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Bits and pieces about the Verizon iPhone have finally fallen into place to tell the full story on how much the coveted handset will cost you.
Apple’s website this week temporarily revealed that the Verizon iPhone voice plans start at $40 per month. Text messaging plans start at $5 per month, or you can pay per use for 20 cents each text.
Also news is that*Verizon’s hotspotting feature — the ability to turn the handset into a Wi-Fi network to share an internet connection with multiple devices — will cost an extra $20 per month on top of voice and data plans.*As part of the same plan, customers will also have the option to use tethering, which shares the iPhone’s internet connection with one device. The plan includes 2 GB of data for hotspotting+tethering per month.
As for the price of internet usage, Verizon on Tuesday said the iPhone would offer an unlimited data plan for $30 per month. However, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam clarified that this plan would be available for a limited time, as Verizon will eventually move to a tiered pricing structure for data.
So there you have it: the Verizon iPhone starts at $200 per month with a two-year contract, and if you go with the minimum voice, data and texting plans, you’ll pay about $75 per month. Factor in tax and government fees and that should amount to roughly $90 per month.
On AT&T, the options are a bit different: *1.) unlimited data is no longer an option for new subscribers (though many old subscribers still have the option to stay on their unlimited data plan), and the cheapest data plan costs $15 per month for 200 MB, 2.) there isn’t a pay-per-use option for texting and 3.) AT&T doesn’t support hotspotting, though it does offer tethering for the same $20 per month rate.
So with the tiered data pricing structure, the minimum you’ll pay for an iPhone on AT&T per month is $60 for voice and data; after fees and taxes that comes out to roughly $70 per month.
Confused yet? See the chart above for a side-by-side comparison of AT&T and Verizon iPhone costs.
The Verizon iPhone hits stores Feb. 10.
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
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