[LINK] Midnight rush to buy iPhones

[Scott Howard]

On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 4:47 PM, Rick Welykochy <rick at praxis.com.au> wrote:

> The post-paid pricing plans and T&C's over at Optus are not for mere
> mortals to comprehend ...
>
> <
> http://www.optusiphone.com.au/getdoc/3727f208-955d-4c4a-ad38-b860c9b14e56/post-paid-pricing.aspx
> >
>
> or
>
> <http://tinyurl.com/6fmfv9>
>
> It looks like 3G data is roughly $10.00 per 100 MB (10c/MB).
> A friend in the USA pays $30.00 for unlimited downloads for his iPhone.


If you compare the entire plan, including both data and voice charges - and
in particular the fact that in the US you pay to -receive- mobile calls,
then the Optus prices sem very reasonable.

eg, the cheapest voice plan you can get the new iPhone on in the US is $39
for 450 minutes.  If you allow for half of those minutes to be incoming then
you're getting 225 minutes plus "unlimited" data for $69 (or $84 if you want
to use it for business).  Despite the data being "unlimited" you're not
allowed use the iPhone as a modem connected to a PC - it's only data
directly to the phone.

The $59 Optus plan gives you around 600 minutes of voice (presuming an
average 2 minute call) and 500Mb of data - for $10 less.

For the privileged of being on those two plans for 2 years, AT&T will charge
you around $215 for the 8Gb iPhone ($199 plus tax) - upfront.  Optus will
charge you $48 (inc GST) - and even that's spread over the 2 years, not
up-front.

So the real question is what percentage of users are going to use more than
500Mb of data a month, given that (to compare to the US plans) it's
iPhone-only data.

All up, I think the Optus pricing looks very competitive when compared to
AT&T's pricing in the US.  The more limited data might be a problem for
some, but in general it's going to work out much cheaper than the US
equivalent.

(I've ignored the current difference between US$ and A$.  They are so close
to parity today it's just not worth worrying about.)

  Scott.