We’ve heard the U.S. plans that AT&T is making available, but that’s not the only information that’s dropped recently. If you’re a prospective iPhone customer in Switzerland or Hong Kong, you’ll be glad to know that providers Swisscom and 3 Communications have spelled out their rate plans for the iPhone 3G.
Swisscom is offering four plans for the iPhone, all with adorable monikers and available on July 11. The NATEL liberty piccolo plan costs CHF 25/month (about $25/month) and includes 100MB of data with a flat rate of CHF 0.70/minute (roughly $0.70/minute); the 8GB iPhone will cost CHF 249 and the 16GB will run CHF 349. The NATEL liberty mezzo plan drops the 8GB iPhone to CHF 199 and the 16GB to CHF 299; the monthly fee is CHF 35 for 250MB of data, and a flat rate of CHF 0.50/minute. The NATEL liberty grande plan lowers the price of the iPhone even further, to CHF 99 for the 8GB model and CHF 199 for the 16GB unit; the CHF 55/month plan includes 1GB of data with a flat rate of CHF 0.50/minute. Those three plans all require 24 month contracts, but include Visual Voicemail and free access to over 1,100 Wi-Fi hotspots in Switzerland.
Finally, there’s also a prepaid plan: the NATEL easy liberty uno, which has a flat rate of CHF 0.80/minute and CHF 1/megabyte of data, but requires no contract or monthly fee.
Hong Kong customers, meanwhile, appear to be able to enjoy some of the best rate plans that we’ve seen. 3 Communications is offering four separate two-year contract monthly plans, starting at a HK$188/month plan (about US$24), which includes 500 basic minutes, 500 “Heart-to-Heart” minutes, 500 MB of data, 25 “multimedia content,” and 15 “text content” (we presume those are multimedia and text messages, though as far as we know, the iPhone 3G doesn’t support multimedia messages) and unlimited Intra SMS messages; with that plan, the iPhone runs HK$2,938 (approximately US$376) for the 8GB model and HK$3,738 (US$479) for the 16GB model.
A HK$268/month (US$34) plan boosts that to 800 basic minutes, 900 “Heart-to-Heart” minutes, 40 “multimedia content,” and 25 “text content” with iPhone prices of HK$1,738 (US$222) for the 8GB phone and HK$2,538 (US$326) for 16GB model and 500MB of included data; the HK$328/month (US$42) gives you 1,500 basic minutes, 1,200 “Heart-to Heart” minutes, 50 “multimedia content,” and 35 “text content,” with iPhone prices of HK$938 (US$120) and HK$1,738 (US$222) for the 8GB and 16GB iPhones and 500MB of data. Finally, the high-end HK$498/month (US$64) plan comes with unlimited data, 2,200 Basic minutes, 1,500 “Heart-to-Heart” minutes, 150 “multimedia content,” and 50 “text content” and iPhone prices of HK$0 (I’m not even going to convert that one) for the 8GB iPhone and HK$138 (that’s an astoundingly low US$17) for the 16GB iPhone.
Charges for usage beyond the included minutes vary from plan-to-plan, with Basic minutes ranging from HK$0.7 to HK$0.3; data, however, will cost a flate rate of HK$0.01 (per megabyte, presumably).
That’s pretty darn good, though—the most expensive Hong Kong plan is still cheaper than the least expensive AT&T plan, and includes far more minutes, even if there’s a data cap. Maybe it’s time to move to Hong Kong.