iPhone 4G?

[Rico]

You get the texting with the $40. voice plan, I think - right?  Heck, I have a simple Sprint plan and have pretty much unlimited voice and text.  If I wanted data, that's when the extra costs come in.

[billybob476]

Right now I have unlimited local calling for 35.00/month plus another 30 for an iPhone feature pack (visual voicemail, caller id, unlimited SMS and MMS and some other junk) and 500 meg data.

Here in Canada we get killed on data and long distance.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

You get the texting with the $40. voice plan, I think - right?  Heck, I have a simple Sprint plan and have pretty much unlimited voice and text.  If I wanted data, that's when the extra costs come in.

AT&T and Verizon do not include texting in anything, (exempting certain phones I think) it is a stand alone charge.  Unless you get the family deal but...yeah.  Anyway.

King

[Jobydrone]

Pretty unbelieveable that Verizon is charging for data, plus an extra $20 bucks for tethering, and on TOP of that they are limiting tethering to only 2GB per month.  20 bucks for 2GB?  For a user that might want to use their hotspot for multiple devices like a laptop, iPad, or whatever?  That's an outrageously bad deal.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Pretty unbelieveable that Verizon is charging for data, plus an extra $20 bucks for tethering, and on TOP of that they are limiting tethering to only 2GB per month.  20 bucks for 2GB?  For a user that might want to use their hotspot for multiple devices like a laptop, iPad, or whatever?  That's an outrageously bad deal.

Yeah, I would never get this, even if I had a use for it.  The iPhone is terribly expensive as it is, these carriers seem intent on making it more expensive.  I really hope no one buys this feature and forces both AT&T and Verizon to come down off their high horse.

(Wishful thinking)

King

[Rico]

Right now I have unlimited local calling for 35.00/month plus another 30 for an iPhone feature pack (visual voicemail, caller id, unlimited SMS and MMS and some other junk) and 500 meg data.

Here in Canada we get killed on data and long distance.

That seems weird about long distance for cell phone use.  That applies when you call other cell phone users too?  Does it apply if they use an iPhone??

[Feathers]

Why is it a bad deal? Mobile data networks are expensive to build thus mobile data is expensive to provide. If you want it someone needs to pay for it, the networks aren't doing charity deals!

Am I missing something?

[billybob476]

Right now I have unlimited local calling for 35.00/month plus another 30 for an iPhone feature pack (visual voicemail, caller id, unlimited SMS and MMS and some other junk) and 500 meg data.

Here in Canada we get killed on data and long distance.

That seems weird about long distance for cell phone use.  That applies when you call other cell phone users too?  Does it apply if they use an iPhone??

Long distance here is a little complex when it comes to cell phones. It has to do with where you are in relation to your 'home zone'.

For example, I am in Toronto which has an area code of 416. As long as I am standing in the 416, any of my received calls are considered local. Additionally if I am in the 416, any calls I make to the 416 are also considered local. Any calls I make to other area codes are considered long distance (in general).

If I am out of the 416 (say I am visiting my parents in Montreal area code 514, a 5 hour drive away), any calls I recieve are considered long distance on my end so I pay long distance charges on any recieved calls. Any calls I make to the area code I am in (514 for Montreal) are considered local calls. Any calls I make back to Toronto are long distance. Any calls I receive from anyone are charged as long distance.

All our mobile providers have these outlined in their FAQs, it is incredibly confusing.

[Rico]

Wow Joe - that is complex.  One reason I haven't jumped into all this much yet is I love the low cost of my current phone.  I can do voice and text all day long, to pretty much anyone in the US for no extra charges.  It works out very well with my current travel situation being in two places like this.  I imagine business travel people in Canada must rack up some hefty long distance charges.

[X]

Why is it a bad deal? Mobile data networks are expensive to build thus mobile data is expensive to provide. If you want it someone needs to pay for it, the networks aren't doing charity deals!

Am I missing something?

I'm with you. People want everything free or cheap then will complain when the network can't support it. If you want to use a lap top or something with unlimited data, then buy the laptop connection. I think the tethering thing is more for a quick way to jump on the web with your other devices, but giving everyone in the range of your iphone free unlimited internet is no going to happen.

