Hutchison Telecom's Three mobile network to offer iPhone rate plans starting at $24

Following on their previous announcement that Hutchison Telecom’s branded “3″ wireless network will offer the iPhone in Hong Kong and Macau, the carrier has today announced its iPhone rate plan pricing schedule.

Set to make AT&T iPhone 3G customers green with cashless-envy, Three will be offering their iPhone rate plans starting from just $24 ($188 HKD) per month.

The lowest-tier calling plan offers 500 wireless minutes, 500 heart-to-hear minutes, 25 multimedia messages, 15 SMS text messages, 500 MB of data usage and unlimited Intra 3 iPhone SMS messages. Three customers choosing this calling plan can nab their own 8GB iPhone for $377 ($2938 HKD), or the 16GB variant for $479 ($3738 HKD).

iPhone hopefuls looking to subscribe to 3′s highest-tier calling plan will be asked to fork over $64 every month, in return for 2200 wireless minutes, 1500 heart-to-hear minutes, 150 multimedia messages, 50 SMS text messages, unlimited data usage and unlimited Intra SMS messages. The most expensive iPhone calling plan subsidizes the iPhone purchase to give customers a free 8GB iPhone or a 16GB iPhone for about $20 ($138 HKD).

Now, let’s consider 3′s iPhone offerings compared to, oh, say Rogers’ iPhone plans. 3 seems to have the right idea here. The lower iPhone calling plan tiers offer limited data plans while the higher-tier offerings include unlimited data use. Rogers might do well to take a page out of 3′s marketing playbook.

iPhone rate plans on Hutchison 3 three

[Via: AppleInsider]

About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...

The Fixer

Stop Stop Stop with the Roger’s bashing. Do you have ANY IDEA what it costs to connect the backend towers to highspeed Internet? I’m sure you do, and also, they have EVERY right to CHARGE WHATEVER they want for data access.

As a user, does it suck? Yes it does, so if you don’t like it, don’t buy a friggin 3G Iphone.

Why don’t you go with another carrier in Canada that has unlimited data… Oh WAIT! There isn’t one. You know why? Because competition works, and Canada doesn’t have much in the way of decent competition for cell phones.

Just remember the backend isn’t free, T3′s, ATM, and OC-3/12/48 Costs a C-R-A-P-L-O-A-D of money. So remember that when you go off ranting about download cap’s on Internet connections.
The Fixer

Please be advised that I agree with you that Robbers absolutely sucks. Crappy Cell phone companies are one of the reasons that I actually decided NOT to consider a move to Canada from Alaska.

But… and this is what I don’t understand, why CAN’T a corporation be greedy? They are beholden to their shareholders (NOT their customers) to make the most money possible. They are providing a desired service, not a required service like health care or food.

The market drives pricing, if they feel that they can make money and not drive their customers away with this pricing, more power to them right? Even if they could make a TON more money by lowering their prices, it is their prerogative NOT to do that.

Yeah it sucks for us consumers, but we are exactly that, if we don’t like it we don’t have to consume their product.

Cell phone comes are NOT a regulated monopoly like power companies or other utilities. If you don’t like their pricing, tell them to stick their 3yr contract and crappy data package where the sun don’t shine.
Steph

We have the CRTC (Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission) which is a federal regulatory body who is supposed to oversee the industry in general and make sure Canadians aren’t getting RIPPED OFF by greedy companies like Rogers. They have been doing a very poor job. It’s also important to note that the vice chair of the CRTC is a 17 year veteran of Rogers Inc. The situation STINKS!

The people of Canada are ultimately responsible for this mess by not insisting our politicians allow real competition in the Canadian Telco industry. I think that’s about to change given the iPhone uproar. In the meantime, we have the RIGHT (the DUTY) to complain as loud as we can. In fact, the endless bad press Rogers have received over the past few days is already having a huge impact. Rogers is PR panic mode right now and announced yesterday that people will be allowed to “import their existing voice plans and select a separate data plan”!

I still won’t be buying an iPhone until another carrier is able to offer it here. In fact, after 10 years of being a loyal Rogers customer, I cancelled my cell and internet services as of yesterday. Rogers won’t see another dime from me and many other Canadians. I now use another carrier for cell and I’ll use an iPod touch instead.

Rogers will learn it is beholden to BOTH their shareholders AND their customers. Basic economics suggest that without customers, there are no sales and, therefore, no PROFIT!!!