How much does your iphone cost to use?

[rz]

Haven't gotten a bill yet, but I just got an older iPhone that I jailbroke and unlocked and signed up for T-Mobile. I got the 500 anytime minute talk plan (free nights and weekends) for $29.99 and unlimited data for $10. I think he said the bill would be about $46/month with taxes. Yeah, it's the Edge network instead of 3G, but half the time I'm near a wifi network, and most of what I download isn't that big anyway.

[datbeme]

The $77 with tax isn't too bad. The 450 minute voice plan and the normal data plan with no messaging, right? That may work for me after all.

[testcase]

After an employee discount and with taxes, I pay $67 / month for the 450 Anytime / 5000 Nights & Weekend minutes plan. The Anytime minutes roll over and are saved for up to 12 months (after which they DO expire). I'm considering jailbreaking my iPhone so that I could tether it to my MBP and, when WiFi is unavailable (but a cellphone signal is available) be able to use some of my saved minutes. I doubt I've ever used 100 minutes in a month. Right now, I have several thousand saved minutes and, lose minutes every month when they "die off" once they reach their 12 month shelf life.

I'm a latecomer to using a cellphone; less than four years now. It amazes me how people accept the poor voice quality that so many cellphones provide. Friends tell me that in the very near future everything will be wireless. Between the dicey voice quality and poor battery life, I really don't see land lines (good old fashioned copper wires aka: POTS) dying off anytime in the foreseeable future. At least I hope it doesn't. :turbo:

[Winston]

We have a family plan with AT&T. We'd have phones with them anyway, so the iPhone cost is really just the $30/month extra for the data plan. Probably a few extra dollars in fees, but I don't have the bill handy to check that. If you include the cost to add a line to the family plan its probably about $45/mo. each. We change voice plans periodically depending on the state of rollover minutes, but we'd be doing that whether we had iPhones or not.

I'd love to try the whole setup (three iPhones, four phones total) on T-Mobile, but we've got two iPhones under contract, and I am suspicious of coverage when we travel. Plus my wife, son and daughter would kill me for removing 3G coverage. EDGE is a lot slower. Much as I hate to say it, it's worth paying extra to AT&T to get 3G speeds.


Good luck.

- Winston

[Big Daddy Cool]

T-Mobile
300 minutes
T-Zones

approx $42/mo inclusive of fees, taxes, etc.

[OWC Jamie]

Sheesh, the lowest plan at AT+T here was $69.00 plus $30 for the data.
Plus the AT+T store didn't even have the full line of phones that some of the mall kiosks had.
+ $10.00 for a third phone.

Just switched from Verizon and wished I hadn't.

[Grumpyguy]

$77. 450 minutes, data, and 1500 texts. I have a 20% discount through work which brings it down to the $77.

[hal]

only 1% change at the moment - seems like just random after hours trades

[Rick-o]

hal wrote:
only 1% change at the moment - seems like just random after hours trades

Psst! Wrong thread.

[Grumpyguy]

Oh if it helps. I've only had the phone since December and already have 800 rollover minutes.

Only thing I'd like to reduce is texting, but the $5 plan only gives you 200 texts which isn't enough