Mitchell Bingemann | August 01, 2008
VIRGIN Mobile has officially commenced sale of the iPhone 3G in Australia and to mark the occasion is offering some of the most competitive pricing plans in the country.
As reported by The Australian earlier this week, Virgin, a wholly owned subsidiary of Optus, will offer the 8GB iPhone on a 24-month contract at $70 per month, without any upfront fees.The monthly cost will give customers 1GB of data download capacity and $520 worth of calls and text.
For an extra $4, Virgin customers can pick up the 16GB iPhone 3G model on the same plan.
The telco has also introduced a $100 monthly plan that will give customers $520 worth of calls and text, and 5GB of data download capacity. Both the 8GB and 16GB models come at $0 upfront charge on this plan.
While Virgin is advertising both black and white models of the 16GB version for sale, a Virgin spokesperson said the carrier won’t have any black models in stock for another two weeks.
Virgin is also offering the option to unlock the iPhone from its network for $80, plus an additional $250 "early evacuation" fee if users opt out within six months.
Compared with current iPhone plans on the market Virgin offers the best bang-for-buck value in terms of data allowance.
On the Optus $79 iPhone plan customers will receive a $0 upfront 8GB phone with $550 worth of calls and text, and 700MB of data allowance.
In comparison Vodafone’s $69 per month iPhone plan includes $350 worth of calls and text, and 250MB worth of data downloads. Customers must also front an additional $189 for the 8GB handset under the Vodafone deal.
Telstra recently revised its mobile data plans and is now offering an 8GB iPhone package -- at no upfront cost -- that comes at a monthly cost of $80 and includes $70 worth of talk and text, and 150 MB worth of download data a month. Previously the carrier offered only 20MB of data allowance per month.
Telstra’s excess data usage fees have also been halved from a dollar per megabyte to $0.50.
Meanwhile, 3 has launched a series of plans that target existing iPhone owners to switch carriers.
3's plans start at $49 per month and includes $350 worth of talk and text, and 1GB of data allowance. Customer must sign a 24-month contract to be eligible for these plans.