superstitionist.com

Today ATT announced the new rate plans for the upcoming 3G iPhone.  There is a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth in the blogosphere about the exclusion of text messages from the basic plan, the overall plan price hike (from $20 to $30 for data) and over what appear to be exorbitant prices for the family talk plans.

However, as probably one of the few corporate IT people reading the press releases and blog commentaries I was most interested in the corporate rate plans.  As far as I can tell nobody has commented on the exact wording of the press release and how it relates to the posted rates on ATT’s business site.

The press release excerpts in question are as follows:

Corporate e-mail and other business applications require the Enterprise Data Plan for iPhone, which is $45 a month and bundled with an eligible voice plan.

iPhone 2.0 Software
All iPhone customers will benefit from the iPhone 2.0 software, which will be pre-loaded on all iPhone 3Gs and available as a free download for current iPhone customers. The new software will include numerous enhancements, such as business-class e-mail access via Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync

So which is it?  $30 iPhone data plan and I get all benefits of the v2.0 software including Exchange ActiveSync or do I have to pay $45 for ‘corporate email’ (which means Exchange).  ATT’s business page (here) lists a $30 and $45 rate plan for business but again, implies the $45 rate is what gets you the corporate email vs. the personal email for $30.  I don’t know many people (none) that have personal Exchange email so this doesn’t add up.  Interesting, this is exactly how the BlackBerry plans work on T-Mobile and other carriers.  Personal/internet BlackBerry plans are billed at one rate and to get the enterprise connectivity you have to pony up more money — $10 more in the case of T-Mobile.  Hopefully we get some more clarification from the marketing folks at ATT in the coming days and weeks.

ATT Press Release Details

iPhone for Business page at ATT

UPDATE:  Beat the Chronicle by 12 minutes with my corporate data plan questions - woo hoo! SFGate