AT&T finally announces business users' plan for iPhone
Over a year after its existence was confirmed by Apple at that historic Macworld event, US carrier AT&T has come to terms with small businesses insisting there is indeed some business value in the device.
This morning, AT&T Wireless announced at last it is making the Apple iPhone available to its business customers, under a plan requiring a two-year service agreement.
In keeping with its plans for other phones in its business arsenal, including BlackBerrys, AT&T is breaking down its enterprise iPhone plan into three tiers, the key distinguishing factor being the cap on SMS messaging. All three tiers feature unlimited Web use and e-mail, plus unlimited visual voicemail. But for 200 SMS messages per month, the basic monthly recurring charge (MRC) is $45; for 1500 SMS in the middle tier, the charge goes up ten bucks. For unlimited SMS, companies pay $65 per customer.
On top of that, AT&T then offers its Data Global add-on service, which premiered last November. This lets each customer rent what it literally refers to as a "bucket," which can hold up to 20 MB of customer data for $24.99 per month or 50 MB for $59.99 per month. The "Global" part of the deal refers to the bucket's ability to roam with the customer to up to 29 countries, including Canada, Mexico, and China.
Data usage that exceeds the cap racks up fees of $0.005 per KB in the 29 country area, and $0.01 per KB outside that area.