How to Get the Best iPhone 4 Plan

If you've been hiding under a rock over the last week, you may have missed that the new iPhone 4 from Apple has been released in Australia. With literally hundreds of plans to choose from, I thought I would let you know how I looked for the best iPhone 4 mobile phone deal.

The official release of the new iPhone 4 was made 12am last Friday morning, and many braved the winter weather to line up outside local mobile phone shops around Australia to get their hands on one. I had decided to call my mobile phone provider and make changes to my existing iPhone plan, but for the convenience of ordering from home, I will have to wait about 1 month for the phone to arrive.

So how do you find the best plan available for your new iPhone? Well to summarise, there are hundreds of different mobile plans online, so it's not easy to pick one quickly. The best advise I can give you, is to show you how to shop online for a new mobile phone plan with some simple pointers, so you can make the decision.

1. First of all, is your new device used primarily as a phone or an email reader / web browser. It may seem a silly question, but there's a big difference between using the phone every ten minutes for a phone call, and using the phone every ten minutes to read an email. I'm the email reader, and typically I don't use the phone for outbound calls, unless it's really needed. My call out charges are high, but for the higher cost of a phone call, I get a cheaper mobile access charge. If you're a big user of the phone for SMS or calling your mates, check the cost of the calls. Cheaper call out charges typically mean higher access charges.

2. The iPhone 4 is a great way to access the Internet when your mobile, and the second thing you need to know is how much data you think you will download a month. I'm a fairly lite user of data services when I'm out and about. I may check email, and possibly read RSS feeds while waiting for a meeting. However, you may want to upload movies to Facebook, or stream music at the bus stop. In any case you're going to need to know how much data you would normally use. Checking mail and reading RSS feeds on occasion doesn't generally need more than 100 to 500 MB of data. Streaming music or uploading youTube videos will allow your phone to make a quick meal of 1000MB (1GB) in a month easy. The more you need to use, the higher the cost of the plan, so be careful. Providers also charge extra for overuse of download limits, which could end up being an accidental $5,000 mobile bill!

3. The third piece of advise, is to run a search online. Searching google will give you literally thousands of web sites to check out. Most of them will be comparison sites, which is fine as long as you take note of any conflicting information. Use comparison sites as an indicator, then check the mobile phone carriers web site for verification. Check the amount of data you can download, cost per call, contract length, and of course read the terms & conditions!

4. Last but not least, call your existing mobile phone carrier, let them know your looking for a new plan. Providers may offer special loyalty plans or discounts to you. The last thing your mobile phone provider wants right now is for you to leave. If your provider doesn't give you a better offer than a competitor you found earlier, tell them about it. Wave the "I'm leaving for another mobile phone company" stick around, and see if you can get a better deal for the loyalty of staying with them :)

After you've done the above, you should have a good idea which mobile phone carrier has the best iPhone 4 plan for you. I ended up signing up for a new 24 month contract with my existing mobile phone provider. They took $200 off the cost of breaking the current contract a year early, and I'm happy with that.

Good luck.