Hasta La Gadget!

This week the T-Mobile iPhone 5 was revealed with a pricing structure closer to that of an automobile than what’s been common amongst smartphones over the past several years. While you pay just $99.99 USD initially, you then move forward with $20 payments for 24 months. Then your costs for data, voice, and text are separate (but still integrated into one bill in the end). Here’s the real breakdown, step by step.

The iPhone 5 will cost you different amounts depending on which carrier you buy it from – and depending on if you purchase it “off contract” or not. You also have what might appear to be three different kinds of purchases on your hands now:

1. On-contract (each of the top three mobile carriers in the USA with 2-year contracts)
2. Off-contract (paying one since price once in one lump sum with no contractual obligations)
3. T-Mobile

With your T-Mobile purchase, you’ll be paying $99.99 USD down for starters – that’s half the price (essentially) of the $199 you’ll pay if you’re purchasing the device with a 2-year contract with any of the top three mobile carriers in the USA.

1. $199 with subsidy costs built-in to your data/voice/text plan (you can’t see it, but it’s there).
2. $649 (we’ll stick to the 16GB version since T-Mobile is advertising that model as their hero with $99.99 down and so forth)
3. $579.99 ($99.99 down with $20 per month for 24 months)

So why would you want to purchase an off-contract iPhone 5 from Apple for $649 then have it working with T-Mobile data? You wouldn’t. That’s absurd. If you want to purchase an iPhone 5 to use with T-Mobile, you can do so cheaper by buying it from T-Mobile with their “Simple Choice Plan” structure (that’s what the hardware pricing plan T-Mobile is pushing is called).

Purchase an iPhone 5 with any carrier using a 2-year contract and you’ll be paying an amount of cash built-in to your monthly payment well past the time that T-Mobile would allow you to be finished. With T-Mobile, there’s a clear separation between your monthly bill for the hardware (that you’re paying off) and the mobile service. With every other carrier, you continue to pay for the hardware forever – or until you end your service.

T-Mobile iPhone 5: hardware pricing breakdown, step by step is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you have an iPhone 5 and are tired of paying the high price for voice and data on your current carrier, a new option is available from prepaid network Solavei. The carrier has announced that it now has nano SIM cards available that will work in the iPhone 5. These SIM cards offer unlimited voice, text, and data service for iPhone 5 users.

One of the best parts about the unlimited service is that it costs only $49 per month. The company also offers some SIM cards that will work with the Samsung Galaxy S III and the Google Nexus 4. Solavei launched in September of 2012 and the service offers to pay customers for using their social commerce platform to share the opportunity to save.

The carrier has paid out $6.5 million to members for sharing its mobile service with others since it launched in September of 2012. However, the service puts the user under no obligation to share the service or sign-up other users. If users choose to share the plan they can earn up to $20 per month off their bill for every three members they or someone connected to them signs up for the service.

It’s unclear if people can actually get paid or if once they bring on more members than their monthly cost for service, they simply get free service. The company offers nationwide 4G service in many areas. As with most “unlimited” plans on the market today, there are actually limits on data. The company has a 4 GB data cap.

[via Solavei]

Solavei offers iPhone 5 mini SIM card for $49 unlimited network is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.