All Articles Tagged canada

You can’t use an iTunes gift certificate to buy applications on the Canadian App Store. I’ve experienced this myself, but never really looked into it before now. But it’s true. There’s even a thread about it on Apple’s Discussion Board.

Highlights include the difference in iTunes App Store Terms of Service between the US:

“10. PAYMENT METHODS. The Service accepts credit cards, payment through your PayPal account, and iTunes Cards, iTunes Store Gift Certificates, and Allowance Account balances as forms of payment.”

And Canada:

“10. PAYMENT METHODS. The Service accepts credit cards as the form of payment.”

Further down, we get what’s purported to be a response from Apple on the issue, which includes:

Due to tax laws and commerce restrictions for software in Canada, customers residing in Canada may only purchase games and applications using a credit card.

So, not only do we get hosed on data rates, don’t have access to US TV networks on iTunes (nor Hulu, etc.), not only do we have to pay more to “upgrade” music to iTunes Plus, but if by some miracle some kindly soul gives us an iTunes Gift Certificate, we can’t even use it on apps? Second class North Americans much?

(Yeah, okay, fine: #firstworldproblem)

Anyone have any deeper insight into these tax and commerce laws/restrictions of which they spake?

(Thanks to @deabush for pointing the ToS out to us as well!)

UPDATED AGAIN: BGR is sticking by their story. Interesting times, eh?

UPDATE: We just received an email from Rogers stating:

“While we generally don’t comment on speculation or rumour, this posting is not accurate. Rogers was involved in no such call.”

ORIGINAL: So we’ve heard about AT&T and the EU, and we’ve heard about Verizon. Now it’s Canadian iPhone carrier, Rogers’ turn. The BGR brings word they’re pouring on the 4G LTE in hopes of launching in Vancouver in time for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in February.

Reportedly 50Mbps (un-optimized) is already a go on tests, and while no handsets will be available until mid-2010, USB dongles should launch sooner. Following Vancouver, Rogers plans to expand the network, and vows they’ll have less problems than their 3G HSPA launch. (We all hope!)

In the mixed bag-of-hurt department, it sounds like Rogers is also going to try to help out their over-strained cable business by merging it with 4G and Portable Internet.

Okay, fair enough, it’s not the nearly 7 million iPhones our big United Statesian brothers to the south consumed in the last quarter, but for a market the size of Canada’s (where it is cold and we must work hard just to survive…), 255,000 iPhones moved is EPIC.

Says Electronista:

The telecoms company sold and activated a total of 255,000 iPhones between the device’s July 11th launch and the end of September, helping the carrier boost its net subscriber additions to 191,000 and increasing the company’s average income per user “considerably above” the average thanks to many attaching a data plan to their services.

Rogers claims that the subsidies they provided for this many iPhones put a drain on them, but thanks to the huge — and ongoing — monthly service plans attached, I don’t think many give a flying hockey puck about that, especially after they just recently cut the commission rates for their reps.

Like in the US, these results are expected to have come at the expense of rival, in this case CDMA, networks Bell and Telus (since Rogers/Fido enjoys a GSM monopoly position).

Could their threat of ending their fairer 30$/6GB data plan last month have helped boost sales? I know roughly 8 people who all got iPhones for just that reason. Anyone else?

FutureShop is actually owned by Best Buy (which is why they typically build the stores across the street from each other — nothing like being your own competition!), so when their big US brother started selling the iPhone 3G, we supposed it was only a matter of time before Canada got some big box love. Says MacNN:

Canadian retailer Future Shop has announced it will be selling the iPhone starting in October. Customers will be able to purchase the phone at fifteen different locations initially. The phone will still be on the Rogers network, where it has previously been available directly, or at The Telephone Booth and Wireless Wave stores.

FutureShop already sells all sorts of phones from Rogers (and subsidiary Fido), Bell, Telus, etc. so this is just one more page in their flyer.

But hey, at least it’s not Radio Shack, eh?

My fellow Canadians, if you’re already enjoying the virtually “unlimited” goodness and peace of mind that comes with Rogers reluctant, 11th hour $30/6GB promotional plan, then there’s nothing to see here. Your rate is good for the length of your contract.

If you haven’t jumped on the “deal” yet, however, remember that the plan is set to expire Aug. 31. Or it was… Rogers seems to have extended it — slightly — to Sept. 30.

After that?

