AT&T iPhones get an "unlimited" calling plan

Finally, iPhone owners no longer have to mope around with a feeling of shame and embarrassment in their hearts: AT&T has blessed them with an "unlimited" calling plan. That's right, if you so desire (and you do so desire, don't you?), you can latch a $119.99 all-you-can-eat plan onto your super-device. Sure, it looks peachy, until you notice that despite your "unlimited" status, you still only get a measly 200 text messages, which is like a three-course steak dinner with no dessert. At least you'll never again have to end a conversation with Mom because you're worried about overages -- though you'll want to keep a close watch on those SMSs, since the prices seem to be constantly heading skyward.

[Thanks, impuLsive]

[Drew @ Mar 9th 2008 3:39PM]

I wonder how many of those unlimited minutes roll over.

[Seth Furman @ Mar 9th 2008 6:35PM]

Haha, I just though about that. Rollover your unlimited minutes to your unlimited minutes account. Haha, nice one AT&T, trying to make all of the "idiots" of America think that Rollover Minutes are a feature in the unlimited calling plan.

[E71 @ Mar 9th 2008 9:36PM]

They're so kind, they're letting us pay them.

Maybe I should show them the same courtesy and let them scratch my back and shave my ass...

[Sam @ Mar 9th 2008 3:39PM]

the cheapest plan is more than enough for anyone.

[Numetheus @ Mar 9th 2008 3:45PM]

@sam

I hope your joking right? The cheapest plan is nowhere near enough. I would eat up all of those minutes within a couple of weeks and be charged with a huge bill in overage charges.

[John McKenna @ Mar 25th 2008 4:24PM]

Personally, I agree with Sam but one plan will NEVER fit everyone. You will have business users who will spend a chunk of their day yakking away on their iPhone (or any phone for that matter) and will burn up the 450 mins in a week.

Excuse my redundancy,

John McKenna

[LC @ Mar 9th 2008 3:58PM]

450 is too little. That's 27 minutes a day. A lot of people use their cell phones as their primary phone, foregoing their house phones altogether. That is in no way more than enough.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Mar 9th 2008 4:00PM]

I'm a business man myself, and I agree with Sam. But you are exact on point when you say every plan is different. I myself text and email more than talk on my phone. Soon, I might VOIP call on my iphone, with the help of software developers and the apple SDK

[Sam @ Mar 9th 2008 4:00PM]

I think some of you are forgetting the rollover part of the plan, and for a non-business user, the basic plan works well. I should know, I have it.

[MuffinFlavored @ Mar 9th 2008 4:45PM]

I agree. I am planning on getting an iPhone in June (or if any rumors come out saying there will be a newer iPhone, later). SMS 200 limit seems silly.

[fh @ Mar 9th 2008 4:11PM]

Yes, the cheapest plan is more than enough for most people.

But if $120/mo gets you almost -unlimited- everything, you'd think the cheapest plan would still be a lot cheaper than $60/mo. At least by comparison, my old AT&T rate was $40/mo and included only 450min (no data, no text, no rollover).

[Raheem @ Mar 9th 2008 4:48PM]

I'm not sure, Sam. I use over 2000 minutes and 2000 texts a month. Seems like this would shaft me big time. Good thing I have a lovely O2 tariff on my iPhone (not an iPhone tariff :P).

[Decoy @ Mar 10th 2008 1:38AM]

256k is more than enough for anyone.

[alan @ Mar 9th 2008 5:55PM]

I had over 7000 minutes used on one bill. I average around 3000 ish. I got the att unlimited plan 6 or 7 years ago when they first offered gsm in my area. the 100 a month is very much worth it to me. Its funny to see plans finally match mine, i now can worry less about losing my sim card and needing a new plan (cannot believe i went 7 years without losing my phone or changing my plan :)

[Galley @ Mar 9th 2008 6:30PM]

Dunno about everyone else, but it's more than enough for me. All I need is unlimited data, with a few hundred minutes.

[R0B3RT @ Mar 9th 2008 8:47PM]

i more than agree the basic is best i would get unlimited text added to it since i text more than call.

[RoseGold @ Mar 9th 2008 3:39PM]

stop being cheap att and add true unlimited(added sms) to that plan.....

[Aeaon @ Mar 9th 2008 3:45PM]

I'm with AT&T... have an iPhone... In the US, and I pay 89.65 a month for the following:

-Unlimited Text Messaging
-Unlimited Data
-450 minutes, 5000 nights and weekends (around 1000 or so on rollover right now for free use)
-Visual Voicemail... blah blah, etc...

