The new plan, available for $60 a month, is in addition to the domestic voice and data plan that iPhone users initially subscribe to activate the phone. The international plan cannot be bought separately, and should be an add-on to the domestic plan. The subscribers exceeding the 50MB limit would have to pay an additional $0.005 per KB in the countries covered by the plan, while the subscribers in other countries would pay $0.010/KB. AT&T has also launched an additional data plan offering 20MB data access for $25 a month, with similar additional charges in designated countries and $0.0195/KB additional charges in other countries.
AT&T was previously charging $.0195 per KB for all international roaming data usage.
Apple is already facing a lawsuit in New York due to the high roaming charges. In August 2007, Herbert Kliegerman filed class-action lawsuit after he received a $2,000 bill due to data roaming charges incurred while in Mexico for a week. The suit claims that Apple misled consumers about potential roaming charges, and wants the court to order Apple to disclose codes to unlock the phone upon request.
AT&T’s competitor, Verizon, offers unlimited Smartphone data service plan at $45 per month. Verizon also reintroduced a Canada roaming plan, through which subscribers can use their normal service plans on Bell Canada or Telus networks by paying an additional fee of $20. Sprint Nextel also offers unlimited data plans for $59.99 per month. It charges $0.018 per kilobyte for all data services used internationally.
Source: ComputerWire daily updates
