Right now I have the $20 Fido plan, which gives me 200 minutes (which I barely use). Add on $11 for voicemail/caller ID (which are must-haves on a mobile phone IMO), the “System Access Fee”, and taxes, and I spend about $41/month on my phone. That’s about as low as it gets without resorting to pay-as-you-go schemes. I currently own my (unlocked) phone and am not on any contract.

If I were to get the iPhone, I’d:

• Pay $40/month more for fewer minutes.
• Pay an extra $4/month for the same voicemail/caller ID package.
• Get 400MB of data usage. That’s probably too much for casual mobile browsing but probably too little to use as a serious mobile alternative ISP (not that the iPhone can function as a mobile modem; that feature isn’t in the hardware).
• Get access to Rogers’/Fido’s wi-fi hotspots (which appear to only be at The Second Cup; it’s not even at the airport).
• Get locked into a 3-year contract.

When I totaled up the purchase price, extra costs, and taxes, I figure that an iPhone would cost me $1977.15 more (over 3 years) then what I’m paying now. The iPhone is definitely a tempting product in itself, but the really high TCO and the restrictions placed on it (software wise) mean that I’m going to turn it down.

Instead, I’m going to wait for Android (should arrive later this year) and hope that something good will come out of that.