iPhone News Updated

Data for iPhone=Unlimited. Data for tethered iPhone=$30 for 5GB.

Data for iPhone=Unlimited. Data for tethered iPhone=$30 for 5GB.

When you sign up for an iPhone you are forced to sign up for some stuff you might not want. For example if you want an iPhone the minimum number of minutes you can get is 450 anytime minutes and 900 night and weekend minutes. That’s 1350 minutes per month (they roll over) which for some isn’t nearly enough but for the geekish among us is about 1300 minutes more than we need. But the excessive phone minutes come with the territory right? If you want max value, geeks, make some friends dammit!

Take it from the opposite perspective for a moment. If you want an iPhone just for calling you are forced to buy the unlimited data plan. That plan will set you back $30 per month. Which would be galling if all you wanted to do was talk on the phone instead of using the internet. Do these people exist? I don’t know but there is no prohibition on vapidity.

Two things are established: You’ve got to pay for calling minutes even if you don’t use them and you’ve got to pay for unlimited data if you don’t use it. That is just the price of entry for having an iPhone right?

It turns out that the data isn’t so unlimited as you think it might be. See the easy way to read the deal is to assume that “Unlimited data” actually means unlimited data, Except it doesn’t. How can we know? Turns out that AT&T is going to offer a tethering plan for your iPhone and the rumor is that it will cost an extra $30 monthly. So data that goes to your iPhone is covered in the cost of the data plan, data that merely goes through your iPhone costs $30 a month extra. And it isn’t even unlimited, you get a 5GB data cap.

AT&Ts plans for connecting you computer to the 3G network run about $60 per month so the iPhone plan is actually a discount.. Wait, let’s see. $30 per for unlimited data on the iPhone plus $30 more for tethering… Oh, wow $60. And you get data caps. call it a charge for making things easy, call it a profit center, call it whatever you want but the fact remains you’re going to get soaked. And you’ll get data caps.

Of course the intrepid among us will just jailbreak the thing and get tethering with unlimited data for the current cost monthly cost of the contract.

via: MacDailyNews

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