While we were all freaking out over the awesomeness of the 3G iPhone earlier this week, we missed a critical detail: none of the AT&T 3G iPhone packages include text messaging! Even the old, barebones iPhone plan included 200 messages a month. AYSOS**?!?! As VentureBeat points out this morning, "With the iPhone's unlimited data plan, which includes everything but texting, you're probably sending hundreds of megabytes, and soon gigabytes, of data each month for $20-$30. Yet to send 200 of these 160-character text messages, it will likely be $5 to $10 extra a month." AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega says, more specifically, that the plan is to charge users $5 extra a month for 200 messages, and then ten cents for anything beyond that.

Okay, so it's not a lot of money. But it's an annoyance. And if you've got a fast finger or that wierd new social anxiety disorder characterized by not wanting to talk on the phone, then expect to shell out more. Plus VentureBeat makes a good point:

"Everyone is all up in arms over the $10 raise for 3G data plan, what about the extra $20 many of us are going to have to pay?"

AT&T is obviously stands to reap the benefits here. More than 2 trillion texts are expected to be sent worldwide this year, with 300 billion in the U.S alone. While certainly not all those texts will come from 3G iPhone users, that's still going to generate a lot of scratch for AT&T and bigger bills for users.

** Are You Stupid Or Something?!