Softbank lowers minimum iPhone 3G plans, begins taking reservations
by Darren Murph 
posted Aug 13th 2008 at 11:42PM
Softbank can safely say it has a pretty decent quarter here recently, but compared to NTT DoCoMo, it's looking weak. The exclusive iPhone 3G carrier in Japan has decided to answer outcries of "too expensive!" by lowering the minimum monthly data charge that each iPhone 3G user must pay. Previously, users were forced to hand over ¥5,985 ($55) per month for unlimited data; now, users can pay just ¥1,695 ($16) per month to cover 20,175 packets of data "after which users will pay per-packet until 71,250 packets, at which time the previous ¥5,985 charge is reached and further data use is not charged." In semi-related news, the carrier has also announced that it will begin taking reservations for the handset, so yeah, there's that.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Alex @ Aug 14th 2008 12:31AM
Anyone else think this is awesome?
AT&T charges something like 1 cent a kilobyte... It's like you'd be on that plan but if you hit the $15 unlimited rate it stopped.
Or texts are 10 cents... if you hit $20 (200 texts), it stops.
Best idea ever. Very pro-consumer. Meaning we'll never see it in the US, haha.
Of course, for the iPhone this would be useless (at least to me) since I use quite a bit of data, but for other phones this would be great.
Mycroft @ Aug 14th 2008 10:14AM
I hope thaey have a recall plan in place.
http://blog.omio.com/handset-news/is-the-iphone-3g-reception-actually-3g/
Dakota C @ Aug 14th 2008 2:16PM
I was looking into SoftBank mobile before... their plans are a fucking STEAL compared to the US.
Their cheapest plan is the "White Plan", 980 yen a month, about $9.80 or so. Unlimited voice calling to other Softbank handsets from 1 AM to 9 PM, to other handsets 21 yen (or roughly ~$0.20) for 30 seconds. It sounds pricey but if you're a minimal talker, hey, it works.
And it's only a 6 month contract, with an ETF of roughly $50.
AND if you're a student and can prove it to SoftBank, you can get the White Plan for _free_, apparently.
"Students enrolled for 12 months or more at elementary level or higher institutions, holding enrollment/graduation no more than twice a year, meeting requirements determined by SoftBank, may apply."
And BTW, the iPhone works with the White Plan, so...
$10+$16 = about $26 a month plus whatever is used in calling minutes. Not too bad. But I bet the phone'll be priced around $7-800.
Give me a ticket to Tokyo and sign me up, damnit!
The only Tom in Japan @ Aug 23rd 2008 12:08AM
I got a little excited when I heard the data price had been reduced... the ¥1,695 price covers 20,750 packets - but WTFs a packet?
I checked it out and one packet is 128bytes.
My calculation after looking aorund and converting 128x20,750 was about 2.5Mb!?
So if you only use 2.5Mb or less you get the reduced rate (¥1,695), more than that the rate increases until you reach about 75,000 packets - that works out at 8.5Mb.
After that your on unlimited data that costs the original ¥5,985 per month.
So despite looking good value I don't think anyone will be paying less that the original ¥5,985 unlimited data.
Is it even possible for the iPhone to consume less than 8.5Mb per month?
Also, if I made a mistake with these numbers (they look suspect but I have researches several times and get the same outcome) please please let me know.
I agree that from a marketing point of view it may get more people to adopt the iPhone in Japan, but I think realistically all users will end up paying the same unlimited data rate ¥5,985 as before.