AT&T To Charge iPhone 3G $10/month Premium, Other Launch Details

AT&T has announced that iPhone 3G will not be charged the standard data rate of other 3G consumer devices. Instead, AT&T will charge iPhone users $30/month to consumers for data, in addition to their voice plans. Corporate customers will pay even more, at $45/month in addition to voice.

Also, AT&T has informed stores that the device will only be sold through AT&T retail stores at launch. Device control will be kept tight, to prevent devices from being sold or not returned. This is to detract from the potential for iPhone to be jailbroken and unlocked.

With this change, jailbreaking iPhone will become more attractive, albeit amongst a more limited pool of devices. There will be nothing stopping a jailbroken iPhone 3G from running on $20/month AT&T data plans, as well as prepaid accounts. And, with the retail price only being $199, AT&T must ensure that each iPhone 3G sale, is associated with a 2-year agreement, in order to recover the cost of the device.

As expected, and previously touched on by Apple, Apple is still enforcing the price for existing customers. That means that any AT&T customer can purchase iPhone 3G at the $199 price, and it will simply reset the 2-year agreement date.

This means that it is actually better, for new customers, to purchase some other device (a free phone) the day before launch, and then walk in on July 11 as an existing customer. The previous contract will simply be reset by a day, netting the customer two phones for the price of one iPhone.

It appears that eventually iPhone 3G will be available for sale on att.com, however, it too will require a 2-year agreement contract in order to be purchased.

Update: Some rumors from sources in Apple point to iPhone 3G sales to continue at Apple Retail Stores, but that Apple will implement a system to charge users a penalty should they not activate iPhone on a qualified plan within 30 days.