AT&T's iPhone subsidy: will it break the bank?

Analysts are buzzing about how much they think AT&T is paying for its subsidy on the Apple iPhone 3G. Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reimer says the operator is paying $325 per unit and another $100 per subscriber that signs up for service at Apple stores.  Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster estimates that Apple will receive an average of $466 per iPhone and Bernstein Research's Toni Sacconaghi says  he thinks carriers will pay between $350 to $700 to Apple for each 3G iPhone.

AT&T and Apple are remaining quiet on the specific details but AT&T has said that its deal with Apple would impact the company's bottom line in the short term. However, the carrier expects to reap benefits in the long-term by attracting more data-heavy users.

For more:
- read this InformationWeek [1] article

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AT&T will subsidize 3G iPhone
[2]Photos: 3G iPhone [3] Launched