Apple, Tell the Telcos to Play Nice

Several years ago my wife and I wanted to add a second toilet to our house. When the plumber was doing the inspection, he warned it could be expensive and might even cost up to $3000. Which wasn't too bad, as we were expecting $2000. However, when the builder's final quote came back, it was about $12,000! How many exclamation marks should I put after that? Obviously, he didn't want the job.

Now, down here in Australia it seems our largest telco, Telstra, is behaving the same way with the iPhone. It was a late and seemingly reluctant attendee at the party. If you saw its plans, you'd be forgiven for thinking it doesn't want to sell any iPhones. Anyone who buys an iPhone from Telstra in Australia (on its current "Screw the Stupid Customer" plans) is, well...what's the saying about a fool and his money?

For those not in Oz who are curious about the rates I'm bagging, how does this look to you for an 8GB iPhone with 1GB of data per month for our three iPhone vendors:

Telstra: $0 upfront, $169/month
Optus: $0 upfront, $99/month
Vodafone: $99 upfront, $99/month

Notice any discrepancy there?

When I started writing this piece, I thought it was just Telstra being biased against the iPhone; like the builder, not really wanting the sale. And it didn't help that a Telstra salesman talked a friend out of the iPhone.

However, just this evening (as I write), I read a review of the HTC Diamond, which is about to be released exclusively through Telstra. I was most shocked to discover no bias at all - Telstra is screwing all its data customers equally. The Diamond's plans are just as expensive.

So, what do you do when you're 90% into an article and have a deadline banging at your door? Look for a new angle!

The obvious angle is why isn't Apple using its clout to put pressure on telcos to give better data deals? The iPhone's biggest attraction is probably its internet features.  So come on, Steve. Tell the telcos if they want to sell the iPhone, there are some minimum data requirements.

With its aggressive bargaining, Apple has been able to rock the telcos' boats. This, however, does not appear to have extended to demanding that telcos put together plans that actually make people want to buy the iPhone. How many sales has Apple lost because Australia's largest telco has crap plans? And really, the others aren't that flash either.

In a multi-vendor iPhone market, such as we have in Australia, we really should be getting a much better deal. And it'd be in Apple's best interests to put the heavies on, because there are probably many folks who, like myself, balked at buying an iPhone once they saw the plans being offered.

I don't know what it's like in your part of the world -- although I think Canadians and Swedes can sympathize -- but I think we all need to put a collective shout out to Apple to put the pressure on the telcos to offer better data plans.

And if the telcos didn't want to play ball, then, in the parlance of kids, Apple should threaten to take its bat and ball and go home.