Ineligible AT&T Customers Need to Pay Full Price For iPhone 3G

AT&T just gave us new details on how their upgrading plans will work for the iPhone 3G. The company is treating the iPhone 3G pretty much just like any other phone in that people who are ineligible for upgrades have to pay the full, unsubsidized price for the phone. People who qualify for upgrade status and people who have an original iPhone are free to upgrade at the $199/$299 price set by Apple. AT&T hasn’t specified what the unsubsidized price is, so we’ll update when we know more. Here’s how you know if you’re eligible.

From Best Buy and Wirefly:

AT&T Cell Phone Upgrade
Am I Eligible for an AT&T Cell Phone Upgrade?
Not all Cingular/AT&T customers may qualify for a cell phone upgrade. At this time, AT&T Mobility allows these customers to upgrade with no upgrade fee when they commit to a new 2-year contract:

AT&T customers who have had 24 months of cell phone service since activation of their cell phone or since their last phone upgrade.
Certain AT&T customers may be eligible for a cell phone upgrade even if they have been in their current plan for less than two years (24 months), if they commit to a new 2-year contract and meet these eligibility requirements:

Customer has had a standard calling plan plus data services costing at least $68.99 a month but no more than $98.99 a month, and who has been in contract (and not had a phone upgrade) for 21 months or more,
or
Customer has had a standard calling plan plus data services costing $99 a month or more, and who has been in contract (and not upgraded) in the last 12 months.
A customer with a calling plan and data services of less than $69 who is 21 to 23 months into contract may upgrade for a fee and a commitment of an additional two-year service contract extension. No upgrade fee is assessed for any customers who are on a month-to-month agreement.

Note that AT&T upgrade eligibility may be further limited based on customer s usage history, payment record, previous phone replacement, etc. Upgrade eligibility is solely determined by AT&T Mobility at its discretion.

TomTom on the iPhone May Not Be Completely Dead

In an interview with TomTom spokesperson Yann Lafargue, French site Mac Generation hit on a few interesting tidbits about 3rd party navigation software on the iPhone. During the interview, Lafargue confirmed that there was a version of TomTom software running on the iPhone but he does not know if they will ever actually ship the product. You would think that the major reason for not shipping would be the clause in the SDK agreement that states “applications may not be designed or marketed for real time route guidance,” but Lafargue insisted that is not a problem.

He believes that Apple is only “trying to protect itself” (from litigation presumably) so the verbiage in the SDK would not be an obstacle. I’m no lawyer, but the clause in the SDK seems pretty air tight to me, so I would take what was said in this interview with a grain of salt. Still, you have to think that developing for the iPhone represents a golden opportunity—so if there is a way, I’m sure someone will find it. [Mac Generation - translated]

O2 pay-as-you-go iPhone plans announced, un-announced

Filed under: iPhone

UK mobile provider O2 posted a page earlier today offering the iPhone 3G with a pay-as-you-go plan costing £300 (≈ $593) for the 8GB model, and £360 (≈ $711) for the 16GB model. The plan includes six months of WiFi and browsing. After the first six months, you can purchase browsing and WiFi access for £10 (≈ $20) monthly.

The offer is available to all new and upgrading customers who purchase an iPhone 3G with Pay & Go until December 31.

The page, however, was taken down moments later, replaced with a page that omitted pricing. Some of the other pages (Tariffs, for example) were not found on the server. Strange. The page says that more information “will be available shortly so come back in a few days.”

Your conspiracy theories are always welcome in comments.

Thanks, Matt, Visa, and Lewis!

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Kiefer Sutherland Plays 24 Card for iPhone 3G. Doesn t Get Jack.
BoomBoom. BoomBoom. Would, for Kiefer’s sake, that it was an episode of 24 and he could just ask the writers to script him in a tasty new iPhone 3G (or just work out a product placement with Apple). Sadly, in the real world, no matter who you might think you are, how entitled a cele-bratty you [...]

SpoofApp
SpoofApp is an iPhone caller ID spoofing, voice changing, and call recording application. It is a for-pay, by minute priced app which requires a subscription. Developer’s Site