Matching, and from some angles bettering, Optus’ plans for the new iPhone, Vodafone Australia says it will sell the 3G S for zero dollars up-front on business plans from $A69/month. Pressure mounts on Vodafone NZ to follow - and for Apple to offer Kiwis more carrier choice.

Under the Vodafone Australia Small Business Caps plan for a 16GB iPhone 3GS, your $A69 ($NZ83) a month buys you 250 minutes, 200 txts and 1GB of data.

Unlimited talk, txt
For the 32GB version of the iPhone 3GS, Vodafone Australia offers a nothing up front and $A114 ($NZ137) a month, which includes unlimited talk time and unlimited txt plus 2GB of data.

A series of pre-pay plans are also available for those who pay the full price for the iPhone 3GS 16GB ($A979/$NZ1176) or 32GB ($A1129/$NZ1356).

No tethering charge
Unlike Optus, there is no extra charge for tethering (using your iPhone 3G S as a laptop modem; a feature introduced for all iPhones under the recent OS 3.0 software upgrade; Vodafone NZ is not charging extra for tethering with its current iPhone 3G model, but has warned users about the newfound power’s potential for busting their data cap).

See the full range of Vodafone Australia plans here. Optus is also offering the new iPhone for nothing up front [UPDATE: as is Telstra].

iPhone 3G remains as not-so-budget model
As in the US (where it is now selling for $US99 on contract), Vodafone Australia will keep the iPhone 3G on as a budget model, selling it for $A759/$NZ912 off-contract, plus a variety of zero-dollars up-front plans - all of which offer little discount, but a lot less data.

Like Optus, Vodafone Australia will release the iPhone 3GS (which stormed the US over the weekend) on June 26. Check out a summary of the first reviews here.

Vodafone NZ will release it on an as-yet-unnamed day during July.

So far, Vodafone New Zealand’s only pricing move has been to cut the off-plan cost of its current iPhone 3G 16GB from $1129 to $979 (RRP). Prices on plans is unchanged.

The nothing up front plans across the Tasman are clearly borne out of the fact that Australia has three iPhone carriers (Telstra, Optus and Vodafone).

Here, Vodafone remains the only telco offering an iPhone, although its deal is not exclusive (as the carrier itself repeatedly points out).

Telecom says it is in “deep discussions” with Apple.

Two Degrees, maintaining its self-defeating approach of announcing no plan or handset details as more and more pre-pay customers go on-contract, and off the table, has no comment.

Apple also had no comment.

BlackBerry maker RIM, and Nokia - which went out of its way at the E75 launch to point out that its new smartphone is being offered for nothing up front in Australia, but not here - have both committed to supporting all three of New Zealand's mobile carriers, assuming the carriers play ball, and models are available at the appropriate frequency.

NBR would like to see Apple do the same.

The littlest nation
The immediate signs for a no-money-up-front deal here are not good.

On Twitter, Vodafone NZ hinted that Apple offers carriers iPhone pricing based on volume - that is, population size - indicating that neither it, nor any new Apple partner - is likely to match Aussie or US pricing, or deal structure.