“For consumers eager to get their hands on an Apple iPhone, here’s the good news: It will be available in all 1,800 AT&T phone stores at 6 p.m. sharp on June 29,” Leslie Cauley reports for USA Today.
“To help accommodate as much foot traffic as possible, AT&T phone stores will stay open an extra hour — until 10 p.m. — on the first day… AT&T added 2,000 extra sales people to stores. Half will be there just to help handle the expected early crush of buyers. The other half, says Larry Carter, senior vice president of sales for AT&T, will stay long-term to help with extra customers the iPhone is expected to draw to AT&T’s stores,” Cauley reports.
“Crowd control on launch day is a concern. In some markets — Carter declined to name them — AT&T is working with local law enforcement on crowd-control plans. It also has alerted landlords at shopping malls and other phone store locations to make sure nobody is caught off guard,” Cauley reports.
“If your local store sells out, Carter says sales people will take mail orders, and devices will be shipped in 3 to 5 days, inventory permitting. ‘Ultimately, we will meet every customer’s desire to have one,’ Carter says,” Cauley reports. “To discourage scalpers, AT&T plans to limit how many phones each customer can buy. Carter declined to cite the number, saying only that AT&T would try to prevent ‘hoarding and reselling.'”
“Plans will be customized for the iPhone. Translation: The iPhone may offer cool features such as unlimited Web browsing, but you’ll have to pay for them,” Cauley reports. “Carter says the additional fees shouldn’t be a surprise. ‘Regardless of which device you’re using today, you pay us a certain amount for (voice) minutes, and you also pay us for data units,’ he says. ‘That is also true on the iPhone.'”
More info in the full article here.
Why would you have to pay for WiFi????
doc—-
are you some kind of idiot…..it doesn’t say you have to pay for WiFi…..just unlimited web browsing which probably means when you’re out of WiFi range.
geeze, doesn’t anyone on this site learn reading comprehension?
@doc – “Why would you have to pay for WiFi????”
Welcome to AT&T 2007. She’s back and she’s bitchy, Ma Bell is in your face again!
Just my $0.02
@doc,
I think they meant to say that if you DON’T have WiFi, they have a plan for that too.
Duh, wtf do people expect? Here’s the phone and the plans are free!
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http://www.iphonesaroundtheworld.net
Take it or leave it, Bitches. If you people have any problems with AT&T or Apple then go somewhere else.
AT&T is gonna be the fly in the buttermilk on this beautiful tool.
It’s a bit impressive that ATT has decided that their executives will be able to purchase iPhones until customer demand is met. It’s mentioned at the end of the article.
Why is AT&T being so coy about the plan pricing. It’s going to be a LONG wait on the 29th if they have to explain the service plans to each customer that night. Tell us now for heaven’s sake.
“It’s a bit impressive that ATT has decided that their executives will be able to purchase iPhones until customer demand is met. It’s mentioned at the end of the article.”
I think you mean “will not” be able to purchase iPhones.
Unless there is going to be a crowd of customers surrounding the executives demanding “Buy more iPhones! Buy more iPhones!” and the executives just have to keep buying more until the customers are satisfied.
“Why is AT&T being so coy about the plan pricing. It’s going to be a LONG wait on the 29th if they have to explain the service plans to each customer that night. Tell us now for heaven’s sake.”
My theory is that they suck and/or are expensive, but they don’t want to scare away customers so they are waiting until they are already in the store and/or have been waiting for hours (days?) to get one. It’s not like someone who has waiting long hours to get one is likely to just turn around and decide not to after seeing the plan, whereas if they are forewarned they may simply decide not to get one at all. It’s a lot easier to sell someone something when they are already in the store where they can be convinced by salespeople.
The only reason I can think of for why AT&T thinks that keeping the plan a secret would bring more customers in than revealing it is that they think the plan will scare away customers due to being too expensive or something.
Don’t put it past AT&T to actually try and charge you for WIFI access too. All those communication companies are greedy bastards.
I hope we aren’t in for a shocking iPhone plan. It wouldn’t surprise to see a $100 per month plan to use the iPhone. I don’t expect it but like I said, it wouldn’t surprise me.
One of the reasons I decided to just renew my current Verizon plan and go with an LG VX8300 is because the iPHONE is likely going to require a very expensive plan to use all the features.
