With the debut of the iPhone 3G, Steve Jobs had the world buzzing about the low, low $199 cost of this beauty of a phone. Until, that is, you waited in line all night, snagged your new iPhone, and found out how much that little guy was REALLY going to cost you with the higher price of the mandatory data plan. With smartphones getting cheaper all the time - only $99 for a Samsung Blackjack II, in a variety of colors, $149 for a Blackberry Curve, and $199 for a new iPhone (all with a plan, from AT&T), the cell companies have to do something to make some money!

Although the iPhone’s price is far lower than  makes sense, you’ll still get hit in the wallet with the purchase of one of these new, 3G speed-machines. How? The mandatory $30 data plan, up 50% from the original iPhone’s data plan, will hike your bill to nearly $100 a month. The additional $10 a month you’ll spend with a new iPhone as opposed to the original will end up costing you $240 over the 2-year period you are locked into when you buy your new iPhone 3G, which kind of takes the “bargain” out of that sub-$200 price-mark. While the 3G network is undoubtedly faster than the EDGE network, to get unlimited access you’ll pay $45 a month on top of your calling plan.

Apple and AT&T aren’t the only ones to get you with data. According to MSNBC, T-Mobile is being sued for not allowing customers out of their $20-$30 per month text messaging plans. According to Marco Zaldivar, his family was subject to extra fees of up to $30 because of text-message-spam that TMobile would not allow them to avoid. Zaldivar’s lawyer claims the family was charged whether they opened the messages or not, and that when they tried to disconnect their text messaging service altogether, TMobile said no.

 

The Bottom Line

While data-enabled phones make the world go around for some of us, and many enjoy being connected wherever you may be, make sure you know what you are getting yourself into. Ask every question you can think of as you set up your plan, and ask your customer service rep how much your monthly bill will look like, and where any added fees may appear. It’s important to stay connected and in-touch, but make sure you aren’t getting sucked in by what looks like a low-price, only to be surprised and overwhelmed later.

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Tags: AT&T data plan, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G data plan, iPhone data plan, TMobile

This entry was posted on Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 8:38 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.