[billybob476]

We do have "Canada-wide" plans but they are much more expensive. What I end up doing if I'm out and about and need to call long distance is just fire up skype on my iPhone. There's no long distance charges on data (unless you're out of country).

There are also long distance addons and such but it's not at all as good as the US. My brother lived in Florida for almost a year with a California cell phone number. In Canada I think you'd rack an incredible bill if you did something like that.

[Rico]

Yeah Joe, I've done that for over a year.  Michigan area code/cell phone, living in Illinois much of the time.

Here's one reason people (me included) think these charges are high.  AT&T for example made net profits in the billions in 2010.  I'm not opposed to a company making money, but please don't think for a second they are not so far into the black on their books that some of these charges couldn't be tweaked some.  Let's hope some competition helps a little with that.

[billybob476]

Why is it a bad deal? Mobile data networks are expensive to build thus mobile data is expensive to provide. If you want it someone needs to pay for it, the networks aren't doing charity deals!

Am I missing something?

I'm with you. People want everything free or cheap then will complain when the network can't support it. If you want to use a lap top or something with unlimited data, then buy the laptop connection. I think the tethering thing is more for a quick way to jump on the web with your other devices, but giving everyone in the range of your iphone free unlimited internet is no going to happen.

I fully agree with this, what I don't agree with is charging for SMS messages. I mean at the end of the day texts are very small data packets. If you have a data plan it should just subtract from that total. Charging for SMS is a holdover from analog days. God, I remember when you could only send texts to people who were on the same provider as you.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Why is it a bad deal? Mobile data networks are expensive to build thus mobile data is expensive to provide. If you want it someone needs to pay for it, the networks aren't doing charity deals!

Am I missing something?

I'm with you. People want everything free or cheap then will complain when the network can't support it. If you want to use a lap top or something with unlimited data, then buy the laptop connection. I think the tethering thing is more for a quick way to jump on the web with your other devices, but giving everyone in the range of your iphone free unlimited internet is no going to happen.

I fully agree with this, what I don't agree with is charging for SMS messages. I mean at the end of the day texts are very small data packets. If you have a data plan it should just subtract from that total. Charging for SMS is a holdover from analog days. God, I remember when you could only send texts to people who were on the same provider as you.

X, I'm not under some delusion this will be free.  But you get 2 GB to be spread out to 5 computers for $20 additional cost per month.  Unless your doing very basic web browsing, that 2 GB will not last the month.  Last month I did a heavy amount of 3G usage on my DL trip.  I hit 1.125 GB by the end of the month and that was 2 weeks on one phone with very little (if any) video streaming.  I don't see how 5 computers are supposed to stay under 2 GBs over the month period, thus making this feature really costly.  At the very least I would like to see 5-10 GBs per month or a reduction in cost, $5-10.  Unfortunately I don't see it happening because ppl will still pay it.  Sadly.  

No, I'm not saying we need to be able to stream youtube over 5 computers either.  But it would be nice if there was a bigger amount of data.  2GBs would require a lot of vigilance, ad-blocking and so on. 

King

[Jobydrone]

Why is it a bad deal? Mobile data networks are expensive to build thus mobile data is expensive to provide. If you want it someone needs to pay for it, the networks aren't doing charity deals!

Am I missing something?

What you'd be missing is a small fortune if you were fool enough to pay these ridiculous additional charges.  Explain to me why, if you are paying $40 a month or whatever it is they are charging for a data plan for their phone, then an additional $20 to activate the ability in the phone to have it operate as a hotspot, that they would set an artificial limit of 2G data on other devices connecting to the hotspot you are already paying extra for?  The only possible reason for that limit, that I can think of anyway, is so they can hit people with even MORE charges when they go over their 2G data cap with their shiny new iPhone hotspot. 

Nickel and diming new customers this way is NOT a good strategy when they need to build brand loyalty and make people want to commit to a multi year contract.  I believe Verizon is way overestimating the ability of iPhone to draw new customers away from other carriers.  They've taken basically the only feature that makes their plan better or different from AT&T (the hotspot) and crippled it.