The Verizon iPhone plan pricing has been revealed, these rates are monthly and in addition to the price of the Verizon iPhone 4 which starts at $199.99 with a two year contract.
This data is from the Verizon iPhone purchase section on Apple’s website, although the information and rates could change at any time.
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You have probably heard by now that Verizon will charge an additional $20 per month to use the wireless hotspot feature of iOS 4.3 on their iPhone 4. Is this fee worth it? I think that depends, but here’s my opinion on the matter…
If you’re too lazy or don’t want to deal with a jailbreak, or if you’re setting this plan up for your grandma, or if you want an absolutely hassle free nontechnical experience to use a wireless access point, just pay the Verizon hotspot fee. It’s another $20 per month and it’ll certainly be simple to use, just realize that what you’re really paying for is the convenience and super easy setup.
If you’re already familiar with jailbreaking or you’re one of the more technically inclined folks out there, I think you should jailbreak your iPhone and pay for a generous data plan instead.
My view is this, you already pay for data usage, why pay more to use it how you want? Let me remind you that anyone can setup an iPhone Wireless hotspot right now, you just need to jailbreak your phone, and then pay a one time fee to purchase the MyWi app from Cydia.
Let’s do some quick math comparing the two options:
Is the $220 difference over the course of a year worth the convenience to you? Not to me, but for some it definitely will be.
The only uncertainty here is that we don’t know when a CDMA iPhone jailbreak will be available, but let’s hope it comes quickly, then you’ll be able to use MyWi on the Verizon unlimited data plan (the unlimited plan is a good thing to get if you plan on using the iPhone hotspot).
We still don’t know what AT&T will charge for accessing the iOS 4.3 hotspot, or if they’ll even offer it, but hopefully they’ll just decide to include access to the wifi feature for free. Is this likely to happen? I doubt it, but including the hotspot in their standard data plans would be a strong reason to stay with or sign up for AT&T vs Verizon, what other competitive advantage are they going to have? Now, considering AT&T charges $20 a month right now to use your iPhone as a tethered modem, well, the outlook is bleak.
Did I mention that jailbreaking is not illegal? It’s your phone and your data, do what you want with it. For me, that’s MyWi.
Remember that wireless hotspot feature of iOS 4.3 that everyone was so excited about? In order to use it, you’ll have to shell out an additional $20/month on top of your standard data plan to Verizon. Bummer. Although as some consolation, you’ll also get an extra 2GB of data allowance for the fee (which is useless in the face of the $30 unlimited data plan).
The $20 monthly fee was confirmed by Verizon to MacWorld. Remember, you can also just setup a iPhone Wireless hotspot on any jailbroken iPhone.
Hoping to further distance itself from rival AT&T, Verizon will offer an unlimited data plan for $30 to new iPhone 4 customers. This would make Verizon the only US carrier that offers unlimited data for the iPhone, since AT&T removed the unlimited plan in favor of a 2GB limit.
But there’s a catch; the unlimited data plan will only be available temporarily before all Verizon plans are moved onto a tiered data plan like AT&T’s, according to the Wall Street Journal. The pricing and data allowances of the tiered system are currently unknown.
It still remains to be seen what, if anything, Verizon and AT&T will charge to use the much desired wireless hotspot feature in iOS 4.3. Depending on the associated fees, it may be more cost effective to sign onto the unlimited data plan and then jailbreak the iPhone into a wireless hotspot.
Buying the iPhone 4 with a two year commitment agreement from Verizon is the same cost as AT&T’s, but Verizon’s option to pay the full price, presumably without contract, costs $50 more. Here is the pricing information from Verizon:
If you sign a 2-year contract, the price of the Verizon iPhone 4 is the same as AT&T’s offer:
Verizon is charging $50 more for the iPhone 4 than AT&T’s contract-free price:
These prices come directly from the Verizon iPhone 4 FAQ page. There may be a reason for the cost increase, but the only known difference thus far is the Verizon iPhone has CDMA network compatibility. As usual in the USA smartphone market, the CDMA iPhone will almost certainly be carrier locked to the Verizon network.
