04/03/2008, 11:10am, EDT
Thursday, April 3rd
T-Mobile rearranges iPhone plans, hints at 3G debut?
The German branch of T-Mobile is changing the way it charges for the iPhone, a local site claims. Under the suggested scheme, an 8GB iPhone could be had for as little as €99; this stands in contrast to the currently advertised cost of €399. The tradeoff would be a mandatory subscription to the carrier's most expensive iPhone plan, Complete XL, which provides 1,000 minutes and 300 text messages. The price of the phone escalates as the plan becomes less expensive; a phone for the Complete L plan would be €149, while taking Complete M would cost €199.
New to T-Mobile is said to be a Complete S plan, under which the iPhone would cost €249 and the subscription €29 per month. This scheme would be unusually restrictive however, supplying just 50 minutes of talk-time per month, and no bundled texting. Likewise, subscribers would have no T-Mobile HotSpot access included, and a fixed data cap of 500MB, compared to the unlimited access otherwise available.
Notably, the 16GB iPhone is expected to remain at a cost of €499, and the new plans will at least tentatively end after June 30th. This timing may coincide with the switch to a 3G iPhone, which analysts from several sources -- such as Piper Jaffray -- have argued is increasingly likely for a June-July timeframe. T-Mobile may thus be attempting to clear out stock of the 2.5G iPhone, which could become extremely unpopular given the prevalence of 3G networks in Europe.
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And I thought we had it tough here in the US!