Virgin to carry the iPhone

As of Friday, August 1, Virgin Mobile will become the fourth mobile carrier to offer the iPhone in Australia.

Virgin sales staff have revealed that customers can get the 8GB device for free when signing up to a 24-month, $70 per month contract.

That plans provides $520 worth calls and texts and 1GB worth of data per month.

For an additional $15 per month, customers can add two extra gigabytes worth of data to their plan per month. This offering may be a case of Virgin having learnt from the mistakes of its competitors, as much controversy has surrounded the data usage allowances included in the plans of the current three carriers.

Virgin said more details about the 16GB plan will be released on Friday, but some sources have claimed it will run at about an extra $4 a month for the 70 cap plan.