iPhone world data congress

I’m in Berlin right now, and I’m really really missing the always on Internet, I enjoy in the US. Normally in the US I have a 3G card and my iPhone with me, both of which have essentially unlimited data plans.

Now I get that this isn’t necessarily achievable in many countries. Not everywhere has unlimited cheap data, however what I would appreciate is not paying $20/mb. This is so expensive it’s essentially pointless.

How about this for a plan? When I’m roaming in Germany I can pay the German iPhone plan’s rates for data pro-diem. So over here they pay €50/mo for their iPhone plan which includes 300mb of data. Let’s assume €30/mo of that is the data plan. So when I’m visiting Germany I would pay €1/day to get 10mb of data access.

The money should be kept by T-Mobile who do the iPhone in Germany. On the other hand when my friends visit the US they should get unlimited data for $1/day (unlimited data plan in US is $30/mo). Apple should really start enforcing this amongst their exclusive carriers since without data the iPhone is essentially crippled. I’m also not suggesting this should affect voice calls.

Voice calls are still getting routed via the US, but that shouldn’t be true of internet so I don’t see the big deal.