So you want an iPhone? You go down to your local Apple Store and purchase one. Then the Apple employee runs you through a step-by-step activation process. Sounds harmless, but when you get to the question, “Will you be using your phone to access Corporate eMail?” what do you say? If your answer is YES then your bill will be $45.00 a month. But what does that get you?
I asked Apple, and their answer is “Well it’s so you can access your Exchange Server.” AT&T says the same thing. But here is the thing, I have an iPhone 3G[S], before I had a iPhone 3G and before that I had the original iPhone with 2.x on it and I have never been on the $45.00 Enterprise Data Plan. I also connect to my Corporate Exchange. So I ask AT&T and Apple, Are you scamming people out of their money?!?! Do you really need to say you are connecting to a Corporate Exchange server when you can answer with a simple “no” to that question and then still select in the “Mail.app” on the iPhone to connect to a Microsoft Exchange Server.
Just because I could I had a 25 min discussion with a AT&T representative over the phone and I asked him, What am I getting if I go with the Enterprise plan for $45.00? His answer was, “You get the ability to connect to your Corporate Exchange account…“, then I said, well I already can do that and I have the Regular Data Plan for iPhone. He said “…oh, well you get other tools on your phone.” so I asked what tools do I get? He said “…well you get Exchange on your iPhone.” of course I challenged his answer again, I already can get my Exchange email on my iPhone, and I am on the regular iPhone Data Plan for $30.00. He basically said he really didn’t know and I would have to switch if I kept doing that. Of course I have been doing this for the last two and a half years.
Enterprise Data Plan for iPhone
Enterprise Data Plan for iPhone is for using iPhone to access corporate email (via Microsoft Exchange), company intranet sites, and/or other business solutions/applications. Includes Unlimited data (web and email) and Visual Voicemail – for use in the U.S.
Data Plan for the iPhone
Data Plan for iPhone includes unlimited data in the U.S. Access rich HTML email and desktop-level web browsing, as well as Visual Voicemail to listen to voicemail messages in any order you choose.Please note: AT&T is Apple’s exclusive carrier partner for iPhone in the United States. An eligible data plan for iPhone is required. This data plan covers data usage in the United States and does not cover international data usage and charges. If AT&T determines that you are using an iPhone on your account without an eligible data plan, AT&T reserves the right to add an eligible data plan to your account and bill you the appropriate monthly fee
One Ping to “AT&T iPhone 3G Enterprise Data Plan – SCAM!”
2 Responses to “AT&T iPhone 3G Enterprise Data Plan – SCAM!”
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1. fishlaw Says:
January 31st, 2010 at 8:26 amThe AT&T service agreement for iPhone states that connection to corporate email servers like Exchange is not permitted with the basic unlimited data plan. I am not sure how they enforce it. I do know that Exchange transmits a lot of data, so I can see why they want the extra $$$$. I hooked it up on a Treo, thinking I had upgraded that unit to an unlimitd data plan-the charges were over $250 in three days. AT&T removed them when I explained what happened-they have surprisingly good service. I pay the fee for our business phones-maybe you can get away without it… Not sure how they will deal with Mobile-Me, which is similar to Exchange.
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2. bigjohnstud Says:
February 7th, 2010 at 5:34 pmI can confirm this CROCK AT&T is pulling! I’ve had the iPhone 2g for two years now, before they came out with the iPhone 3g. When the iPhone 3g came out, you were forced to upgrade your service plan b/c of the *new* iPhone 3g suspected network usage. I was upset I am forced to pay for a service I can’t even utilize on a 2g phone. My contract has been expired for close to a year with AT&T but I’ve been hanging around to see what will happen with the iPhone opening up with other networks (not happy with their service coverage either). Yesterday I saw the news that AT&T will likely keep exclusivity for another year so I figure, hell, I might as well upgrade to a 3g and hand around another 2 years because i LOVE the phone. During the online upgrade process, I come across this question about the “Enterprise Data Plan” for iPhone being $45.00. WHAT? I’m paying $30 right now and can do EVERYTHING this “Enterprise Plan” offers. I decided to call AT&T and find out what this is, hoping that it’s combining unlimited text or something to the plan as well. Well, not only does it NOT include anything I can’t do now, I must have been speaking to the same rep that fishlaw was speaking to. I received the SAME CROCK that fishlaw did! The representative kept telling me, “you must be using pop”. NO! I am NOT using pop and since I’m an exchange administrator I am QUITE familiar with it. This is nothng but a crock and a scam to get more money out of a service that is negligible, to say the least. AT&T is dying and will continue to die with these bad business practices.
And before I leave, I’d like to remind everyone that when OS3.0 for iphone came out (at the same time the iphone 3g came out) it was advertised that Active Sync with Exchange was a new feature, yet there was no change in data price other than the “you now have access to the 3g network on AT&T”, which i might add I’ve had for YEARS prior to having AT&T on my previous non-iPhone devices.
Death to AT&T
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March 3rd, 2010 at 10:32 am
[...] users have been able to access an exchange server using only the data plan. Plus, I found this: AT&T iPhone 3G Enterprise Data Plan – SCAM! | AppleMacGeniusVille For those of you who are more technically savvy, is that on the [...]