Japanese iPhone 3G carrier announces rates and plans

According to Reuters, Softbank, the iPhone 3G carrier in Japan, has announced their rates and available plans. The report states that the 8GB iPhone will come in at ¥23,040 ($215), and the 16GB iPhone will be priced at ¥34,560 ($322). As for the plans, Softbank is betting on their ¥7,280 ($68) plan to be the most popular as it provides unlimited data and free calling to other Softbank users. Although these plans are 70% higher then previous years for similar plans, the Softbank execs seem optimistic.

One of Softbank’s hopes with the iPhone 3G is to steal some business from the biggest Japanese carriers: NTT DoCoMo and KDDI. Neither company has even talked with Apple about another Japanese carrier, but the former has expressed interest in a possible deal.

“We expect users who pay a lot to migrate from au (KDDI’s mobile arm) and DoCoMo,” Softbank CEO, Masayoshi Son told a group of reporters. “There have been users who were just attracted to our low price, but the main point this time is feature attractiveness rather than price.”

Via [Reuters UK]