Optus prices iPhone 3GS

(Credit: Optus/CNET Australia)

Optus today unveiled pricing for the iPhone 3GS with a week to spare before the phone's in-store availability on Friday, 26 June.

Optus will now offer 3 iPhone models, with the 32GB 3GS version starting for $0 up-front on a $99 "Timeless" plan. This plan includes unlimited national calls, SMS and MMS plus a 1.5GB of data pack for the 24-month life of a new contract. After this contract period customers will be required to pay an additional $14.99 per month for data.

Also made available will be 8GB 3G and 16GB 3GS models, with $0 up-front pricing starting from $59 and $99 per month respectively. All three iPhone models will be sold on contracts for lower per month costs, but customers will incur a monthly handset payment on top of these lower price capped plan prices.

In addition to handset and network access pricing, Optus also outlined the cost for internet tethering and add-on data plans. Apple's iPhone 3GS comes with iPhone as Modem tethering functionality, allowing users to use their monthly internet data allowance to surf the web after connecting their iPhone to a compatible laptop or PC.

Optus will support this feature, offering the service to iPhone customers for $9.99 per month on top of any data pack, though the Telco announced today that customers choosing a $99 "Timeless" iPhone 3GS contract will not have to pay this additional cost. Optus also offers specially designed Mobile as Modem data packs, with 2GB and 6GB allowances for either $24.99 or $44.99 per month after paying the $9.99 per month access fee outlined above.

Optus add-on data packs:

All data packs listed above include charges additional to Optus' "yes" Cap iPhone Plans and incur a $0.35 per MB excess usage fee.

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Tethering extra? Anonymous -- 22/06/09

I don't understand why the tethering option is extra. You still have a 1.5gb cap, so why does it matter.

In actual fact I would have thought the telcos (with a cap) would encourage tethering because the user is much more likely to accidentally blow their cap and get gouged for the extra mb's.

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Tethering extra? Anonymous -- 22/06/09 (in reply to #320144998)

I am blown away at the stupidity of this move. They have shot themselves in the foot on this one. Anybody who would want to seriously use tethering will now simply jailbreak their iPhone

An alternate solution is there are a few sites out there that have the APN settings of your carrier anyway and in 10 seconds you have tethering enabled on your current data allowance the way it should be.

Still it was so frustrating to see optus attempt to screw its customers like that (and not even take them out to dinner first).

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Tethering charges? Craig Ringer -- 22/06/09

Of course, every other phone model "just works" with bluetooth DUN tethering. None of this extra charge crud - and in fact, the provider can't even tell the difference between "tethered" data and data from the phone its self if you use the same APN (Access Point Name).

The notion of charging separately for tethering comes from US phone provider who want to be able to bleed you dry by the death of a thousand cuts. You buy the phone, but despite owning it you don't get access to its features unless you pay to enable them one-by-one. Want bluetooth? that'll be $10 to unlock. Want wifi voip? Only on our wifi voip plans, locked to our provider - no generic SIP providers for you! Etc. At least when they charge extra for wireless data they're actually providing a service, not charging you to give back a built-in feature of the handset.

Don't stand for it. Use a decent phone that doesn't let the providers do this.

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Gouge me ! Anonymous -- 23/06/09

I got to agree.
I use my HTC on Three's network for data with no extra charge over and above the standard data charge.

And until I heard about the tether tax I was pretty sure that Three were the gougiest phone company ever.

I'll still be leaving Three when my contract ends, but I'm not so sure it will be to Optus I go.

I mean if they increased the cost of data across the board to reduce traffic, because say their network couldn't handle it, I could sorta accept that.
But this appears to be a charge aimed at one particular handset, and is occuring while data allowances are going up, so we can only assume the cost of data delivery is going down.

If they really feel an urgent need to copy US telcos, then how 'bout adding support for out of order visual voice mail?

Gouge me dead!

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Unclear plans, excess charges... Anonymous -- 25/06/09

...is why I'm staying away from an iPhone. I don't care what the unit costs up front, only what I'm paying per month for the service, and data is something I'd prefer to get from wifi eight-percent of the time.

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