A friend of mine (alright, rickyd from MTAU) just got off the phone with Telstra.

Now, the Telstra rep that rickyd spoke to revealed some shocking information: that the $30 per month "plan" won't be a "plan" at all, instead, the $30 per month will just be the mobile handset repayments - you'll have to pay for how much you use on top of that!

Now, this is purely speculation at this point (because we all know that all Telstra employees are sometimes mis-informed in regards to their own product details) but the flip side of this is that if you're taking into account the fact that you are essentially getting a 16GB iPhone for $399 + $30x12 = $1120, or the 8Gb 3G iPhone for $969 - outright.

To summarise - the $30 plan isn't a "plan" that includes usage at all - it's just the amount of mobile handset repayments per month.

From this, you can deduce without too many tears that from Telstra, the:

8GB iPhone = $969 outright, presumably locked to Telstra's network, and the
16GB iPhone = $1120 outright, also presumably locked to Telstra's network.

Of course, both these estimates are not far off from what we originally thought the outright prices were going to be (remember the Domayne screenshot), and that we're essentially getting charged a "Telstra" premium.

So, thoughts?

Rip-off. Optus' handset repayments seem much cheaper? Plus, what happened to $279 upfront?

^ That doesn't make any sense, it's $400 upfront for the 16GB on that $30 plan. It's also 8GB $0 upfront on an $80 a month plan. This is a contradiction. I don't buy it sorry.

Telstra announces it will sell the iPhone 3G

I heard something similar on friday..
basically if you want Data you need to buy a mobile broadband kit...which starts from 30 Mb upto 3Gb...something like that..
not a telstra customer so not familiar..
but it sounded like the rates that we saw...are just that..for the phone component but not the data component..which u may need to purchase seperately and pay as u go..?!!?!?

no way.

if that was the case, telstra iPhone will be pretty much a flop. Too much other competition.

Yeah, I'm skeptical too, but even when you take the upfront costs into account:

16GB:
$399 upfront + $30 over 24 months = $1119

8GB:
$279 upfront + $30 over 24 months = $999

I didn't realise that the 8GB was $279 upfront, sorry. Now that I think about it, that doesn't make sense - if those prices were the case, why on EARTH would you go for the 8GB version over the 16GB?! You're getting twice the space for $120 more, for crying out loud...

PS: Calculator in Spotlight is awesome.

the difference in outright cost for Optus is also $120

Oops wrong section

THoughts?

No Offence, but I think your mate had smoke blown up his arse.

Every time I speak to Telstra, I get a different person. This is good, as it means I can correlate info. the more people that say the same thing, the higher probability of truth.

The one I spoke to today was really apologetic for not having any more info for me.

She said I can definately add to Business plan, said handset Repayments instead of the upfront were not known to be an option at this stage, however they can charge the initial payment to your account. she followed this with a "how else would we get your money if you purchased online..." I asked if the iphone would be available online, and she said she hasn't been told yes or no, but doesn't know of any other handsets that aren't online...

I'm trying to call T-Life in Melbourne today to confirm what i'll need, even see If i can go in on thurs after work and sign everything, and also to find out what time they open on Friday Morning.

Will post again after phone call.

Follow on, had a chat with the lady on phone (same call as before) about data, and she was trying to convince me as to how good the telstra data packs were,and that i can always just add one of them to my account.

Sorry if I am repeating but I only scanned the last 5 pages.
Telstra Store Managers are going on iPhone training tomrorow (Tuesday July 8th). They are having team meetings on Wednesday.
So my suggestion - go on Wednesday and ask for the manager.
Also, correlation to the data bundle discussion - Manager at my local Telstra Store confirmed that she believed that this was the case and that even to access the free wi-fi you would need a data bundle linked to the account.
I guess more news on Wednesday afternoon - but as of now I am looking at Optus.

If you need a Data-pack to get free Wifi then telstra is a non-starter for me also.

Although that's *too* nasty, even for Telstra.


They would have said Free Wifi on all Data Packs as part of their info release t get us all hyped about what new data packs they'll provide.

Just called T-Life Melbourne CBD.

They will be Opening for Busness at 0600 Friday Morning.

Lady Said all contracts need ot be signed that morning, but am going to call back this afternoon (got cut off) and confirm, given I'm adding multipule phones to a business account that i'm not a signatory on.

opps....sorry...wrong thread...

ehh wrong forum??