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Helping to usher-in July’s arrival for summer, AT&T has just announced their iPhone 3G pricing details. We’ve already known for some time that AT&T would be offering their iPhone 3G at $199 and $299 price-points for the 8GB and 16GB variants of the iPhone 3G, respectively. But, today’s announcement sheds more light on the AT&T plans for the next-generation iPhone 3G – which launches on July 11, as if you didn’t already know. And, as expected, the iPhone 3G will kick off sales at 8am (local time) at all AT&T stores.
First and foremost, AT&T will be offering the iPhone 3G for $199 and $299 to all existing iPhone customers, AT&T customers eligible 
for handset upgrades, and new-activation customers. Of course, a new 2-year contract will be required of anyone looking to grab an iPhone 3G for those low prices. The White iPhone 3G variant is only available on the 16GB model.
AT&T customers not in the running for a handset upgrade will be looking at paying AT&T $399 for the 8GB iPhone 3G and $499 for the 16GB iPhone 3G. And, AT&T wants us to know that any AT&T customer not eligible for an upgrade can simply wait out their contract and keep making timely payments until the upgrade offer rolls their way.
AT&T has posted buying-guides for existing customers and new customers alike. Find them here and here.
But, in perhaps the most surprising move from AT&T, the company has announced that they will be offering the iPhone 3G sans-contract in the future. That means a no-contract iPhone 3G is definitely in the pipeline. But, for $599 and $699 for the 8Gb and 16GB iPhone 3G variants, respectively, the contract-free iPhone 3G will cost a pretty penny – essentially the same as early iPhone adopters.
The iPhone 3G will also come with a nice little $18 upgrade fee for anyone jumping from a first-generation iPhone or other AT&T handset. New activations will require an additional $36 activation fee.
iPhone 3G rate plans start at $69.99 for 400 anytime minutes, unlimited nights/weekends, Visual Voicemail, Rollover, unlimited Mobile to Mobile calling, Call Forwarding, Call Waiting, Three-Way Calling, Caller ID, and unlimited data. The higher-end of the iPhone 3G spectrum offers unlimited everything for $129.99 on the AT&T Nation Unlimited plan. Calling plans offering 900 and 1,350 anytime minutes are also available for $89.99 and $109.99, respectively.
FamilyTalk plans will start at $129.99 for two iPhone 3G lines sharing 700 anytime minutes. FamilyTalk plans with 1,400, 2,100, 3,000, 4,000, and 6,000 shared anytime minutes range from $149.99 to $359.99. Each additional iPhone 3G line will add $39.99 to the FamilyTalk plans.
Unfortunately, SMS text messages are not included in any AT&T Nation, Unlimited, or FamilyTalk plans. Unlike MMS (picture/video messaging), SMS text messaging has found a huge market as a faster text-based messaging alternative to email, and as such, AT&T is asking that you pay more to get your text-on. A $5 spot nets you 200 SMS text messages, $15 gets you 1,500 messages, and $20 earns you unlimited text messaging ($30 on FamilyTalk plans).
Enterprise and Business customers can expect to pay more for bundled data plans. But, even with $45 iPhone 3G Enterprise data plans, business users are likely to save more on their voice plans.
See you in line!
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...
