David Flynn08 May 2009, 6:15 PM
UPDATED: Optus and Vodafone both drop their cheapest 'free iPhone' plans to $49 per month to clear stocks ahead of a possible third-gen iPhone in July.
With Apple expected to unveil a third-gen iPhone within the next eight weeks carriers are moving to clean out stock of the current model.
Both Optus and Vodafone are now offering the iPhone as a freebie on plans for as little as $49 per month, although as always it pays to check the small print and see how these new deals stack up to others on the menu.
For example, Vodafone has now made the iPhone 3G free on its $49 cap plan whereas the first zero-cost iPhone was previously $69 per month. But it’s not quite what it seems.
The $49 cap plan is good only for voice calls (albeit up to $350 of ‘em). To quality for the gratis 8GB iPhone you also have to sign up for Vodafone’s $9.95 ‘Internet on Your Mobile’ data pack, which is good for 200MB of data per month and attracts an excess usage rate of 12c/MB. That comes in at $59 per month, and naturally the deal requires inking a 24 month contract.
Vodafone's new $49 deal actually turns out to be a $59 deal but will still help move soon-to-be-superseded iPhones
By comparison, the standard $69 iPhone plan gives you $400 worth of calls plus 1GB of data. Considering this is
five times the amount of data as a plan costing just $10 per month less – and that exceeding the cheaper plan’s 200MB limit by just 90MB will make up that difference – you’re far better off digging for that extra $10 per month and ponying up for the $69 plan to begin with.
You also get the option to upgrade from the freebie 8GB iPhone to a 16GB model for $5 per month or $121 up front.
Optus’ $49 plan is pleasingly more straightforward. For starters, it actually costs $49 per month over 24 months (add an extra $40 per month as the handset payment if you want only a 12 month lock-in). This gives you 250MB of data plus $300 of talk and texts. By comparison, the next-up $59 plan doubles the data to 500MB and bumps the talk and text allowance up to $350.
Upgrading to the iPhone 16GB requires an extra $13 on the 24 month contract or $50 for 12 months. This is a limited time deal with Optus says is available until May 24 “or while stocks last”.