The iPhone 3G Cost Calculator
September 11th, 2008
In the UK, the iPhone is available on a whole myriad of different contracts with different amounts of texts and minutes. What’s more: it’s available in an 8GB model and a 16GB model. Enter the amount of minutes and texts you use each month and this tool calculates the real cost of owning an iPhone on each of the contract plans, and the effective cost per month.
Price and allowance information taken from the O2 Website on 11th September 2008. Sorry; this doesn’t calculate Pay As You Go prices yet!
This tool doesn’t support pay as you go pricing because PAYG pricing is much more complex than contract pricing. The first 3 minutes each day cost 25p, calls to different networks have different costs, there are additional data costs of £10 a month after 12 months, there are a range of different free text or minutes allowances.
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 | My mission is to demystify the world of mobile technology for general audiences and to communicate how mobile technology can enhance every aspect of our daily lives. I've been maintaining the Ken's Tech Tips website since 2004. I have experience communicating mobile technology and presenting new mobile products both online and offline, including at various trade shows and events. You can check out my profile or drop me an e-mail. |
[...] the iPhone 3G is pretty expensive too. I built the iPhone 3G cost calculator so I could see how much it would cost me. It came out as £640 over 18 months, which is way too [...]
[...] As someone who uses roughly 200 texts and 20 minutes every month, an 8GB iPhone 3G would have set me back £639 over the 18 month minimum contract (see my iPhone 3G contract cost calculator). [...]
Okay, I’ve managed to get my portion of the bill as low as $40 for the iPhone 3G. but! I’m a teenager, so I only pay my portion of the FamilyPlan (total of $40).
One, my dad has the 450 minute family plan for 59.99 + an additional 9.99 for each additional line. I pay that $10 and also the $30 data charge each month. 99% of my friends are on At&T, so what’s the point in paying for unlimited minutes when I technically already have them with the people i call using mobile to mobile minutes.
We have the FamilyPlan unlimited text messaging, which (despite what some people say) DOES carry over to the iPhone. So I only pay $40…but the catch is that it’s 40 only while on a pre-existing family plan…
So find someone who has a family plan, and ask them if they would mind adding your line onto it. Then just pay up your smaller portion each month! iPhone’s don’t have to be expensive if you think about it.