Saturday, July 5, 2008

Sprint Instinct vs. AT&T iPhone 3G Family Talk Plan Price Comparison

Sprint Instinct:

2 lines, 1500 minutes talk time, unlimited data, UNLIMITED text messaging, unlimited Picture-messaging (MMS), unlimited TV (live TV and on-demand channels), unlimited streaming radio, unlimited Turn-by-turn Voice command GPS Navigation with real street name announcement, push email from Outlook/Exchange (no contact/calendar sync however): $129.99 per month

Unlimited Night minutes start at 7:00pm on Sprint's plan

AT&T iPhone 3G:

2 lines, 1400 minutes talk time ($149.99), unlimited data, Unlimited text messaging ($30 EXTRA), no TV, AOL radio, Google maps with GPS, Mobile me email ($100 per year to Apple): $149.99 + $30 = $179.99 per month + ($100 per year for mobileme push email!) Also, the picture-messaging (MMS) might or might not arrive on iPhone...

Unlimited Night minutes start at 9:00pm on AT&T's plan

Verdict: If you have extra $50 per month to spare for iPhone, go with AT&T. Otherwise, Sprint Instinct is your best bet! Feature wise, iPhone is still the best but with a very expensive carrier and Instinct comes close except in the browser department (this might change next month with Opera Mini 4.1 for Instinct which would likely run faster than iPhone's browser!) ! If AT&T were to include unlimited text messaging in the data plan, I might have considered switching to iPhone 3G.

NOTE: Text messaging takes tiny amount of data and AT&T would simply be robbing their subscribers with iPhone 3G text messaging prices!

AT&T pricing source:

http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=4800&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=25883

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/news/comments/att-iphone-3g-plans-70-130-single-130-360-family/14614

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the breakdown, it was very helpful. Before it seemed expensive, but now it is pretty clear why it seems that way.

Anonymous said...

Hmm. The MobileMe is far more versatile - email, contacts, calendars, photos, more - and cross platform (Mac & Windows - Outlook & Exchange). There's also a web interface to all your information, and as with anything else, updates are pushed to all your devices (not just the iPhone). So, add a contact on the iPhone and your Mac desktop, Mac laptop, Windows desktop and Windows laptop will all get the update.

Far better than just pushing to Outlook/Exchange.

Me said...

I agree that MobileMe is better (in theory; it has had a lot of issues in the past few weeks) but it will cost you an extra $200 over a 2-year contract. Sprint's push email is included with many of Instinct's plans without extra charge!

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