It is keep on coming better and better. Within weeks Softbank announce yet an other price cut in its monthly minimum fee making the iPhone 3G cheeper. As we reported in our post New Softbank Prices for iPhone 3G Japan Softbank lowered the monthly fee from 8,240 Yen to 3,950 Yen on 11 August. According to a report on tmcnet, Softbank Mobile will lower on Wednesday the monthly fee further. According to there source Softbank Mobile Corp. said Tuesday it will reduce the minimum monthly basic fee for Apple Inc.’s iPhone 3G smartphone from the current 2,990 yen to 2,324 yen, effective from Wednesday, apparently to counter the latest move by its larger domestic rival NTT Docomo Inc. to launch new low-charge services.

The 2990 Yen mention above are calculated as follows:

basic white plan              980 Yen
mail S!                             315 Yen
minimum data packet  1,695 Yen

Not knowing the detail what Softbank Mobile has changed, I would say it will be the 1,695 Yen data packet minimum fee. As this fee is for all other smartphones 1,029 Yen, which is the difference mention above.

Wait a minute I hear you say, how come there is 3,950 Yen mention and not 2,990 ? The answer is you still have to pay for the iPhone 3G phone. Remember the $199 Steve mention?! In Japan the iphone 3G 8GB cost 23,040 Yen, which have to be paid over a period of 24 month (960 x 24 = 23,040 Yen). 2,990 Yen + 960 Yen = 3,950 Yen as basic monthly fee for an iPhone 3G 8GB in Japan.

From Wednesday on this basic monthly fee will drop to 3,284 Yen for the 8GB model.