Verizon iPhone Plans Leaked, Users in for Sticker Shock
On Jan. 26, 2011, Apple accidentally posted Verizon’s iPhone rates on its website. The company realized its mistake and pulled them down, but once on the web, always on the web. Read on for the scoop on the leaked plans …
Screenshots of Apple’s ordering page on are on MacRumors.com, which show the various plans and pricing for Verizon iPhones.
Users get unlimited data on Verizon for $29.99, but that’s about all the good that comes from going Verizon. The carrier is charging an additional $20 for users who want to go tethering about town with Verizon’s 3G Mobile Hotspot and Mobile Internet Connect service. Plus, it’s not unlimited — the service only provides 2GB, which means somehow Verizon or iOS 4.3 knows whether the data is being used through tethering or the iPhone. Looks like we can expect tethering jailbreaks on the Verizon iPhone, then…
But here’s the big bag of hurt: Users who love their iPhone but don’t need all that data are out of luck — there is no 200MB-per-month or other tiered data plan available. (Those family and friends of mine who got iPhones because they didn’t have to pay for a big data plan just to have an iPhone are going to be none too pleased over this).
Meanwhile, in SMS land, Verizon is offering an interesting pay-per-use of 20¢ a message, something AT&T doesn’t have, along with a few tiered chunks of messages. And — no surprise here — Verizon still isn’t offering rollover minutes like AT&T does.
Just for comparison’s sake, to have the same level of features and functionality I have on my AT&T phone ($96.30 per month, taxes included), I would be paying Verizon $90 before taxes and fees which, for someone like me in who lives in N.Y., will put the monthly bill at more than $100 per month for a single iPhone). And again, there’s no tiered data, so users can’t just bump down their data plan like they could on AT&T. It disappoints me that Verizon did not offer more competitive rates for the iPhone; to do so would have benefited both AT&T customers as well as Verizon customers — and heck, U.S. wireless customers in general.
It’s getting expensive to own a smartphone.
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All of those charges for Verizon’s services are standard smartphone services and not exclusive to the iPhone offering. Any existing Verizon Smartphone user will already be accustomed to paying this already. The difference really will be customers who decide to transition from ATamp;T to Verizon and may have to pay more than they are currently paying. But then if they are switching carriers, it may be worth it to them to pay the premium for the value they feel they will get by moving.