Then again, most of the people I'm talking with have AT&T, so my minutes aren't really used up. Viola. What I believe to be the perfect cell-phone plan.

[Matt @ Mar 9th 2008 4:02PM]

I'm on Verizon, and I currently pay 65 bucks a month for almost exactly that, except for with unlimited nights and weekend minutes, and I only get like 800 text messages, but free texts and picture messages to people who have verizon. Almost all of my friends have verizon though, so it's basically like unlimited text and picture messaging.

[Jason @ Mar 9th 2008 4:05PM]

What on earth does the iPhone have to do with a viola? Is there some stringed instrument app I'm not aware of?

[Aeaon @ Mar 9th 2008 4:10PM]

@ Jason
Oh snap.
Sorry, I was typing that on my iPhone...

[spass @ Mar 9th 2008 5:01PM]

Ok, my turn... iPhone unlocked, Tmobile, $29.99 a month, no need for internet or sms. 300 minutes + unlimited weekends are just fine with me.

[Joseph Singer @ Mar 9th 2008 5:01PM]

Don't you mean cello?

[Saturn @ Mar 9th 2008 9:49PM]

What I believe he meant was not viola, as the instrument, but voilá, as the frech expression (http://www.answers.com/voilá)

[thethirdmoose @ Mar 9th 2008 11:44PM]

I have Sprint, and I pay $30/mo for all that.

[Darkest Daze @ Mar 9th 2008 3:54PM]

I'd rather have unlimited SMS and Data then Voice and Data. There's no way I'd make it with 200 sms a month between my bosses, g/f, etc all texting me.

[sinergy @ Mar 9th 2008 3:58PM]

meanwhile in canada, we're stuck in the stoneage. rogers blows goats. im tired of getting gouged ~_~ ..... not to mention there's still no sign of the iphone.

[mxsweb @ Mar 9th 2008 4:15PM]

I pay $75 per month for 150+100 minutes per month with unlimited eve+we and unlimited email with my pearl. Although, I can't even surf the web. That would cost me a wooping $40 extra for 0.5Mb

I heard that something like half their budget is for marketing to steal subscribers from each other but the subscriber's base never growth.

[Dahk @ Mar 10th 2008 12:04AM]

I thought they were extending their data plans to 1 Gig + for like... $60 or something? And then something about... if you go over your 1 Gig, then you hit the next tier just for that month (2 gigs)

Lol I thought I read that on engadget somewhere, but I could be very mistaken.

[Jon @ Mar 9th 2008 4:02PM]

Limited SMS but unlimited everything else? That's a bizarre choice... SMS is low-cost high-profit for the cellphone companies - it costs them virtually nothing to give it to you.

[BollockChops @ Mar 9th 2008 4:07PM]

That's the whole point - low cost for them but high profit. Cell phone companies are just Dick Turpin in a suit.

[Jon @ Mar 9th 2008 4:56PM]

I was thinking "it would cost them nothing to give out unlimited text as well in that bundle" - I was being naive... you're thinking like a cellphone company "if we limit the texting volume then everybody who buys this plan will ALSO pay $20 for unlimited texting... another $20 in the bank". Evil :-)

[ZeroCorpse @ Mar 9th 2008 4:03PM]

I'd like them to go the OTHER way. I don't need 450 minutes, 200 text messages, or 5000 minutes on nights and weekends. I need maybe a total of 240 minutes a month, plus the unlimited data, and about 25 text messages at most. Give me THAT package for about $20 a month, and I'll consider grabbing an iPhone.

Why do they assume that all mobile phone users are heavy talkers? Some of just carry a cell phone for those occasions when we don't have access to a landline or need to make an emergency call. I might make a total of five short calls a week, and rarely, if ever, use text messaging. I would, however, like the features of the iPhone, and the capability to use it as an all-in-one device for those times when I *do* need a cell phone, iPod, or PDA-like device.

They're missing out on a lot of people by making their lowest plan that price. I have absolutely no incentive to switch from my cheap-ass Virgin Mobile plan, and I know I'm not the only one who doesn't live on the damn phone. I'm telling you: $20 is the magic number.

[Aeaon @ Mar 9th 2008 4:06PM]

"Why do they assume that all mobile phone users are heavy talkers?"

