When Steve Jobs presented his new iPhone this afternoon, he made everyone believe that it was amazingly cheap. At $199 it is cheaper than the previous model, but I’d hardly call it a bargain.

1. The iPhone data plan is going from $20 to $30/month
2. AT&T no longer need to pay Apple $12/month in "revenue sharing"

Lets do the math:

$10/month + $12/month * 24 months = $528

So, AT&T are making an extra $528 off iPhone subscribers compared to the current plan.

It’s no wonder why they can afford to subsidize the purchase price. A $199 3G phone is nothing new, AT&T have 10 of them that are available for free right now, and even their high(er) end 3G smartphones can be found for under $100.

When Steve said it was becoming cheaper, what he really meant to say was "we are finally going to sell them the same way every other manufacturer in the world sells them".

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Last month I moved my home phone service from AT&T to Comcast (went smoother than expected). But Comcast thought it would be funny to sell my information to anyone willing to pay a few bucks, which has resulted in tons of mail "welcoming me to the neighborhood".

One of those pieces of mail came from none other than AT&T themselves. They are so concerned with me that they are offering a super-special wireless phone deal. If I call now and mention a secret priority code, they’ll sell me a Nokia 6085 phone for FREE (after a $30 mail in rebate).

Of course, they forgot that most people already know that AT&T stinks, and that any offer they make will result in some extra scrutiny. Which is just as well, as their own damn website sells the same phone for free without a rebate. But an even better deal gets you the same phone for minus $50 through Letstalk.com.

Thanks for nothing AT&T, now I know why I dumped you!

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Right on cue, the AT&T pro-rated Early Termination Fee’s are here.

The only thing is, it isn’t actually pro-rated. For every month you’ve been with AT&T, they take $5 off your $175 ETF. Simple math shows that after half of your contract (12 months) the ETF is still a whopping $115.

Of course, it’s better than the system Sprint and T-mobile currently have (nothing).

And to top things off, these new rules still don’t apply to current customers.

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According to a post on Pinstack (a Blackberry forum), AT&T are going to start offering a $4.99 “equipment protection plan” on all their phones, including the iPhone and Blackberry devices.

I’ve never been a big fan of these plans as the insurance provider usually manages to find a way to deny any claims, but $5 to cover accidentally dropping your iPhone in the toilet doesn’t sound too bad. T-mobile have been offering a similar plan for as long as I can remember, so I guess it was time for AT&T to catch up.

Source: Pinstack forum

UPDATE: looks like the rumors were wrong… The iPhone is NOT going to be included in this plan, and all high-end phones will come with a $150 deductible.

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Remember my rant last week about the lack of prepaid 3G data in the US? Well AT&T must have read it, because as of today they are offering an unlimited data package for their GoPhone (semi-prepaid) plans.

You’ll still need to pay a minimum monthly fee of $29.99 to keep the GoPhone plan active, but for $19.95 a month you’ll be able to add unlimited data. some people have reported that AT&T will also let you add data to their $19.95 GoPhone plan, but that requires a call to customer service. In the end, you’ll have a no commitment 3G data plan for $50 a month.

Of course, you are still on your own when it comes to getting a mobile broadband card or a phone with tethering capability.

To order, first click here, then select "pick your own plan". Then simply select a plan, a phone and the unlimited data add-on. The cheapest available 3G phone is the Nokia N75 (for $259), so I suggest picking the cheapest phone, then ordering a separate 3G data card (like this $209 Expresscard).

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All the big gadget sites are reporting that the iPhone is out of stock "everywhere", but I’m guessing that none of them checked the ATT Wireless store, as they still have them.

Of course, that stock may be gone soon too. If the new iPhone really is to arrive in July, then Apple is going to have a month and a half with no iPhone sales… That’s gotta hurt…

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This is getting silly; iPhone users had a couple of days of free access to all AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots, then AT&T took that away. But now Macrumors points us to the AT&T iPhone features page, which clearly says that it DOES come with Hotspot access…

I suspect it is going to be a free feature, and probably one they’ll hope will prevent too many people from dumping their non-3G iPhone and buying a new one.

They probably also hope that people will use Wi-Fi when they can, so the 3G network doesn’t overload when 3 million iPhone users all try to download the same Youtube clip at the same time.

Source: Macrumors.com

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I always knew that we were getting a bad deal in the US when it comes to mobile broadband; but an ad in this months T3 shows just how crappy things are.

UK users can get a 1Gb broadband account, with a free modem for just GBP10 a month (around $20). Extra data is available for a little more ($30 for 3Gb or $50 for 7Gb). The modem is free, shipping is free, there is no activation fee, and the contact is just 18 months.

For comparison, here are the current US mobile broadband (stand-alone) rates:

All these rates are based on a 2 year agreement with the cheapest available modem option.

I’m sure that a $20/month 1Gb plan would sell like crazy in the US, which is probably why none of the operators would dare sell it. Imagine selling something your customers actually want…

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Remember last week? AT&T tried to show how generous they are by handing out free Wi-Fi access to any iPhone user through their hotspot network.

Sadly the freebie has already been turned off. Things may change once they make an official announcement, but in the meantime the only way to get free iPhone hotspot access is at select local airports through Boingo.

Or course, the whole thing could also have been turned off because it only took people a day to discover how they could get free access using their PC or Mac and have their browser pretend to be an iPhone…

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Surely you didn’t think you’d have an iPhone free day here on TravelTechTalk? The rumor du jour is that iPhone users now get free WiFi access through AT&T WiFi hotspots.

With T-mobile pushed out of all Starbucks locations, that makes for a whopping 71,000 AT&T hotspots.

You are asked to enter your phone number, and hey presto; free WiFi. AT&T hasn’t confirmed (or denied) this yet, so we’ll file this under "rumor" for the moment.

Of course, if you are using an iPhone on something other than AT&T (*cough T-mobile cough*), then you are out of luck, unless they have been lazy and let any AT&T phone number access for free.

Source/Image: Macrumors

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