iPhone coming to Australia on Telstra?
By Nilay Patel 
posted Nov 1st 2007 7:06AM
posted Nov 1st 2007 7:06AM
With France, Germany, and the UK already locked down and the Rogers deal in Canada starting to feel inevitable, iPhone carrier rumors are starting to come in from farther and farther afield -- the latest based on comments from Sol Trujillo, CEO of Australia's Telstra. Although Telstra officials had previously suggested that Apple "stick to their knitting" (really!), Trujillo was a little more conciliatory this time around, saying that Telstra and Apple had engaged in talks about the device and that Telstra was "interested and exploring that option." Trujillo didn't address any details, of course, but he did drop this juicy tidbit for all you iPhone hatas in the crowd: "Almost every supplier has big plans in the next six to 12 months with their version of an iPhone in response." Let the countdown begin![Thanks, Ashish]
Oh please God no!!! Why does it have to go to Telstra. They my be the largest but they are also the most expensive (They charge $89 for 1GB of data while Three charges $29). If this is true look for both Telstra and Apple standing behind you when they force you to pick up the soap, if you know what I mean.
The only thing Telstra has going for it is that they have the greatest % of the population covered by their network, but no matter how much they play on that in their advertising, it doesn't change the fact that the vast majority of mobile users simply don't need that level of coverage because they rarely venture from major metro areas (which are sufficiently covered by the alternatives).
The funny thing is that they think their network is reason enough to charge like a wounded bull compared to everyone else in the market.
All I can say is if they do go with Telstra, and they offer the same purchase model as the US (buy phone w/ out needing to do a credit check & activate in store), then they are going to get a lot of people just buying it and unlocking it for use with another network - possibly even a higher % than with AT&T.
I always knew this would happen :( The only choices were ever going to be Optus, Telstra, or Vodafone, as 3 would NEVER take a GSM only handset.
I have an Optus service now, but I could quite easily change to Vodafone. I don't think that even the iPhone is worth changing to Telstra for.
There is ZERO chance of a proper "unlimited" data plan with telstra. At least they have an EDGE network. Neither Vodafone nor Optus have this.
Telstra infact DO have a VERY reasonable unlimited data plan: thier Hiptop plan. I am on it and it is awesome!
I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY hope apple end up going with Virgin as previous rumous predicted. It would be great to see the black horse win the race.
I would be very surprised if Virgin took the iPhone, only in that being on the Optus network, they have no EDGE, which really does limit the iPhone's data capabilities.
I will concede that I forgot about the Hiptop data plan, and in light of that, it seems that possibly the iPhone would have a chance of a reasonable unlimited data plan with Telstra. The only stumbling block that I can think of is that presumably the iPhone will sell in significantly greater numbers than the Hiptop, and so Telstra may be somewhat hesitant to allow true unlimited data access to such a great number of users.
Well i would love it if the Apple iPhone goes on the Telstra network.