I was under the impression you HAD to have a data plan w the phone.

Rumor? I was kicking around the idea of buying an iPhone last night, looking on their website. I saw verbiage on the website that implied exactly this - that AT&T is just going to stick you on a data plan.

Fact!

Doesn't this represent a material change in the contract? I mean can't you just null contract with AT&T? Of course apparently the iphone is neutered on other networks, but these people weren't using the data plan anyways so WTF do they care?

@sonneillon: Technically, you're required to have an iPhone data plan if you use an iPhone on the AT&T network. Some people have found ways around this--like using Pre-paid SIM cards with grandfathered MediaNet plans, or swapping out SIMs between Blackberries and iPhones, and so on.

If you follow the rules and buy an iPhone through AT&T or Apple, yes, you will have to agree to and sign up for an iPhone data plan.

Can someone explain why someone wouldn't get a data plan with the iPhone?

@Chris Walters: Sounds kinda wonky, but if they had a plan grandfathered in and it's in their contract, I think my point is still the same about a material change nullifying the contract.

I recently tried to upgrade my smartphone with T-Mobile and was told I could not receive a rebate if I did not subscribe to and keep a data plan. I am so switching as soon as my contract ends!

@Syd: Costs too much, network is too slow, wifi works just as nicely but free.

Early iPhone users didn't HAVE to have a data plan. I used to have an iPhone but dropped AT&T because the best phone in the world didn't have service at work or home... in downtown Chicago. I was told it was due to all the "big buildings". Weird though since most of them have cellular antennas attached somewhere...
But anyway, if they did make it mandatory, they would be required to let you opt-out and essentially end your contract without penalty. Then you could sell it on eBay and use the $350 to buy a controlling share in Bank of America or GM.

@Syd: I guess if you just wanted to use it as a phone. I have a smartphone but I opted to not get a data plan (well, my family already has a text/mms plan) because my phone has wifi and pretty much wherever I go I can connect to the net somehow. Saves me paying $30/month when I pay more than that for internet at my house, and most of the places I go (school, primarily) have a campus-wide wifi setup. I'm not saying there are times I don't wish I could google something wherever I was (well, texting google always works) but it's not worth the $30 a month.

I had a data plan but still got ride of the service. My iPhone has become a Touch. Submitted AT&T to BBB. Got my money back for 3 months that I paid and they killed the early termination.

Love the phone..loath AT&T

@Easton21:
I got my iPhone the week they came out, and my memory of the activation process was that you had to select a data plan. You could add optional texting packages, but the data plan was mandatory.

@LegoMan322:

I actually got a Touch, and after only a few weeks of playing with it I can honestly say I can clearly understand why people love the iPhone. But I know I just could not live with AT&T to have one.

Data plan? No problem. Give me the option for no damned voice plan...

@segfault: iPhone as a pay-as-you-go...

@Syd: its for people who want the "i own a iphone status" but are either too dumb or too broke to have the part that actually makes the phone good.

I'd like to have an iPhone, but I would rather string two tin cans together than do business with AT&T.

@metsarethe...:
This is mainly targeting all the jail-broken iphones that were purchased from ebay or where ever.

It also targets people that bought their iphone second hand from someone that just ended their contract and upgraded to a newer iphone.

Other than the Blackberry and iphone, you're not required to sign up for a data plan for any other phone that ATT offers. Even with a Windows Mobile phone, you can choose pay-per-use data.

If they try to switch me from the $15 data plan then I will simply get another device.

@AHemp:

amen,,, My primary company phone is on Verizon, and I have a personal BlackBerry with data only on AT&T. I would love to have a data only iPhone....

So far, AT&T has been pain-free and reliable for me in Baltimore. I hear San Francisco is horrid due to overcrowding of the service.

But if this is for the original iPhone plan, that'll expire really soon. I won't be surprised if the next iPhone that covers the iPhone 3.0 firmware announced earlier would require such a plan -- video upload anyone?

Data plans comparable to the iPhone plan cost $20, not $30 - the only thing you're missing is visual voicemail - you don't even have to have a jail broken phone. I bet there are lots of people like this on the $20/month 1st Gen iPhone - I'm interested to see if ATT forces them to pay for the $30/month even if people who started iPhone plans at the same time are still paying $20/month now...

The network reads the IMEI everytime you make a call. The requirement for the data plan is listed in many places: on the contract you signed or agreed to on the phone, on the terms and conditions booklet, on iTunes and not to many other places. You are aware of the requirement when you got the phone. How is this a material change? You agreed to it when you got the phone.

The data plan's expense is the main reason I'm not interested in getting an iPhone. That, and it seems ridiculous to pay $30/month for EDGE-only service since they haven't deployed 3G here.

After actually reading the article (I guess I should have done that before) AT&T is only doing this for 3G iPhones... Which sucks for lots of people, but this means you can buy a second-hand 1st Gen iPhone and you should be fine!

The reason is CHOICE. I am not on AT&T but am thinking about it when my contract runs out. The reason the cell phone companies want you on a text plan is because they make millions more with it. It costs almost nothing to send text instead of voice, so the more thy can get you to text the more they make.

