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The iPad has a capped data plan, now give one to the iPhone!

AC773

AC773

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 28, 2006
59
0
One of the most exciting things I saw in yesterday's keynote was the cheaper, capped data plan for $14.99. Personally, I'm still running an original iPhone because for the small amount of data I use on the go, $30 per month is way too much. I'd much rather have a cap and pocket the extra $180 (!!) per year.

The big question is, how likely is it that we'll see this for the iPhone, and how many of you out there would go for it?
 
I see Apple convincing AT&T to lower the cost of the unlimited (that means 5 GBs) data plan, rather than doing that.
 
If they charged $5 for a 250MB data plan, they would probably have to charge $45 for the unlimited plan to make up for lost revenue.

I think a more realistic iPhone plan would be $20 for a 500 MB limit. I might go for that... 250 is just not enough. I consider myself a light user, and I usually go over 250.
 
I think $15 250MB would be a possible plan at least.

Streaming music every day, using youtube with 3g unrestrictor, backgrounder, etc.. I just use over 2GB of data per month.

That's just trying to get my money worth. If it cost less I'd use way less. I doubt most people use over 500mb so I doubt they'll be a 500mb plan.

I see it always being a too little and too much plan.
 
wacky4alanis said:
If they charged $5 for a 250MB data plan, they would probably have to charge $45 for the unlimited plan to make up for lost revenue.

I think a more realistic iPhone plan would be $20 for a 500 MB limit. I might go for that... 250 is just not enough. I consider myself a light user, and I usually go over 250.
Click to expand...

The moment they change the fee structure, they will lose revenue. Their hope will be to gain revenue through additional subscribers or additional means.

I could care less if a company loses money; I'm more interested in fair charges for a service. Now, I'm not looking for a company to lose too much money and go out of business to offer cheap plans.

My thought process is, if the unlimited plan is $30 USD in the US, then if I pay $15 USD per month I better get more than 250 Megs. Now asking for 3-5 Gigs for $15 per month is unreasonable. I would even be ok if they did $10USD per Gig per month and let you determine how much you want to "consume". Have it cap at say $40 USD for the unlimited.

I personally think $30 USD is too cheap for unlimited data, but I also think AT&T should not be able to dictate how we use our data connection.
 
EthanNixon said:
I have never exceeded 200MB, mainly because I have a WiFi connection almost every where I go.
Click to expand...


Same here. I would welcome a capped data plan for the iPhone. All in the sake of leaving more money in my pocket at the end of the month.
 
Revelation78 said:
If that were true, then you would have to pay a fee to cancel your data plan. So, no they do not recoup their subsidy through the data plan.
Click to expand...

*sigh* You've made this argument several times, and I still reject it. Most analysts will tell you that without the $30 data plan AT&T would actually lose money on the iPhone over a two-year contract. It is true that AT&T allows you to cancel your data plan if you are no longer using your iPhone, but in that case you are also no longer using data; AT&T might be able to break even without the data plan if they also didn't have to cover the cost of providing you with unlimited data. Finally, I am sure that very few people actually do what you suggest, and AT&T is probably taking a calculated risk. If more people did this, I am sure AT&T would alter that policy.
 
I wouldn't hold your breath. AT&T just finished last fall with a policy change requiring all smartphones to carry an unlimited data plan. The official reasoning for the change was that smartphones are meant to use data, need so much data they need unlimited, etc, etc (the real reason was $$$). For them to do such a major reversal of their position by offering capped plans would be, well, highly unlikely.
 
I am actually all for the unlimited $30 plan (except that it should still be $30 like the EDGE was). In the end you NEVER have to worry about being charged a massive additional per kb charge or being locked out of data service in a bind.
 
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