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A lot of the mobile phone subscription deals and some of the 3G internet-only subscriptions have severe limits but 'unlimited' access to sites like facebook and youtube.
You can also buy additional access to a selection of usual social-media sites for most subscriptions. Look here for some pricing examples.

With our restrictive data limits even on fixed ADSL lines i would not be surprised if we get so see some "unlimited access to facebook" deals in the near future.

Its already bad and it is only going to get worse.

Only in the USA do they lock/tailor the phones to some sort of "plan".

Not quite. there's at least one telco here in Australia that locks their phones. Or they did before I acrimoniously parted ways with them a couple of years ago.

I would have thought that they'd be more against a tether in the opposite direction, letting you use the phone as a wifi VOIP handset. That may be, though, because Australia is the arse end of the Internets and home of the shittiest phone data plans in the known universe, and using your ADSL line is pretty much always cheaper than using a wireless connection. $40 / 6GB is about the best plan you can get. Amusingly, though, providers here actively encourage tethering.

I would have thought that they'd be more against a tether in the opposite direction, letting you use the phone as a wifi VOIP handset. That may be, though, because Australia is the arse end of the Internets and home of the shittiest phone data plans in the known universe, and using your ADSL line is pretty much always cheaper than using a wireless connection. $40 / 6GB is about the best plan you can get. Amusingly, though, providers here actively encourage tethering.

Technically, not correct. It is true that only three networks are offering the iPhone. However, as per ACCC policy, they have to offer a way to buy the iPhone by itself, unlocked and able to be used on any network. For example, Optus is selling the iPhone on the prepaid plans and offers an unlocking service (at a cost - just factor that into the price if you don't want to use Optus).

The ACCC could not force Apple to offer the iPhone to multiple networks; they could have just approached, say, Telstra. However, the ACCC could force Telstra to offer it unlocked, even if they were the only reseller.

My guess is that the terms & conditions offered by Apple to sell the iPhone weren't attractive enough for the 2nd tier providers (the ones who don't actually have their own networks fully in place; 3 is sort of in-between; they have their own network covering major urban areas, but fallback to the Telstra network elsewhere). Of course, these terms & conditions are secret, so unless you're a major telco executive, there's no way to know.

Since when is malware such a big problem on WinMob, Symbian or Linux-based phones? Can't say I've heard of a single case. Symbian also implements app-signing, as of S60v3 and UIQv3, but they still allow open apps - and plugins. Besides, most malware spreads through code exploits, and the iPhone is as vulnerable to those as any other system.

Sorry, but the "Apple just wants to make life easier for you" line is so much BS. MacOS X isn't signed & locked down, why should "OS X in a mobile device" be so different? Are phones so much more mission-critical than computers? Am I too stupid to watch my own battery life? As I said elsewhere, insisting that *no* user is competant to manage his/her own device is just insulting.

What they want is to restrict the user's freedom of use simply in order to protect their (and their carriers') commercial interests, nothing more. There's no other reason to e.g. ban Skype over cell (which is encouraged on other platforms).

I dunno, I think somebody already has actually...

Excellent post, but there's a point where your reasoning breaks down, and I reached that with Three who had my mobile phone service for just over a year. It got to the point where my primary reason (among many) for moving the service back to Vodafone was so that I would never have to speak to their call-centre again. It cost me money, but it was worth every cent.

Well check out what the major carriers in Autralia charge. Optus, Telstra (shudder), Vodafone, 3. $1AU ~ 0.$7US.

We also get options like free talk time within the same carrier, free sms messages etc. Depends on your carrier and your plant and all that.

My phone is largely used for business and I get a lot more calls than I make. However I do use it quite a bit. I pay $50/mnth for a capped plan that gives me $230 of calls/sms etc. Calls are ~$.30 flagfall and ~$0.1/second. I never really hit the cap.

That aside, to my mind it doesn't matter whether the system in the US works or not. It's just plain stupid to have a system where you pay for the actions of someone else, ie someone calling you. There is no logic behind it.

Your right - I never looked at it that way.

Still, the three website here is Australia lists their prices at $29 / 100 MB. Using your equations this means VoIP call would cost around $3/hour (or the average 25 cent call should only last 12 minutes).

Besides, I am not sure the mobile networks are well suited to VoIP due to latency and jitter.

I think you miss the real problem.

What's stopping you watching a full cricket match on your mobile? Not the bandwidth. Not the provider. Not the licensing.

It's that a full cricket match lasts for a WEEK. Good luck finding a battery that lasts that long :)

you won't be watching a full football or cricket match," Chin-Teik told CNET.com.au.

Maybe he should take a look at the competition first http://planet3.three.com.au/mobileTV/sport_cricket .asp seems like 3 is already there

Blackberrys are a huge thing in Australia almost every mobile phone company sells them, heck even some ISPs sell them, if they come here with their patent crap I wouldn't be shocked if it causes their assassintio, as you know Australians arn't so called normal.

