Price Chart: Verizon iPhone vs. AT&T iPhone

Bits and pieces about the Verizon iPhone have finally fallen into place to tell the full story on how much the coveted handset will cost you.

Apple’s website this week temporarily revealed that the Verizon iPhone voice plans start at $40 per month. Text-messaging plans start at $5 per month, or you can pay per use for 20 cents each text.

Also news is that Verizon’s hot-spotting feature — the ability to turn the handset into a Wi-Fi network to share an internet connection with multiple devices — will cost an extra $20 per month on top of voice and data plans. As part of the same plan, customers will also have the option to use tethering, which shares the iPhone’s internet connection with one device. The plan includes 2 GB of data for hotspotting plus tethering per month.

As for the price of internet usage, Verizon said Tuesday that the iPhone would offer an unlimited data plan for $30 per month. However, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam clarified that this plan would be available for a limited time, as Verizon will eventually move to a tiered pricing structure for data.

• Voice
• Data
• Text

• Verizon iPhone
• 450 minutes for $40/month.
  900 minutes for $60/month.
  Unlimited minutes for $70/month.
• Unlimited data for $30/month (temporary offer).
  2 GB of data for tethering or hot-spotting for $20/month.
• 250 messages for $5/month.
  500 messages for $10/month.
  Pay-per-use for 20 cents/text.
  Unlimited messages for $20/month.

• AT&T iPhone
• 450 minutes for $40/month.
  900 minutes for $60/month.
  Unlimited minutes for $70/month.
• 200 MB for $15/month.
  2 GB for $25/month.
  Tethering for $20/month; no additional data included. (No hot-spotting available.)
• 1,000 messages for $10/month.
  Unlimited messages for $20/month.

So there you have it: the Verizon iPhone starts at $200 with a two-year contract, and if you go with the minimum voice, data and texting plans, you’ll pay about $75 per month. Factor in tax and government fees, and that should amount to roughly $90 per month.

On AT&T, the options are a bit different:

1. Unlimited data is no longer an option for new subscribers, though many old subscribers still have the option to stay on their unlimited data plan. The cheapest data plan costs $15 per month for 200 MB.
2. There isn’t a pay-per-use option for texting.
3. AT&T doesn’t support hot-spotting, though it does offer tethering for the same $20-per-month rate.
4. However, AT&T doesn’t give you additional data for tethering when you pay $20 each month; this comes out of your data plan. (So if you buy a 2-GB data plan for general internet usage, for example, tethering counts toward the 2 GB.)

So with the tiered data-pricing structure, the minimum you’ll pay for an iPhone on AT&T per month is $65 for voice and data; after fees and taxes that comes out to roughly $75 per month.

Confused yet? See the chart above for a side-by-side comparison of AT&T and Verizon iPhone costs.

The Verizon iPhone hits stores Feb. 10.