Optus iPhone 3G Pricing announced, reviewed

Posted Thursday, July 3, 2008 at 2:47 pm by Jason Cartwright |

Optus have just released a bunch of information on pricing for the iPhone 3G. The big news is you can buy it outright.

Pre-paid

 8GB iPhone 3G (Black)= $729
16GB iPhone 3G (Black or White)= $849

After the purchase of the phone, your then going to look at purchasing credit. These range from a $30 cap that doesn’t include data, to a $100 cap that includes 1GB of data.

If you’d like to take your iPhone 3G to another network, it will cost you $80 to unlock the phone. Another great benefit of Optus, is they’re allowing users to use unlimited data the first month (if purchased before August 31st).

Plans come in 2 flavours, ‘yes’ Cap Plans for iPhone 3G and ‘yes’ Plans for iPhone 3G.

‘yes’ Cap Plans
These range from $19 per month which includes 100Mb data and $50 of calls/text, up to the massive $179 per month that includes 1GB data and $1500 of calls/text.

The iPhone 3G comes in both the 8GB and 16GB models, which attract different handset repayments per month. Essentially if you sign up for a plan of $89 per month or higher you get the iPhone 3G for free.

‘yes’ Plans
Yes plans are a little differently priced and actually offer a $99, 1GB plan, a reasonable price for heavy users. These plans range from $19 per month with 100Mb of data to $149 to 1GB per month.

Choose your plans wisely as you’ll be locked into the plan for at least the first 6 months of your contract. After that time you can change your rate plan although it may attract a fee.

As always the devil is in the detail, reading through the fine print confirmed:

The Apple iPhone will not provide you with access to 3G services in Optus ‘yes’G service areas where a dual band (UMTS2100/UMTS900) 3G/HSPA handset is required. 3. For coverage details on 3G/HSPA and ‘yes’G please see www.optus.com.au/coverage.

Also the iTunes music store on the iPhone does not allow for over-the-air downloads, a Wi-fi connection or syncing from your computer is the only option. This seems very strange given applications from the App Store are limited to 10 Mb (larger than the size of a song) are permitted to be downloaded over the mobile network.

Optus also allow customers on a plan to use their Wi-Fi hotspots.

Optus WiFi: Customers whom connect their Apple iPhone to an Optus iPhone rate plan will receive free WiFi from any Optus WiFi hotspot.

Overall I would have liked to see more data at a lower cost, but ultimately I think with the large number of options and pricing, there should be a plan for most users. For those on pre-paid, the outright purchase price is a little high, but the Turbo caps are fairly inviting.

More @ Optus