Originally Posted by Sananda Maitreya:
“yes, they have a longer commitment, incoming calls come out of their allowances and no wifi (although i think this was to make up for the poor EDGE coverage here), but they are getting 5000 off peak mins, 450 peak, 200 SMS which was comparing unfavourably to our deals. and not just because things cost more here. but because the att plans recognised that the phone was subsidised and therefore offered plans better than those available for subsidised phones. whereas o2 iphone plans seemed to offer no financial advantage over non iphone plans. now i think these new o2 iphone plans compare favourably with a simplicity tariff + data bolt on + cloud wifi (at ipod touch plan price). and i think that's excellent because it recognises that iphone isn't subsidised.”
You are forgetting that incoming texts also count against their 200 allowance. My friend was receiving spam text from AT&T themselves like we get from O2 every now and then, and was
charged for it as a credit against his SMS allowance.