Okay, two days to go until Apple’s mighty iPhone 3G hits Australian shores and we have all waited patiently (or not) to see what Vodafone would do. Optus released their prices a few days ago – you can see the plans at this link. I won’t even bother linking to Telstra, as I hate them and will never pay them again, but they released their plans a few days ago. If you like Telstra, Google it.
So, where was Vodafone? They were the first to announce that they would have iPhone in Australia. Rumour had it that Vodafone would have special discounts that other carriers wouldn’t get. Read this post from May 6th, 2008 by Asher Moses of the Sydney Morning Herald – Interesting. The fact that they held out so long to give prices would indicate that they wanted to see what everyone else was doing and then swoop in to steal the thunder … not quite.
Vodafone finally released their plans today and with a few minutes pulled them down again … pardon?!?!? What the fuck was that all about? Were the plans incorrect or was Vodafone just embarrassed about the prices and decided to hide and cower? I don’t know. But, if these plans are correct – Hello Optus, Yes! I would like my iPhone now. Luckily, as reported here by Gizmodo this morning, some fast acting souls grabbed screen shots of the elusive plans (shown below) for us all to see.
When I first saw these I thought, okay, I’m off to Optus. But then a second screenshot on Gizmodo showed more plans (pictured below):
Now, Vodafone may have just retained me as a customer! I have to disagree with Nick Broughall at Gizmodo on this one. Vodafone doesn’t list its data plans for the $49 plan (or any on that second list) on this screen shot, so we can’t assume that the data is worse than Optus (they are offering 250mb on their $49 plan). I already pay $49 per month, so that is the plan I want. This $49 plan is very resonable and that is about the price I wanted to pay for the iPhone itself. Please tell me that this is a final price list and all I want to know now is what is the data plan for this $49 per month? I still wait impatiently. One last question, what about wifi access – Nick Broughall says tat Vodafone isn’t offering wifi access, true. But I can’t see Optus offering it anywhere either. Did I miss something?
BTW – Thank you Gizmodo and Nick Broughall for this information as I was out at an event with my son this morning and missed this first time around.
