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AT&T definitely gets a lot of grief for the patchiness and unreliability of their 3G and even phone services. However, one area where the US’ second largest carrier shines a little is pricing.

Although smartphone, even when subsidized, aren’t exactly cheap, there are some pretty significant differences in plan pricing, which is far and away the most expensive aspect of owning of these bleeding devices.

Here’s a quick and handy comparo of device and plan pricing for Moto Cliq (T-Mobile), Moto Android (Verizon), Samsong Moment (Sprint) and iPhone 3GS (AT&T). The information in this table assumes a new contract and when it comes to craven capitalist chicanery America’s wireless carriers really no how to innovative, so be sure to check plan details carefully before handing over your credit card.

Source: News.com

Although Verizon is the far and away leader in terms of network coverage, their prices are quite high. Likewise, Sprint’s lack of choices (and complexity) makes it pretty clear they’re trying to cut costs and tempt subscribers with reasonably priced premium plans — there’s quite literally no middle ground with them.

Further, given T-Mobile’s middling pricing and relatively tiny 3G network, this carrier isn’t much of a draw.

Decent prices, skimpy 3G

And, that brings us to AT&T, which has the best smartphone in the world — the iPhone — but can’t keep ahead of this Apple handset subscribers’ voracious data and phone appetites where they do have 3G and 805MHz band service, let alone extend their network to the rest of America.

So, where does all of this leave you and me? I’d like to give Moto’s Droid a try, but Verizon is not cheap ($15 more per month x 24 = $360 more than iPhone) and Verizon’s Mac support is essentially non-existant. Moreover, trying to talk Mac with their in-store or phone support associates about the Mac can charitably called “frustrating.”

The flip side is that AT&T’s 3G coverage here where I live in lovely Erie, PA is just getting started…

What’s a guy to do?

Recent iPhone posts:
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Filed under: Corporate news, Deals, iPhone, iPod