More details emerged Wednesday about the cost of owning and using a Verizon Wireless iPhone, showing it will be competitive with AT&T’s version — but with an unlimited data plan and a charge for hot-spot use, both exclusive to Verizon.
The cheapest monthly voice plan seems to be Verizon’s standard rate of $39.99, with a required data plan of $29 for unlimited data, but only for a limited time. Tethering other devices via Wi-Fi using the device’s Personal Hotspot will cost an extra $20 per two gigabytes of data.
Sneak Peak
Those details were briefly listed on Apple’s web site Wednesday morning ahead of any formal announcement by Verizon. They were quickly removed, but not before they were spotted by the AppleInsider blog.
Wi-Fi tethering of up to five devices is, at least for now, a feature unique to the CDMA version of the iPhone to be released next week — one of several reasons consumers may choose it over AT&T’s iPhone, along with unlimited data and access to a better-rated network. The CDMA version is also believed to have an antenna design without the flaw that caused reception problems reported by a small number of users of the iPhone 4’s GSM version sold exclusively in the U.S. by AT&T.
AT&T stopped offering unlimited data plans to new customers in June. Verizon evidently decided it makes sense to allow unlimited data on the 3G iPhone 4, despite plans to soon move to tiered pricing, since millions of AT&T customers are still using prior unlimited contracts.
“This version of the iPhone will not be a data hog as the next version 5 will be, as it will most likely be connected to their 4G upgraded network — where a data cap will be most appropriate,” said analyst Kirk Parsons of J.D. Power and Associates. He referred to…