14 DAY TRIAL // AT&T has promised some time ago to reveal the service plans for the iPhone just a few days before its launch. They have finally been made public and seem to be quite hard on the wallet. Little surprise in that, but it's left to see how discouraging it will prove to be for the iPhone fans out there.
The lowest service plan starts at USD60 per month. That's much more than the average of USD30 that everyone had expected. After adding the huge price that the iPhone itself will come for, most pockets will surely have enough space for the left nickels to breathe at ease.
In the USD60 service plan there is a large number of services included. The AT&T subscriber will have 450 minutes included and 5,000 more at nights and in weekends. Moreover, he will also benefit from unlimited data, visual voicemail, 200 SMS text messages, rollover minutes and unlimited Mobile-to-Mobile.
That sounds to be worth its cost, although it turns out to be constraining for those who might prefer a more flexible service plan. Enough with the cheap stuff. The next two plans are even higher, as they offer more chatting time.
The USD 80 service plans bring twice as much minutes as the previous plan and unlimited night and weekend minutes. If that's not enough, there is also the chunky USD 100 service plan. This includes all services mentioned until now, but it includes 1350 minutes to be used at any time the user might like.
"We think these three plans give customers the flexibility to experience all of iPhone's revolutionary features at affordable and competitive prices", said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. Their intention seems to have been one of the most honorable ones, as "We want to make choosing a service plan simple and easy, so every plan includes unlimited data with direct Internet access, along with Visual Voicemail and a host of other goodies", he further added.
Apple says that iPhone customers will have the opportunity of choosing from any of AT&T's standard service plans.