AT&T and Apple Announce Simple, Affordable Service Plans for iPhone
All Plans Include Unlimited Data & Visual Voicemail — AT&T Inc. and Apple® today announced three simple, affordable service plans for iPhone™ which start at just $59.99 per month.
Context & Ripple Effects
Four days out from Friday's launch — with customers already camped outside Apple's Fifth Avenue flagship more than four days early — Apple and AT&T have closed the last big open question for buyers by publishing the full rate card: three plans starting at $59.99 a month, every tier bundling unlimited data and visual voicemail. The companion announcement of iTunes-based in-store activation means the phone leaves the box ready to use, with no carrier-store provisioning step.
That flat-price framing matters against how US carriers had historically sold smartphones, where data was an add-on priced separately and the monthly bill was hard to predict. By making 'unlimited data included' the floor rather than an upsell across all three tiers, Apple and AT&T turned plan simplicity into part of the product pitch — and gave the reviewers assessing the iPhone as a breakthrough handheld computer a concrete cost figure to weigh it against.
First-order effects
- Launch-day shoppers lining up Friday now know their true cost of ownership up front — $59.99 a month buys unlimited data and visual voicemail — removing pricing uncertainty from the purchase decision.
- AT&T converts its iPhone exclusivity into a clean three-tier lineup, with activation handled through iTunes at point of sale rather than in carrier stores.
Second-order effects
- Rival handsets sold on other carriers now compete against a bundle whose headline is simplicity and unlimited data, pressuring competitors to justify their own à-la-carte data add-on pricing at the moment of comparison shopping.
- Visual voicemail — previously a niche feature — gets distribution to every iPhone buyer as a default, setting buyer expectations for what any premium-tier handset should include.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, US mobile pricing shifts structurally away from metered, feature-by-feature billing toward flat-rate unlimited-data smartphone plans as the reference offer — the shape every subsequent carrier-iPhone negotiation has been measured against.
The trend: Smartphone service is consolidating around flat-rate unlimited-data bundles, with device makers using plan design as part of the hardware pitch.