For AT&T in the US it only costs 199usd (8gb) and 299 (16gb) respectively with 2 year plans. I believe their cheapest line rental is $39 for 450mins or something like that.

The price of their line rentals are roughly equivalent which leads me to believe that Maxis are just being greedy.

I lived in the UK for over 10 years and i find it ridiculous that maxis isn't using this opportunity to build market share, since the largest profit margins are made from line rental, data and customer commitment and not from individual phones. In fact, a lot of telcos o'seas understand that they can make a lot more money by using the phone units as loss leaders.

In any case, i've already bought 2 3g iphones from cambodia and thailand (one for gf) and would not have subscribed to maxis in any case.

This post has been edited by Kidicarus: Mar 16 2009, 02:43 PM