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]

[(Unverified) Posted 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..

[StreetMeatSteve Posted Mar 9th 2008 4:16PM]

Sprint SERO ftw.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 9th 2008 4:29PM]

you're rright. Before, I got my iphone, I was rockin a Q9C with SERO, unlimited data and texts ringin 30 a month. Sometimes I regret the iphone ebcause of lack of #G and the plans, but hey! It's toucable! Touchy touchy touchy!...

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 9th 2008 4:29PM]

I have a lot of spelling errors I see

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 9th 2008 4:19PM]

im just glad I get free phone service and dont have to deal with this

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 9th 2008 4:24PM]

omg... people really don't listen..

THEY HAVE UNLIMITED TEXTING.

20 BUCKS A MONTH.

[tbonet Posted Mar 9th 2008 4:39PM]

That isn't the point. Everything on the unlimited iPhone plan is unlimited except for SMS, which has a very low limit.

[creepin Posted Mar 9th 2008 4:42PM]

This is really old news..
I already saw this ~1 week ago in the TV news.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 9th 2008 5:01PM]

200 Texts? That's terrible for the cheaper plans and absolutely ridiculous for the unlimited one!

The UK iPhone plans get 500 texts, and considering we only pay for received texts that's pretty much 5 times more if you send about as much as you receive...

You could also opt for unlimited for £7.50 if you're a real SMS freak...

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 9th 2008 8:23PM]

Okay firstly, in the UK iPhone plan we pay for texts we send, not receive. That would be absurd. Second, we get 500 texts so that's 2.5 times more than the US plan, but yeah i see what you're trying to say and it's been said already.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 9th 2008 5:16PM]

Sounds great, but when is it going to get 3G? That's the only thing I'm waiting for....

[Motoken Posted Mar 9th 2008 5:16PM]

How about this; use your damn house phone, its like 1000x cheaper. 2) stop being lazy, and call the person instead of using 50 messages to talk to them.

I don't see why people message when they can just call them. Cell phone bills used to be so much cheaper! used to pay only $50 for two lines and 500 mins, had to add a new line and they wanted us on a new plan that costs us $100 a month.

[GenericWhiteGuy Posted Mar 9th 2008 6:05PM]

Yes! And why be so lazy to use the house phone when you can telegraphically send a message by walking over to the western union office at the train depot. Next time I need to talk with someone in Europe I'm getting on the weekly steam ship or transatlantic zeppelen.

Many people don't have landline phones anymore... It can be cheaper not to pay for both a landline and a cell phone.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 10th 2008 8:07AM]

Funny you should mention house phone as cheaper. For €7 a month I get 3000 minutes within my mobile network and to all landline phones. I don't even want to start thinking of how much money I save every month by not using my house phone to make all calls. As for texting instead of calling, at times you don't want to disturb the person you're texting by making them pick up the phone right there and then. In case they're busy, they can have a look at the text message at any time. Plus the text message will reach them even if they have their phone shut off for meetings/lectures and whatnot.

That being said I would probably not get close to 200 messages a normal month even if I wasn't allowed to make real calls.

[dbanaszak Posted Mar 9th 2008 5:20PM]

thats why u should unlock your iphone and use it on t-mobile and have unlimited internet, minutes, and txt messages as well for the same $119.98

[FMinus Posted Mar 9th 2008 5:49PM]

Frankly those plans are crap in my eyes, and I hope where I live this will never be introduced. I pay 6 EUR monthly fee to my provider and everything else I spent on calls, SMS, data is added to the bill, no crap limits. Calls inside the same network are charged 0.02EUR/min outside the network they are 0.1EUR/min, SMS are 0.02EUR per message.
All in all I pay around 50EUR per month +/- 10EUR, and I phone for around 600 minutes and send a lot of SMS. That being said, most of people I deal with are on the same network as me, so it's really cheap.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 9th 2008 6:13PM]

Sprint SERO plan. Unlimited data, SMS, mobile2mobile, nights weekend (7pm)
500 minutes. Fast network.

$39

An iPhone would cost me a lot more than the price of the unit.
200 SMS in the unlimited is just a travesty of justice.

[mikefromtexas Posted Mar 9th 2008 7:14PM]

I'm debating whether to get the iPhone or not. My Sprint contract doesn't expire until October. But sticking with them and getting the SERO plan is very attractive. I think I could live with an HTC Touch or Mogul.

We'll see what late June brings about in iPhone announcements, see if Jobs has the 3G iPhone up his sleeve as a proverbial trump card.

[OneLove Posted Mar 9th 2008 6:39PM]

ATT is the devil! (no unlimited sms?)

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 9th 2008 7:30PM]

thats been up on apple's site for days...

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 9th 2008 8:04PM]

Unlimited Everything and 200 SMS is just plain stupid!

[blash Posted Mar 9th 2008 8:30PM]

They need to do two things:

1) 240 minutes a month, couple thousand minutes night and weekends, unlimited data, no texts for about $20 a month.
2) Unlimited everything for $50 a month.

Whichever network manages to do this without going broke will go stinking rich.

