t have to lock into any long term carrier contracts. That means you can  shop around for either a month to month deal that suits your need or use a pre-paid arrangement to help manage costs.

The bug issue with outright pricing is that it isn’t cheap. The 16GB iPhone 4 will be available for outright purchase for a recommended retail price starting from $859 through Apple’s online store. Pricing for the 32GB model isn’t available yet but we’d expect it to be under $1000.

Choosing a carrier is a tricky business. If coverage, especially in rural areas, is important then there’s little doubt that Telstra is king. However, Telstra generally has the dearest plan options although they have come back to the field under David Thodey’s leadership. Optus is the only carrier to offer a real budget option at $19 per month

If your budget is nude $30 per month there are quite a few options available. VHA’s two companies, Three and Vodafone, offer the same $180 of calls and 550MB of data (including a bonus allocation of 500MB for the duration of the two year contract) for $29 per month. However, you’ll need to factor in either an extra $18 or $24 per month for either a 16GB or 32GB respectively.

Optus’ $19 plan with just 100MB of data.For the very light user, this might be a way to dip a toe in the water.