SoftBank Mobile Announces iPhone 3G Service Price Plans

SoftBank Mobile in Japan will start selling the iPhone 3G from from July 11, 2008 (Friday), according to the company announcement yesterday. It has also announced the applicable price plan. The iPhone 3G will be available at 23,040 yen (215 USD) for the 8GB model and 34,560 yen for the 16GB model.


The price plan provided for iPhone 3G will be ‘White Plan’. It offers free domestic voice calls between SoftBank handsets from 1:00 to 21:00 and a SoftBank original mail service with receipt notification ‘Email’ for free. Other basic price plans such as the ‘Blue Plan’ (12 in total) and the ‘Orange Plan’ (10 in total) will also be offered in order to enable customers to subscribe to their preferred price plan.

A new service - ‘Packet Flat-rate Full’ (5,985 yen/month) - enabling customers full access to web browsing, video and map services regardless of the communication charges will be introduced. In addition to the basic price plan iPhone 3G users will be required to subscribe to ‘Packet Flat-rate Full’ and ‘S! Basic Pack’ (315 yen/month).

In summary, a white plan subscriber will have to pay 980 yen (White Plan Basic) + 5,985 yen (Packet Flat-rate Full) + 315 yen (Basic Pack), which is a total of 7,280 yen (67 USD) a month. Doesn’t sound cheap at all!