iPhone-How Will it Increase My Bill?

I talked to ATT today on the phone. Email is covered by the unlimited data plan. Messaging, which includes texting and tweets, is under the text plan.
 
Look, it's pretty straightforward. AT&T included 200 text messages with the original iPhone rate plans, but have since dropped that with the 3G and 3GS. Therefore, you'll need to either continue to buy text messages at $5 a month, or drop that to help offset the data plan cost. Text messages do use voice services, and MMS messages do use data, but it's now billed separately. It's a moot point what's data and what's not, it's about what AT&T charges for what. There are texting apps you can get, so you can drop the $5 texting if you want to and use a texting app. I have the 450 minute plan for $69.95 and the $5 / 200 message texting and with taxes, I pay $83.17 a month. you can shave $5 a month if you drop the texting plan which would put you in the $78 a month area. (Actually, I just went to work for a company who has AT&T as a client, and I just added the 15 percent discount to my phone plan, so I'm excited to see next month's bill :)

ETA: Just to clarify, I have the $39.99 450 minute plan (plus the $30 iPhone data plan) plus $5 text plus taxes. Also, after examining my bill, I've noticed that text messages are listed under the Summary of Wireless Data, so regardless of what service is being used to transport the messages, AT&T considers text messaging (SMS or MMS) to be data. After a bit of calculating, it appears my bill should drop to about $72 after my 15 percent discount kicks in next bill.
 
Does it really worth paying $85 a month just for browsing on the internet on the street or when you are taking a bus.
I remember a few years back, we were only paying $25 a month plus the make up fee of $7.
Then we start having the 3G video call, text messaging and now data plan for smart phones.
If you look at it this way, the basic charges never really dropped, but instead, we are paying more and more for extra features that we dont really need. Soon or later, we are going to pay more than $100 a month for other features.
No wonder Rogers is so rich.
 
Well, at this point, phone first devices are still around an don't require data plans. If you're only need is to make and receive phone calls, then you don't need a smartphone. I see this all the time. People want the latest gadgets because they think they're cool, or trendy, but they have no real need for them. Personally, I do more than "browse the net on the streets or while riding the bus", so for me, it's worth it to have the extra cost. Not to say I'm happy with paying extra, but it's a matter of need vs want. If you need it, you'll pay for it. If you want it bad enough so you can look cool, then you'll pay for it. If you don't need it, and aren't looking to impress your friends, then a $60 Samsung T239 will more than fill your needs. It doesn't look like a smartphone, it doesn't act like one either, but it's a phone first device that doesn't require a data plan, and will suit your needs. So, since you obviously don't need a smartphone, then you have to ask yourself why you're looking at one when you don't need it. My guess is you want it for the "cool" factor.
 
As a matter of fact, I dont need it for cool factor, but I need the VOIP SIP feature. So that I can reduce the minutes I am using in the day time.
For the Nokia E series phones, they have wifi and VOIP SIP.
That is what I am going after. In other words, I dont need any data plans because I am using wifi, but I need a smartphone for that extra feature.
I am currently having a $25 plan with no system access fee.
I am paying around $31 dollars a month.
And that is all I need. Cheap and effecitve. And yet really cool.

I was just trying to point out that the monthly bill we are paying is becoming more and more.
For example, we can now have optic fibre for the internet from Bell.

My point is that as the technology growth, the basic cost should goes down instead of the staying same.
Otherwise, we will get to a point that the plans everyone using have a huge different.
It is just like 50% is using dial up while another 50% is using fibre optics.

I am not trying to argue with anyone. This is just my opinion. May be everyone feels differently.
 
The costs add up and you really need to look at your usage and need. I got my wife an iPHone and it is for the most part overkill. She doesn't use half of the features and I'm spending $30/month for the data plan.

Most people still just talk and text.
 
Well, there's plenty of cheap wifi phones out there that you can buy unlocked, and have a smartphone with wifi so you can do VOIP to reduce your minute cost. You're just going to loose the coolness factor of not having an iPhone. I suggest you take a closer look at some of the newer iPhone clones from China. I've seen two lately (one with a 200 Mhz processor, the other with a 460 mhz processor), that has alot of neat features like wifi (real) 3G HSPA, front facing camera and a flash on the rear camera all packaged in an iPhone looking package. One runs a proprietary OS, the other runs Windows Mobile.

Take a look at CECT's latest, the F003...

Latest Flying F003 Dual Card Standby Smart Phone with WIFI TV JAVA

It has a 210 Mhz MTK 6235 processor with WiFi and runs about $100-$110 USD.

or...

C6 Smartphone

which runs windows mobile, has wifi, and a 460 Mhz processor and runs win mo apps, and runs about $220 USD.

Both of these phones are pretty cheap, look and "feel" alot like the iPhone, although they are NOT iPhones. You can use these or if you really MUST have an iPhone, and don't want a data plan, then you'll have to buy one direct from Apple for $600 bucks for an 8Gb 3GS (and up). You can then most likely get an account from AT&T w/o a data plan (not 100 percent sure), or T-Mobile for sure. That is if you're in the US.

At the end of the day, you're not going to get a $200 iPhone w/o a data plan. It's just not going to happen. You're either going to pay full price for the phone or live with the contract for 2 years, or, go the knock off route, which seems to be your best bet considering your needs. I still say you should get a data plan because you can't use some of the features when you're not near a hot spot, so it's not as much worth getting if you don't have data connectivity 100 percent of the time, but the choice is yours.
 
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