I've written before about AT&T Wireless' terrible international roaming rates for the iPhone. Well, imagine my surprise to discover that its roaming rates for its wireless cards is even worse. How much worse? Consider the bill I received from AT&T today:
(Credit:
Matt Asay)
Yes, that's really $1520.76 for one month's usage of my wireless card. But the shocking thing is that $1450.19 of it came from using the card for under three hours to pull down a total of 96 megabytes of data. That's roughly $15 per megabyte. What a bargain!
Given that my calling plan covers the US and Canada, I assumed my data plan would, too. Nope. I pay $59.99 per month for an "unlimited" data plan on my wireless card. It's surprising just how limited that "unlimited" plan is.
AT&T Wireless is gouging its customers (and no, I'm not the only one - this hapless fellow got dinged $6,000 by AT&T for using his phone in Mexico, while this iPhone user got hit with $3,000). $1,450 for a 96 megabytes is unconscionable. It bears no rational relation to AT&T's own costs of delivering the service.
UPDATE: TechCrunch has data that indicates AT&T's text messaging rates aren't so great, either. How about $1,310 per megabyte?
This is my first trip overseas with my iPhone, and it's hard to express in polite language how disappointed I am with Apple's international data roaming packages. I say "Apple's" instead of "AT&T's" because with my old Blackberry on AT&T I didn't have the problem, so I'm laying the blame at Apple's feet.
What's the problem? The cost. With my old Blackberry, I paid an additional $9.95/month for unlimited data while roaming internationally. With my iPhone, I pay $24.99 per month for just 20MB. Scratch that: Last night I upgraded to the only other plan Apple/AT&T offer: $59.95 per month for 50MB of data (on top of the $40/month I already pay for domestic data).
Sound like a lot of MB? Nope. I hit nearly 10MB in just one day, and that's with Saturday email traffic (not much) and very, very little web browsing. No pictures or attachments.
Apple fan that I am, I'm trying to think of a good reason why it should be so much more expensive to access email and browse the web internationally on my iPhone than it was with my Blackberry. (Same sites, same email volume.) It has put a huge crimp on how I use my iPhone. I'm actually frightened to use it at all, lest I go over the 50MB limit (when overage prices hit $5 to $20 per MB(!!!)).
I love my iPhone, Apple. I'd just like to be able to use it internationally. On the plans you currently offer through AT&T, I can't.
P.S. Don't tell me this is AT&T's fault. Apple has had so much control over everything to do with the relationship that if international roaming is ridiculously pricey, it's with Apple's blessing or direction.
Bloomberg reports that AT&T will be giving the iPhone a real broadband connection in 2008. Randall Stephenson, AT&T's CEO, told a Churchill Club gathering. This may be due to improved battery life for the iPhone that Apple cites as the primary reason for keeping the iPhone on a 2.5G network for now.
"You'll have it next year," Stephenson said in response to a question about when the 3G iPhone would debut. He said he didn't know how much more the new version will cost than the existing model, which sells for $399. Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs "will dictate what the price of the phone is,'' he said....
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