Hello 3G iPhone. Goodbye included SMS messages.

Logo_attJust a brief note on something I was curious about yesterday but only just discovered. Yesterday’s press release from AT&T indicated that 3G iPhone data plans would rise $10 over the current EDGE data plan used by iPhones today. You’ll pay $30 monthly for data and of course, that requires a voice plan which must be $39.95 monthly or greater. So what about those 200 SMS messages that we enjoy with our iPhones today. You’ll be paying for ‘em, based on Om Malik’s interview with Ralph de la Vega, CTO of AT&T. Here’s the relevant excerpt, with my emphasis added:

OM: Has there been a change in the cost of data plans?
RDLV: The data plans are different on the 3G iPhoneversus the 2G iPhone. Consumers will pay $30 a month every month, whileenterprises will pay $45 a month. This is what you pay us on other PDAdevices such as Blackberry Curve. The SMS messages are not bundledanymore, and you pay for what you want. Again the prices are based onwhat you buy.

This tipped me over the "EDGE" and I plan to stick with the iPhone I have, at least in the short term. I really don’t want to pay an extra $10 monthly for faster wireless service, when I already use 3G with all of my computing devices already: USB EV-DO modem and Verizon service at $60 a month. On top of that $10 price jump, I’d lose the 200 SMS messages I have today. Since AT&T pays Apple for every handset and retains all revenues from voice, data and other cellular services, I can understand the change. Understanding and accepting are two different things, though. ;)

loading

Comments have been disabled for this post