I use maybe 20 minutes a month on my iPhone at most for quick "come pick me up" and "where are you" calls - use VoIP for hours everyday at home though, free is awesome :D. But, I use a couple gigabytes a month of bandwidth - god the overage uses on like a quarter a MB would be a HORROR - and I don't send texts. Really, the point is I really only need a portable public phone based purely on my phone usage, but I still would like a nice convergence device for media and internet - and I suspect a lot of people feel similarly.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 9th 2008 9:00PM]

I pay 99.00/month unlimited and 200 text messages with data (iPhone mandatory) not 119.99 like the images show, unless that is showing the iPhone unlimited package. I don't text much, but having the peace of mind that I don't have to "babysit" my cell bill I'm totally happy, as I can call answer anytime I wish now without worrying about overages. So I dunno where the 119.99 unlimited price unless:

A: it is including the iPhone package (data plan for 19.99 and 99.00 for unlimited, and
B: AT&T upped their unlimited plan by 19.99.

My cell phone bill with taxes etc. is $126.?? with the fore mentioned options.

Faslane

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 9th 2008 9:01PM]

Okay, I didn't read the Header correctly, I see that this IS the iPhone calling plan.

Faslane

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 9th 2008 9:13PM]

@ Sam, your plan may work for YOU, but to say that it is more than enough for everyone is a pretty dumb assumption, and yes, this plan "announcement" cam out a bit ago. The 28th I think. I signed up for it the day it came out. Now give us free everything!!! 200 text messages is ridiculous!!! Unlimited should be just that! Figure it out AT&T!..... losers....

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 9th 2008 9:13PM]

How can you people here saying that the 450 is more than enough? You have NO idea how long some of us do or don't talk on our phones so use your brains here a bit, this unlimited voice plan save people a lot of moolah!!! I talk about 3500 minutes a month! This saves me Mucho Diñero What a dumb thing to say.....DUH!

LMAO, the lack of common sense kills me! I'm dying now....laughing!

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 9th 2008 10:04PM]

AT&T is just asking for AIM to step in & take over texting. Not to mention, why text when you can use teleflip...just type the number and add "@teleflip.com" to the end...and every carrier has an email-to-cell address such as [your number]@mobile.att.net, @messaging.sprintpcs.com, @messaging.nextel.com

if texting is that big...make your friends pay for it instead of you, when they hit reply, it just comes to your email

[custmmade Posted Mar 9th 2008 10:17PM]

i don't care about unlimited minutes. all i want is a price drop.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 9th 2008 10:35PM]

200 SMS? Com'on now.. why couldn't Sprint have struck a deal w/ AT&T!?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 9th 2008 10:40PM]

At what time does AT&T's "evening" minutes start?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 9th 2008 11:26PM]

How many MMS' do you get in that plan?

Oh, nevermind


"Super-device", indeed.

[majortom Posted Mar 10th 2008 1:20AM]

before I found out that SMS forced my youngest son to focus, I thought SMS senseless. Now when he wants me, and I am not able to come to the phone because of work, he sends me a text and we "communicate".

[mrfa9in Posted Mar 10th 2008 1:33AM]

Funny how everyone in the US accepts having to pay for *incoming* calls and texts as normal. Americans are getting pissed over by telecos and thinking its rain... Good thing they don't realize that in Europe and most other countries nobody pays for incoming, otherwise they'd really get upset

[ummhello Posted Mar 10th 2008 2:16AM]

amazing...one of the worst cell phone networks charges $119 for unlimited, meanwhile the decent carriers have unlimited plans at $99/month. the only thing that is tempting is the iPhone, which without 3G is still a fail for me.

...and yes, I'm one of those ppl that have foregone a house phone for a cell phone (no telemarketers FTW!), and at $50/month for 1000 minutes, free incoming calls, unlimited nights/weekends starting at 7pm-7am, is more than enough for me! (www.uscellular.com). I don't use SMS msging--and for the few times I do, the $.20/msg is cheaper than paying $4.95/month extra each year.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 10th 2008 8:51AM]

ROFL, that is insane.... I cant believe people actually for that much money for unlimited... here in India, we have 30$ plan for unlimited calls anywhere in premises with unlimited sms etc.

[edokid Posted Mar 10th 2008 8:26AM]

I wouldn't say we're gouged in Canada. I'm with Telus and I have BlackBerry. I get:

200 day time minutes
Unlimited evenings/weekends from 6pm
Call Display
Voicemail
Unlimited text messages
Unlimited Email
Unlimited IM
Unlimited Data

and with tax I pay a whopping $44 per month. I've had Telus forever and my friend and I were looking to switch plans. Called and best they could do on the above was $73 with tax. They call back 3 weeks later asking if they answered our questions last time, I said no, told them my other friend has the same plan as above. Girl checks says no problem, set me and my best friend up with the above.

[deedubbadoo Posted Mar 10th 2008 9:23AM]

Blackberry Minutes and Mail plan FTW!

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 15th 2008 2:21AM]

HElIO has 99 unlimeted evrything!!!!! including txt(video, picture) and you can get a brand new ocean for 99$. and for 65$ you can get 500mins unlimeted everyhing else including txt(video, picture) and with opera ini you get a full web browser. so for 5 dollars more you get unlimeted sms, 50 more minutes. get helio!!!!!!!!!! the best out there

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 13th 2008 11:52PM]

I couldn't care less about minutes. I have 700 minutes on my plan, and I rarely use more than 150-200 a month. Most conversations are kept under a minute.

Now what we really need is unlimited text messages, standard with every plan. I send a ridiculous amount of them, anywhere from 500 to 1500 a month, that doesn't include messages received. 200 SMS messages? $120?! Hahaha! What a waste of money!

Yet another reason why I got the hell away from AT&T (besides the horrible coverage)

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 27th 2008 2:47PM]

Do you think we'll see a lower base package anytime soon? Would love to see something under $59.00...

Thoughts/ideas?

JS