Not surprising

I've seen this posted elsewhere, but what I can't find out is will the 2.5G ($20/month) plan still be available for the original phone if we hand ours down to a family member…

I'd like to get one of the new phones and give mine to my wife, but will she be allowed to carry the $20/month plan on that phone?

Can't see it.. how can they tell? First I've ever heard of a provider even caring what speed your phone is.

You could just not take the 3G data plan and swap SIMs with a 2G phone... thus defeating this.

AT&T does absolutely nothing for Apple but make their phone harder to buy and more frustrating to own/operate/pay for. I can understand that they might have needed them initially to get the phone in everyone's hands without confusing the shit out of everyone (in the US) with an unlocked phone, but now this is just ridiculous. You can't buy the phone online anymore either from the looks of it, very annoying. Apple would sell twice as many phones in America if they weren't associated with AT&T anymore, unfortunately we have four more years of this deal.

The price premium is a recoupment of them subsidizing the price of the phone to be $200. They are moving to only have phones activated in stores to limit unlocking. The old plans will likely remain, as they are not tied to a fee for subsidizing the phone, the speed is not the issue, its the contract which entitles the purchaser of the phone to a phone for $199, instead of $399 as there are now.
This is the basic scheme they've been doing here (Canada) for years, most places as well. Ya it sucks, but basically you pay less now and get the goodies in your hands then they make you repay it over the contract, say the contract is for 2 years then they make the $200 back plus a little interest.

So now that at&t is going to be taking a hit on every iPhone that they sell, They are now to put this phone on the regular data plans to align them with the rest of their data centric devices. That means that no matter what smart phone you have with at&t it will be the same price per month. That is the reason for the change in plans. its not because its 3G. Its because of the new rules to the game so to speak. The first iPhone will stay the same due to contracts and agreements. They cant just start changing the price on the old customers plans. Plus on ever box for the old iphone it talks about the old iPhones rules. so its a new phone, you can now make new rules. And that is what has happened here.

That's pretty reasonable. That's how it is with any internet connection. If you want a faster connection and you want to download more stuff, you pay more money for it. That's pretty much expected. Overall, I think that the new pricing scheme works out much better for most people, and will probably work out much better for Apple and AT&T as well.

WOW, feel sorry for you guys, the uk priceing is the same, but they have also added a new lower price option with less calls but still unlimited data.

Before you go spending the bucks to get that new FAST 3G iPhone, best check out your 3G coverage. In my area there is no 3G! I have to drive 50 miles to have 3G access, so at least for the near term future it'll still be slllooooowww edge. And here I thought the 3G iPhone would take the edge off!

Also, ATT where's the pay as you go plan? Humm? Well?

Maybe it's the recession and I'm getting more sensitive to pricing... but a 50% bump in data plan cost seems excessive to me. EDGE was over priced to begin with IMHO.

I'll go research it myself later but I'm curious how data pricing compares between the US and UK and between carriers...

Like another guy said, what if I want the new 3G iPhone but don't have 3G in my area. I'd like to have the new phone w/ GPS functionality, but do I still have to pay for 3G? Can I ask for an EDGE only plan with my 3G service?

The real issue, I think is that this price increase ($40 minimum phone + $30 data + unknown SMS) puts it MUCH higher than a Sprint Treo device with minimum phone and unlimited data and SMS ($45). So it is now a $25 premium (before tax).

Frankly the real system wide performance of 3G is yet to be proven (how well does it work somewhere else other than the lab or Moscone Center?)

The other issue is that the unlimited 3G data plan now costs exactly as much as my 20 megabit cable connection at home.

As a casual mobile phone user the math is not working out for me.

We're not technically in a recession. A recession is considered to be two quarters of negative growth and we have had positive growth. The economy is simply slowing down, but recession, no.

The $10 price increase, while making your total after 2 years $40 more, still makes the iPhone data much cheaper than any other data plan for 3g on the market. Most 3g data plans for every carrier is about $40. The iPhone was originally half this price. 3G is more expensive than edge, so of course they need to raise the price. You're still paying $10 less than you would for any other data plan on any other carrier, AT&T included.

Also, Sprint is slowly going out of business. Wait a few years and you'll see it being bought by Verizon most likely, unless AT&T wants to tap into the world of CDMA. I would not sign a contract with Sprint no matter how lucrative their plans seem to be in comparison to other carriers.

Chances are, AT&T will eventually get 3G in your area if it currently is not available. IF you do not have 3G, then unfortunately with the new phone you still have to pay for the 3G because the edge data pricing will no longer be available. This makes sense in that you are purchasing a phone capable of 3G. If you are traveling in an area that has 3G, then you will be tapping into that part of the network, and thus have to pay for it. I can't think of a way that AT&T could logistically differentiate between what speeds of data they are providing to individual phones capable of the higher end speed.