3 mobile in Australia have just launched a similar service, at $AUS3 per friggin song! It's extortion at it's best.

http://planet3.three.com.au/music/faq.asp

Stu.

Plus the fact that the 3G songs are encumbered with DRM such that you can't migrate, or export the music off the particular 3G that first "bought" the music

It's even worse with ringtones, you don't even download them to your phone, they get stored for 90 days on the network, then vanish !

Don't these people get it ? We want interoperability for the digital content we purchase.

Plus the fact that the 3G songs are encumbered with DRM such that you can't migrate, or export the music off the particular 3G that first "bought" the music

It's even worse with ringtones, you don't even download them to your phone, they get stored for 90 days on the network, then vanish !

Don't these people get it ? We want interoperability for the digital content we purchase.

I think everyone is thinking apple had far far more to do with the phone than they did.
The phone is just a modified Motorola C975
http://www.three.com.au/index.cfm?pid=2204&pageid= 2725
the guts for the phone have been in use for quite some time dating back to the A830.
All motorola did was enlarge the memory from 64mb to 512mb and add AAC DRM support
I think its far more likly that Motorola just offered apple a royalty payment to use the Ipod name. and then went bidding with the major carriers to see which one would pay the most for the phone.

The magical mystery phone+service is 3G. I have no idea when or if 3G networks will be built in the USA. They are already in use in Hong Kong, Australia, UK, Italy, Austria, Denmark, Sweden ... and probably a lot of other places too.

The plan I was referring to was the $29 cap on this page.

Mobile broadband on Three is fast and cheap, charged by data only and not time or connection. The most you can pay is 0.4c/KB - even cheaper if you choose a Capped Plan.
I use them and think it's great.

Mobile broadband on Three is fast and cheap, charged by data only and not time or connection. The most you can pay is 0.4c/KB - even cheaper if you choose a Capped Plan.
I use them and think it's great.

... but Americans are surprised at this technology? This technology is nothing new in Australia, even though the take-up is not as expected, due to exorbitant pricing structures.

Hutchinson's/Orange already sell this in Australia under the "3" brand (their 3g network).

Apparently it works well as long as you don't mind the AUS$10 per MB download charge and are in the reevant coverage areas.

Details are here.

In Australia, this service is already available from 3. It's expensive, and the coverage isn't great (roams onto GPRS when no coverage), but it's available at the 384kbps speeds. In .au, that's more than the upstream of most Cable Modems and DSL lines!

Recently my mothers phone stopped working so we went to her network here in Australia to get a replacement phone. She hardly uses it and is technologically phobic, so we wanted a basic grey screened phone, without camera etc. It turns out that it was MORE expensive to buy the featureless phone than it was to get a camera phone. I ended up getting her a brand new 3G videophone for $19/month, which includes $19 worth of video calls, $99 cap (make unlimited calls, only pay $99), 3 batteries, 2 chargers etc. Crazy I tell you!

My 1500/256 Nella Networks FlatRATE ADSL service came online today. It's using the Comindico IP Network and is a truly unlimited service. Aardvark were even offering cases of Red Bull to those who download the most! That said, I do pay AUD240/month for it (opting to avoid the slower unlimited services which start at around AUD90/month). You can get 'always online' service from TPG starting at AUD19.95/month, with the first 400mb costing ~AUD80, then capped to 10Gb and reasonable rates thereafter. Meanwhile, my 3G NEC e606 mobile handset from three gives me 3000 minutes per month of voice calls for AUD99 - significantly better than the AUD300-500 I was recently giving Optus for around a third of the airtime. I guess this makes me one of the lucky few well connected Aussies. If it weren't for me living in Sydney and being able to justify the expense I'd be putting up with an overpriced, flaky Telstra service like everyone else! I'm still perplexed as to how they have managed to hang onto the Telstra Rewards program for so long - would have expected the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to have raised an eyebrow over this some time ago.

Video Zone - available in the greater metropolitan areas of Sydney and Melbourne, and in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth Q3 2003. When you're in Video Zone, you can use all of 3's services including Videotalk, Message Centre (including Picture and Video Messaging, Email, SMS and Voicemail), Sport, What's On, Find&Guide, Modem and more. Your access to 3's services will depend on your handset so you'll need to make sure you choose the right handset for the services you want to use.

it's AUD$0.01 per kb up to 5MB and then AUD$0.05 per kb. I don't know about the speed.

So it's pretty damn steep, but you get to replace about four different gadgets with this one egg basket.

(AUD$10.24 per MB @ ?kbps, but remember AUD$1=whatever the current rate is)

In australia G3 phones with graphical full colour web surfing, video conferencing and PDA features are being rolled out. Why go with plain vanilla CDMA?

Why not fly if you're having trouble walking? It uses different muscles.