Category: Technology Author : Duncan Riley Posted: July 2, 2008
Tags : iphone, optus
iPhone pricing plans from Optus, one of the three Australian telco’s offering Apple’s iPhone July 11, have been revealed today, and local users won’t be happy.
iPhone in Australia has all the details here. Some of the highlights:
A 8G iPhone 3G from Optus will cost $0 on a $79 AUD (around $74 USD) cap plan over 24 months which includes $550 of calls, text and more, plus (in Optus’ words) “a whopping 700MB of included mobile data.”
700mb. Whopping. I’m Speechless.
Here’s the run down on the various post-paid plans
Don’t want a plan? 8GB iPhone 3G (Black)= $729, 16GB iPhone 3G (Black or White)= $849.
The thing I can’t work out: Optus offers unlimited data to Blackberry users on a $79.95/ month plan, or if you’re buying the unlimited data separately, $39.95. I know this because I tried to get my existing 2G iPhone on the plan and they wouldn’t allow me to do so, leaving me instead on a $29.95/ mth data plan of 200mb a month. Not a lot I know, but when the 2G iPhone only connects over GPRS at 36kbps, it’s enough…only just.
Telstra and Vodafone are yet to announce their plans, but with Vodafone known for their aggressive pricing you’d expect something a lot more appealing than this rubbish from Optus.
(via Andrew Sayer)
Jul 3, 2008
FYI the unlimited blackberry data plans/boltons is only for data sent and recieved through the Blackberry internet service APN. So if you have this bolt on/plan on a non-blackberry you will just be paying for nothing. All your data will still be going through the Optus APN, and charged at the standard 1.5c per kb rates.
Jul 3, 2008
Here in Australia we are bit narrow minded, i read that the average user in the US uses 5 Gig a month.
Jul 3, 2008
I am a very disappointed Optus customer. As usual we are being robbed in Australia! I will not be buying my iphone locally, it's a farce that they will be sold for $199 U.S. and over $700 here in Australia! Fortunately my sister who now lives here has friends in the U.S. who can send one over. For too long we have been getting the worst deals here!
Jul 3, 2008
nikmik, the $199 price in the USA is a locked in contract. The phone won't be allowed to leave the phone store without being switched on and locked into a US contract. You can't buy it outright there otherwise it will be similar in price to the outright model here.
Jul 6, 2008
The $729 price for the phone outright was unlocked though wasn't it?