I'm... assuming because the majority of people do not, in fact, carry around a cellphone to have the features of a PDA. That's what they make PDAs for. You sir, seem to be a very happy exception.

As for the guy with the Verizon plan, Matt?

I actually get service almost anywhere.

[Tom @ Mar 9th 2008 5:07PM]

I'm exactly like you, which is why I don't complain all that much when my SCH-i730 crashes 2 to 3 times a day from all the texts I send/receive.
I pay $43 a month for 400 minutes (To people outside of Verizon), unlimited night & weekends, 5000 texts to people outside of Verizon and unlimited picture/text messages to people in Verizon. I don't want/need data because there are wifi hotspots all over where I work, attended college, and at home.
:D I'm very happy with my plan and won't change it for anything.

[Jonathan Allen @ Mar 9th 2008 4:03PM]

I don't need these minutes, but this plus the iPhone 2.0 software, enterprises will be all over the iPhone.

[DAvid Relan @ Mar 9th 2008 4:04PM]

I want the iphone bad but cannot live with just 200 sms/month. They gotta give you unlimited.

[Aeaon @ Mar 9th 2008 4:11PM]

Then do what I did... Unlimited texting = 20 bucks more.

[shaun @ Mar 9th 2008 4:10PM]

Do americans not send many text messages? Here in britain we text constantly and use the phone as more of a last resort when it's something you cant put in a text

200 texts is really bad!

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Mar 9th 2008 4:14PM]

our crazy and stupid teenagers send more texts than our plans approve of, so we get hit with fees. So really, we do send a lot.

[shaun @ Mar 9th 2008 4:16PM]

Damn teenagers

Disclosure: The author of this post is 18

[nh @ Mar 9th 2008 4:36PM]

Yeah that's what I was thinking! 200 texts on an unlimited package sounds nuts. Maybe we only got hooked on SMS because our calls were so expensive and SMS was virtually free.

[roole @ Mar 9th 2008 10:22PM]

Texting is so yesterday.

[austin @ Mar 9th 2008 10:43PM]

8000 texts in one month and 15 minutes phone time in the same month

im american

[Yash @ Mar 9th 2008 4:13PM]

Okay as a Canadian and a student, these plans all look efing amazing! I pay over $80 a month for like 200 weekday minutes, 200 minutes long distance (we get charged for any calls further than like a 2 hour drive away or so lol), 100 texts, unlimited evenings and weekends, voicemail, and that's it. I'm with Fido too and quite frankly it blows. I have no data either. So $65 for 450 minutes to anywhere in the States is nuts to me. As a student, 450 should be plenty for most people, unless you happen to be a major major talker. If you're a business user, well unless you own your own company or what not, your company should pay for your cell in which case I still think that's quite attractive. My dad pays $100 a month with Rogers for 7 mb of data on his Blackberry and similar other "benefits" of his plan. What BS. I'm sure some people will need more and this won't fit all people. But then again, you can't please everyone.

Oh and unlimited data and calls for $119??? I'd pay that in a sec. 200 texts only? Whatever email is better and if you're business, most people have smartphones anyways. Text is useful but really not that essential.

[Joseph Singer @ Mar 9th 2008 5:04PM]

Maybe if you had some competition up the great white north you might have better rates. The CRTC evidently doesn't think so :)

[Matt @ Mar 10th 2008 9:59AM]

damn that's shitty. i'm so sick of our crappy cell phone providers too, even though i have a pretty decent plan. i switched to telus last year and pay $18/mo for 200 weekday minutes and 1500 evening/weekend. I probably use maybe 75 minutes per month anyways. For $15 more/mo I get unlimited text/picture/video messages (with no additional data charges), and can us the mobile browser and telus 'favourites' sites for free. These really are all i ever need while away from my computer (or my touch): facebook, gmail, hotmail, news, movie times, etc. no data charges on my phone unless i actually type in a url. that bundle also covers my call display and voicemail. compare that with my old phone on MTS Aliant, where i would pay per kb of data for picture and video messages, and for any browsing.

[Mr. Nikon @ Mar 9th 2008 4:14PM]

If they had unlimited texting, I would have gone for it.

[Arjy @ Mar 9th 2008 6:59PM]

20 bucks more for unlimited on any plan. 10 bucks more for 1500

[Maci @ Mar 9th 2008 8:02PM]

I'm confused. There are programs to put AIM on your iphone and if not that then there are websites to send texts and IM people on AIM. You can send texts over AIM..