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AT&T: iPhone will NOT come with 18-months of free service

Friday, January 26, 2007 · 9:51 am · 17 Comments

“This morning, a reputable investment site made mention that AT&T plans to give away 18 months of service for free with every iPhone,” Briam Lam reports for Gizmodo.

Lam reports, “It’s not important who said this cough *thestreet.com* cough, but a Cingular rep just told me that the rumors are simply not true: The report is nonsense. ‘We’ve always said the only way you can get the iPhone is with a Cingular rate plan.’“

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Scott" for the heads up.]

MacDailyNews Note: AT&T (Cingular) has not yet announced iPhone rate plans.

Related article:
Jim Cramer: AT&T to promote Apple iPhone with 18 months of free service – January 25, 2007

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Comment Feed

17 Comments

LordRobin

Friday, January 26, 2007 - 10:55 am · Reply

And Microsoft didn’t give away the Zune in boxes of cereal like people were practically expecting. There is a limit to how much a company is willing to clobber its own revenue to gain market share.
fatal

Friday, January 26, 2007 - 11:03 am · Reply

i suspect misinformation here.

I think that the FREE refers to the DATA add-on to a regular cell phone minutes plan.

Think a regular cell plan + a data plan($20). And the data plan would be free for 18 months.

NOTICE how the Cingular rep. says, “‘We’ve always said the only way you can get the iPhone is with a Cingular RATE plan.” He says nothing of a data plan.
Mr. Peabody

Friday, January 26, 2007 - 11:05 am · Reply

Oh well, now instead of the iPhone leaving an instant global footprint of destruction, it’ll just be the regularly expected iPod phenomenon x 10.
cesjr

Friday, January 26, 2007 - 11:06 am · Reply

I find that denial pretty vague. Plus, there are employees of Cingular and Rodgers saying that Apple is not allowing subsidies. That makes 499 and 599 unsubsidized, creating room for discounts.
One guy from Finland

Friday, January 26, 2007 - 11:10 am · Reply

What? Didn´t AT&T promise iPhone for free for everybody?!

Amazon.de has removed the price from their web pages.
It is interesting to see what the price will be in the EU.
Told You So

Friday, January 26, 2007 - 11:14 am · Reply

With all the giddy, irrational nonesense running amuk over the introduction of a new cell phone, why in the world would any business enterprise offer any kind of incentive, discount, or special offer to attract buyers.

Even Steve’s Chinese assembly lines won’t be able to keep up with the buying frenzy.

Then, when everyone sobers up, and there is a true consumer test of how well the phone works, there may be some incentives.

AT&T, Cingular – whatever – is as cocky as Lord Jobs and, if anything, they are going to see just how far they can push the market before they hit the limit of what all this hysteria will support. Look for price INREASES, longer commitment terms, higher RATES, between now and June.
Gandalf

Friday, January 26, 2007 - 11:14 am · Reply

“Cramer said AT&T (NYSE: T – News) is one of the most interesting stories coming out of the tech period. In its call, the company made it very clear that it’s going to use Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL – News) iPhone to get customers from Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ – News) by giving away its service for a year and a half to those customers who buy the phone,” a recap of Cramer’s Wednesday, January 24th appearance on TheStreet.com TV, posted on TheStreet.com, read.

Ostensibly, Cramer, or the person recapping what Cramer said, was referring to Cingular’s conference call from Wednesday morning. The problem is, no one on Cingular’s call ever mentioned giving away free service to iPhone buyers.

According to a transcript provided by CallStreet, outside of a couple of brief mentions in the prepared remarks, the subject of the iPhone only came up once on Cingular’s call. Furthermore, on yesterday’s AT&T’s conference call, the iPhone was mentioned just once, and in passing.

http://biz.yahoo.com/indie/070126/587_id.html?.v=1
ron

Friday, January 26, 2007 - 11:48 am · Reply

Just what Cingular rep would know this info?
JadisOne

Friday, January 26, 2007 - 11:52 am · Reply

It was nice to dream there for a second.
M.X.N.T.4.1

Friday, January 26, 2007 - 12:03 pm · Reply

It was never gonna happen. An effective 75% discount, it would be confirmation that they massively overcharge. It would be suicide. I know they profit but that’s ridiculous.
alansky

Friday, January 26, 2007 - 1:11 pm · Reply

Nevertheless, at MacWorld Expo, the official announcement quoted prices including a two-year contract.” Now, this information may not be correct, but I totally agree with the person who wrote in to point out that a Cingular rep would be the last person in the world to have a definitive answer to that question. They can’t even give intelligent answers to questions about the products they are already shipping.
PC Apologist

Friday, January 26, 2007 - 1:35 pm · Reply

*ONLY* available with a Cingular rate plan? I thought these were going to be available from the Apple store? What if I want to buy the sucker and use the PDA functionality via Wi-Fi and bluetooth connectivity options until my existing phone plan goes away? Or what if I don’t want to use it as a phone at all?

I hope that’s a misstatement.
Jooop

Friday, January 26, 2007 - 2:00 pm · Reply

@PC Apologist…if that’s what you want the iPhone for, you’re going to have to get it off eBay or import it from another country.
Ron R

Friday, January 26, 2007 - 2:09 pm · Reply

It amazes me that no mention of the monthly service cost for a contract from Cingular/AT&T for the iPhone was made during the keynote…
Bryan

Friday, January 26, 2007 - 2:37 pm · Reply

If AT&T isn’t allowed to subsidize the iPhone, what is AT&T giving Apple for the exclusive contract? What’s in it for Apple? Normally the cell service providers get phone exclusivity (like Verizon with the Q) in exchange for phone subsidy (why the Q only costs $99). If there’s no subsidy, then AT&T must be giving Apple something else.

It may be freedom from the damn branding they normally stamp all over the phone. I doubt that Jobs would want AT&T logos plastered all over the iPhone. Could that be it?
ken1w

Friday, January 26, 2007 - 4:25 pm · Reply

At this point AT&T would be foolish NOT to do it. Look at all the positive buzz this has (and will) generate.
Love My 5 Macs, But Reality Bites

Saturday, January 27, 2007 - 2:14 pm · Reply

I have no idea why MDN continues to assume that AT&T’s iPhone rate plan will be any different than the money sucking vampire that their other ones are. Well, except for the fact the MDN simply refuses to criticize anything Apple..a bit irrational, that.

iPhone Math 101…

(unbelievably great phone) X
($40/mo for service + $45/mo data plan) =
nowhere near as many customers as MDN blindly believes will show up in June

You gotta wonder if those Apple Store ads to the right might be coloring MDN analysis…nah, that only happens in Windows publications, right MDN?