I CHOOSE not to be on a text plan because I want the cheapest plan I can get. I use the MagicJack at home for daytime calls while I am home, and the cell for when I am not. $40 (plus tax and other stuff) a month for the cell and $20 a year (not a month) for MagicJack are all I need.

Let me count the reasons why I won't buy a Jesus phone (AKA iPhone)
1) AT&T service
2) High upfront cost
3) High on going costs
4) Did I mention AT&T service?
5) Crippled functionality
6) Browser won't render many popular web sites
7) No data tethering

On the other hand, none of the other "smart" phones are better. Someday internet phones will be ready for prime time.

I would love to drop the voice plan on my iphone however with a post on consumerist I was able to trim $10 off my bill a month bringing my ibill to $65 a month. It still hurts like a sour relationship you can't get out of however.

@Smorgasbord: ATT is a company and they can choose to make you have a data plan. You can choose to drop the company.

@albokay: Pretty much.

@metsarethe...:

You are not required to have a data plan, but with out one I wouldn't recommend using any of the apps that require you to go online. Cause they financially rape you with the pay as you use for going online. You could have a Iphone and use it as a regular phone, but then why buy one? I bought the htc fuze and I pay a extra $30 a month for unlimited data but I know it would cost me much much more if I didn't have the data plan.

@sonneillon: It's part of the terms of service for the iPhone, not the contract.

[www.wireless.att.com]

@vastrightwing:

3.0 is gonna have increase functionality and tethering...

@tangent4: I've updated the headline to make that clear. Thanks for catching it.

@johnva: The charge for data is based on smartphone vs dumbphone, not 2G vs 3G. Smartphones tend to use more data than standard phones do.

Both T-Mobile and Verizon price their data plans in this way, though the charges may vary.

4 family members = 4 iphones, but you will never ever find me on a mac

@Syd: It's not that they don't have data plans, it's that they don't have an iPhone data plan. AT&T offers an unlimited data MediaNet plan for non-smartphones that costs $15/month. The iPhone data plan is $30/month for unlimited data.

@albokay: Or people just want it because it's good at texting, syncing with their music collection, and good for browsing the internet in wifi zones? And they don't need to be online 24/7?

@ErasmusAndreus: Nokia E71!

@LatherRinseRepeat: I work for ATT you don't have to have a data plan for a blackberrys. Sometimes its in the contract for rebates or other places that require to keep it. You an even get media net to work on it with payperuse but not any of the blackberry features such as email and pin messaging.

@Juan Mendez:
Hate to break it to you but your iphone is a mac. it runs a slimmed down version of the mac operating system, developed by the same people who developed the mac.

i'm not sure i understand. What exactly can they do if you say no?

It's a material change in contract, so legally, there's no ETF.
You've purchased the phone, so you can take it to a different service provider. With unlocks and everything, you can get it to work.

The only thing this will do is lose them customers. I don't see why they would do this.

@Nathan Miller: I know. I'm saying that I don't have much use for a smartphone that only has Internet at 2G speeds, and I don't like that AT&T still charges just as much for data plans despite the lack of 3G in my area.

Without getting into the whole 'your are a tool if you have an iphone' subject, I think this kind of thing is not only unfair but it almost seems like it could be illegal... I mean, I don't understand why you wouldn't have the data plan but if you really don't want it than you shouldn't have to have it. It really bugs me even more being an AT&T customer.

@STrRedWolf: Regarding San Francisco, I have been with AT&T (switched from Verizon) in SF for 9 months now and the service has been trouble-free. In fac, the biggest difference is that in my current apartment my iphone has 5 bars 3g while a verizon phone in the same place has 1 bar, no 3g.

> "On the other hand, none of the other "smart" phones are better. Someday internet phones will be ready for prime time."

@vastrightwing: See, I'm glad you're honest here. There's nothing more hilarious than watching an anti-iphone fanboy spout off about how the iphone is a crock of shite and then go on to say how his Motorola Q or HTC [CodenameOfTheWeek] running Windows Joke Mobile is awesome. It kinda ruins their credibility y'know?

When a better phone comes around, I'll buy it. But if the "iphone killer" selection* we've seen so far from the competitors stays at its current pathetic level of fail, something tells me that that future "prime-time" smartphone we all want will probably have a fruit logo on the back of it.

* such as Instinct, LG Voyager, LG Dare, G1, etc. and Palm Pre. OH NO HE DIT'NT! That's right, pre fanboys, I said it. Pre is going to blow so hard (when it finally ships) because palm hasn't written a single byte of software that wasn't a turd since about 1997. Only palm sucks hard enough to have lost their market to windows mobile, the only way winmo could not look like a turd was to compete with palm.

that was a long meandering rant. yay internet!

yet another reason to not get an iphone.

@rpm773: AT&T has officially required one for some time, but there are/were several ways around this

@West Coast Secessionist: Bars mean less than nothing.

@karan1003: How is it a material change in the contract?