Is there really an advantage to paying more to buy the iPhone outright when it is carrier locked anyway? This depends, but in my view the only reason to buy an off-contract iPhone is to unlock it for use on other network carriers. With no CDMA compatible iPhone in the wild yet, it is unknown if there will be a carrier unlock that works with the device, so if you are hoping for an unlocked CDMA device you may need to shop outside of the USA.
The first Verizon iPhone commercial has been released. The commercial is intriguing and features several clocks ticking before the message “To our millions of customers, who never stopped believing this day would come… Thank you” before finally flashing the Apple iPhone 4 logo, the Verizon swoosh, and the release date of February 10th.
It might not have the excitement of some of the other Apple commercials but I like it overall.
The Verizon iPhone will be available for everyone to order on February 10th, but existing Verizon customers will get the chance to pre-order the device on February 3rd. As expected, the models offered will be the 16GB iPhone 4 for $199 and the 32GB iPhone 4 for $299, both requiring a two year contract, this is the same pricing structure and contract requirements that AT&T offers.
Other than coverage, the main differences between the AT&T iPhone and Verizon iPhone are two data related features. One, Verizon’s offering will include a mobile hotspot that allows you to turn your VZW iPhone 4 into a wireless router for up to five device. And two, AT&T’s iPhone allows you to use data and voice simultaneously (meaning you can talk on the phone while using the internet), this is something the Verizon iPhone is incapable of doing due to CDMA limitations.
We will provide details on plan options and pricing when it becomes available.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that when Verizon announces the iPhone tomorrow, they will include an unlimited data plan as one of the service options:
Verizon Wireless, the country’s largest wireless carrier, is confident enough in its network that it will offer unlimited data-use plans when it starts selling the iPhone around the end of this month, a person familiar with the matter said.
Assuming the report holds true, this would be a significant differentiating factor between the Verizon iPhone and AT&T iPhone wireless plans. The move by Verizon is seen as an attempt to lure bandwidth hungry users away from AT&T’s network and onto Verizon. iPhone with unlimited data used to be available on AT&T’s network, but the company later scrapped the plans in favor of tiered bandwidth pricing.
Plan details and rates for the Verizon iPhone unlimited data plan are currently unavailable, but we will find out the details tomorrow during the official announcement. If you’re an existing AT&T customer, you can check your iPhone data usage to determine if an unlimited data plan would benefit you enough to make the network switch.
The iPhone is coming to Verizon on 1/11/11, according to the Wall Street Journal:
Verizon Wireless will say Tuesday that Apple Inc.’s iPhone is finally coming to its network, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The Tuesday is obviously next Tuesday, which is the date on the mystery Verizon invitation that was sent out. So much for speculation about the Verizon iPhone, if the WSJ is saying this, it’s about as close to a confirmation as a rumor can get.
Last year, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times both said the iPhone was coming to Verizon in “early 2011.”
More Verizon iPhone rumors… earlier today there was a report that the Verizon iPhone was going to be launched on February 3rd, but that may be wrong (or maybe it’s the availability date)… now press invites are being sent out to a Verizon event on Tuesday (Apple’s favorite day), January 11.
This report comes from MG Siegler on TechCrunch, who says the following:
Well, for one thing, I don’t typically get invites directly from Verizon to anything. At least not that I can recall. They usually send those directly to the MobileCrunch and CrunchGear guys. But this invite appears to very specifically be for me — it’s non-transferable. Would Verizon send me such an invite unless it was specially about Apple?
In case you didn’t know, MG Siegler is TechCrunch’s resident Apple fan, so it would be a fitting selection for Verizon to choose. While there’s no specific mention of Apple on the invite, the only thing expected to come out of Verizon that wasn’t already announced at the CES Expo is the Verizon iPhone.
Is anyone else sick of the Verizon iPhone rumors? Just release it already.
