Great post, raycol97. Your numbers and your conclusion match up with mine as well when I played around with the rate plans in Excel; the iValue 1 & 2 deals are actually cheaper if 1. you are willing to live with the 12 or 24 month contract 2. you can stay below the talk time and data usage caps and 3. you are a low SMS user. Of course, there are real world complications like the inability to switch providers at will, and a 500mb or 1GB data cap is a big question mark for a net-centric device like the iPhone.

It was pretty amusing to see all the rants and raves about Maxis ripping people off when there were no numbers and calculations to back their conclusions. I guess where Maxis really failed was to structure their iValue plans in a way that it would look like a great deal at first glance.

If it weren't for the fact that I'm waiting to see how the July 2009 iPhone and the Palm Pre shapes up, I would have gone with Maxis already.

This post has been edited by fly: Mar 13 2009, 10:30 PM