Not only voice, but data as well, and since most plans charge as much for data as they do for voice per month, you are looking at double your current monthly rate if you only use voice right now.
Couple that with the price of the phone, and it is just to damned much $$$ to switch.
My biggest concern since day one has been the AT&T service plan…. and the fact it is STILL being kept secret makes me even more nervous. I mean, theoretically it could say ANYthing in there and we just don’t know yet. It COULD have some devised plan to charge for data over your own WiFi network… doubtful… but again this is a cell phone carrier. With this much hoopla going on they can charge whatever they wanted, disclose it only in the final hours and everyone who lined up will likely be more inclined to sign the 2 year contract regardless of the fact it requires giving up their first born child.
The ONLY thing keeping me optimistic is that Apple is involved… and they stood up to the record companies regarding pricing so that they didn’t ruin the iTunes store…. I am hoping they may do the same here…
I have a bad, bad, bad, feeling about this though. I’d pay a lot for an Apple product… but I hate large monthly bills. And can someone tell me this: With a full browser does that mean more data traffic then a hobbled Blackberry browser? I assume it does on an order of magnitude. I guess that doesn’t matter if there is a flat Data Rate plan for unlimited data.
no way will they charge for wifi. i mean, if i’m paying for my wifi connection at home, and i’m sitting on the couch with my iphone – should i have to pay extra to access my own network? i don’t think so.
My only issue is that I find it troubling that Apple are willing to work with a German Automaker for in car GPS (a current rumor of Apple building GPS systems for Mercedes….), but were not at all interested in working with T-Mobile, a more than willing partner, when it came to the iPhone.
That decision alone would have given them both United States and European coverage, and they chose instead to go with AT&T.
WHY?
Becase AT&T has a partnership with DoCoMo in Japan? What has that proffered AT&T? They still have not completely implimented 3G here in the United States, which was the initial point of that partnership and the main reason as to why the iPhone is only 2.5G so what do they gain by that decision?
For the internet functions, Verizon would have been a better choice, and I say that being a proud T-Mobile customer utilizing a blackberry pearl I am quite happy with.
I LEFT AT&T, having been a NEW CINGULAR CUSTOMER (so that story about their problems being from previous AT&T customers is bull pucky), due to their shoddy service and the fact they wanted more and gave you nothing for it. I GLADLY pay $50 more a month to T-Mobile than I did with AT&T due to what they offer me.
I understand the need for Visual Voicemail being done with the provider, I just detest thier choice of provider.
I’ve been waiting a year for an iPhone… but if the service plans are start at $100+/mo BUCK APPLE & AT&T!
first off it is clear that you do not need to get a data plan to use the Iphone if you want to use there edge then yes get a plan
and as for wifi cmon why would they even put in there if you have to pay they would just have edge if that was the case
this needs to stop people wifi is free and no matter what carrier
you have you have to pay for there data service so lets stop this
“I’ve been waiting a year for an iPhone… but if the service plans are start at $100+/mo BUCK APPLE & AT&T!”
I have no doubt that the service plans will start at about $125 a month and maybe go to $200… Apple knows that Fanboys and girls like to overpay for “Apple Stuff”… We’ll be hearing, “This is a higher quality plan than crappy Nokias, and crappy Motos, and crappy Blackberries”… To a fan boy, everything Apple makes is the best and everything else is simply junk…
Jobs is crazy if he doesn’t overcharge for the plans. The faithful will gladly pay whatever he asks (remember he’s getting a kickback from AT&T)..
I would hope for a $49 or $59 plan for everything…I am counting on Jobs “for the average guy” mentality for this.
I pay $50 for a cable modem that averages 2.7 download speed. Not sure what AT&T wireless will have up its sleeve, but I bet Jobs has already influenced whatever it is.
Porgy-you are getting ripped off.
I pay $19.99 a month (to AT&T) for a dsl connection that maxes out at 6mbs, averages 3mbs.
I have tmobile-I pay for unlimited data and for wifi “hotspot” access. Curiously enough, have never actually used a wifi “hotspot”.
doesn’t appreciate being called an idot…
doesn’t appreciate being called an idot…
doesn’t appreciate being called an idot…
doesn’t appreciate being called an idot…