Marianne Schultz

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Verizon iPhone 4 plans: Not so compelling after all

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The Verizon iPhone 4 is now listed on Apple’s site and current Verizon customers can check their eligibility for an upgrade. Voice and data plan prices are revealed here as well. 9 to 5 Mac reports the following pricing:

Talk: 450 min/mo ($.45 ea over) $39.99/mo
Talk: 900 min/mo w/unlimited to 5 selected people (any network) ($.40 ea over) $59.99/mo
Talk: Unlimited $69.99/mo
Data: Unlimited iPhone $29.99/mo
Data: Unlimited iPhone + 2GB tethering and Hotspot 3G ($20/GB over) $49.99/mo
Messaging: Pay-per-use $.20/text $.25/video/pic
Messaging: 250 messages/mo ($.10 ea over) $5/mo
Messaging: 500 messages/mo ($.10 ea over) $10/mo
Messaging: Unlimited $20/mo
With AT&T, I have the 450 minutes/month plan that costs me $39.99. I have 200 text messages that costs $5 per month. And I’m grandfathered in on the unlimited data plan at $30 per month. Before taxes and a corporate discount, I pay AT&T $74.99 each month.
On Verizon, I would also pay $39.99 for 450 minutes/month and $30 for unlimited data. I would get 50 more text messages per month for the same price of $5. In the end, I wouldn’t save any money going to Verizon. Considering my corporate discount with AT&T, I would end up paying more each month by switching to Verizon.
When it comes to the hotspot feature mentioned at Verizon’s iPhone 4 press conference, we now know that it will cost an additional $20 per month, matching the cost of tethering on the iPhone on AT&T. In Verizon’s favor, however, is the fact that their hotspot feature actually adds 2GB/month of additional data for you to use. AT&T charges you $20 for the ability to tether only, providing you with no additional data on top of the 2GB/month data plan required to use tethering to begin with.
I had thought Verizon would want to undercut AT&T in some way to draw more people away but this pricing reveals that they haven’t, at least for someone like me. They must be so confident in the reliability of their network and the depth of hatred for AT&T many iPhone users have built up over the years that they feel offering the iPhone at all is enough.
Don’t get me wrong – I know AT&T is far from perfect and have had some issues with them myself.