So, AT&T just announced the iPhone 3G pricing plans. The individual plans are basically what was expected: $30/month above the regular wireless plan for unlimited visual voicemail and 3G data, plus additional charges for SMS messaging. Yes, it’s more expensive than the original iPhone plan but the the phone is cheaper and you get faster data plus GPS, so that’s all fine by me.
But then look at the family plans. The entry level family plan (700 minutes) is $130/month. How much is a non-iPhone 700 minute per month family plan? $70/month. That’s double the $30 upcharge for an individual plan—why? And do note that’s not for two lines of 3G data, since additional iPhone lines are $40; non-iPhone family plans have additional lines at $10/month, so there’s the extra $30 for 3G data. So what’s the extra $30/month for? It makes no sense. But wait, it gets worse: there’s only one option for SMS for family plans, which is $30/month for unlimited SMS. What if someone only wants a few hundred messages to share among the family members? Nope, gotta pay an outrageous 20 cents per SMS there; no $5/month for 200 messages like with the individual plans.
So, if I want to get an iPhone and my wife wants to have the same service provider as me so we only have one monthly bill and get free calls to each other, but she doesn’t want an iPhone, it’s actually cheaper for us to get entirely separate plans, as an iPhone individual plan with 200 SMS is $75/month and the basic AT&T non-iPhone individual plan is $40/month which comes to a total bill of $115/month. The entry level family plan is, as noted, $130/month and includes no SMS. Is that completely moronic or have I missed something? By making family plans more expensive (not less, which is the usual model), AT&T appears to be actively trying to discourage people from switching their family on to AT&T if only one family member wants an iPhone. Brilliant business strategy
Ugh. I think maybe my wife will just keep T-Mobile, since they have a $30/month individual plan.
There are no shortage of iPhone naysayers out there, and one of the criticisms has been the service provider. That appears to be a pretty valid point.
So, what marketing genius wants to take credit for the family pricing plans?
I guess it could be worse, I could be in Canada.
I’ve been wrestling with understanding the plans as well. I think it’s a little better if you’re talking about two adults and two teenagers. Then it kind of makes sense.
But for two adults? No. I think it might be a problem with the definition of “family.”
We’re going to wait until Christmas. That will give time for everything to shake out and maybe we’ll get some kind of deal…just in time for a hardware upgrade in the Spring!