A monthly fee of $30 will buy 1 GB of data instead of 6GB. A cheaper package of $25 will give 500 megabytes, filling the needs of most customers based on early consumption trends, [Rogers spokeswoman Liz Hamilton] said. Other plans include $50 for 2GB, $60 for 3GB and $80 for 8GB.

To mitigate the disaster of these new plans, Rogers will provide unlimited data for 3 months to all new customers on the plans, and customers can change between plans (up or down) without penalty. They’ll also receive a text message when they’re getting close to their hard limit, and another when they hit it. An overall cap will also be placed at $100 a month, usage be rogered.

While Rogers claims neither you nor I may really be able to chew through 6GB a month, they’re contention about not wanting to over-charge us is clearly disingenuous, or else they would be offering lower bandwidth plans at LOWER rates, not higher. (i.e., they would keep the 6GB at $30 and add a 2GB at $20, 1GB at $15, and 500MB at $10).

The protests are likely over — which we’re sure they’re counting on — but way to show your regressive spots there, Rogers.

We know the $199 initial price tag of the iPhone 3G is carrier subsidized, but we don’t really know by how much, or for how many. Rogers Wireless president Nadir Mohammed, however, shed some light on what just might be representative of iPhone 3G deals world wide. During Rogers Q2 results call, Mohammed revealed that they “didn’t anticipate that we would launch that device under any model this year,” but once announced on June 9, it “slammed on the brakes” on their other handsets — ouch — and led to a huge cut on the Nokia N95 to try and get some demand back.

The subsidy on the iPhone 3G, meanwhile, is reportedly the steepest Rogers has ever offered, but is worth it due to the iPhone 3G being “highly, highly attractive” to those willing to pay more on their monthly contracts to support the handset — just the kind of customers Rogers (and all carriers) value most. The very same customers that Rogers believes will quickly recoup the $150 million worth of iPhone 3G’s they committed to up front. (Apple Insider assumes at $450 a unit times 333,000 units).

That’s a lot of loonies!

Like much of the rest of the world, iPhones remain in short supply in Canada and with 20 more countries launching in a few weeks, its hard to imagine that changing anytime soonish. (Though if you visit Apple’s newly launched, and first Canadian Flagship Store in Montreal, they’ll have live music, let you play with demos, and learn tips from the Apple Specialists, b’okay?)

So what is changing then? Only the very fabric of the industry it seems. See, Canada has only one national GSM provider: Rogers (who owns the brand Fido as well). The other two national carriers, Bell and Telus, use the same technology as Verizon in the US, the incompatible CDMA… Or at least they did… Our publicly owned television network, CBC is now reporting that Bell and Telus may just be switching teams, either to Wideband CDMA or HSPA, in order to better compete in a world dominated by GSM and touting sexy handsets like the iPhone 3G.

What would this mean for Canadians? Competition (which hopefully translates into competitive pricing):

Multiple iPhone carriers would likely be music to the ears of the more than 50,000 people who signed an online petition against Rogers’ rates ahead of the device’s launch on July 11. Australia, with its three carriers including Telstra, has some of the lowest prices on the device in the world, according to CBCNews.ca’s iPhone iNdex. Switzerland, with two iPhone carriers, also ranks well in pricing. Rogers’ iPhone, meanwhile, ranks roughly in the middle of the pack in terms of monthly pricing but is the second-most expensive in the world in terms of total commitment by virtue of its mandatory three-year contract, the longest offered by any carrier in any country.

Oh my, but wouldn’t that make things ever so suddenly interesting?

Thanks to Will for the video!

I got to my local Rogers (corporate owned) store way early, and was immediately nervous upon seeing tons of cars. They were filled with senior citizens — strange iPhone demographic, I thought. When the doors to the mall opened at 7am, the seniors raced in. Near jog, no joke. I thought I’d end up behind a ton of angry, eager iPhone golden oldies, but a funny thing happened: they raced right on past Rogers. Turns out they jog/power walk/amble about there every morning. Who knew?

One week later, and how are things now? I just got my first bill (wow, that was faster than 3G!). $30/6GB data, $35 Mega My 5, $15 Visual Voice Mail Value Pack, $35 activation fee, plus crazy Canadian taxes. $124. (Plus the initial $299 for the 16GB handset…)

But what else is going on in my home and native land? Read on to find out!

Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE: More confusion! Stylemonkey in the comments below says Rogers claims not to be doing this when he called in over the phone. However, I spoke to a couple more Rogers reps and they’re still insisting they’re being told Rogers will bill for WiFi use, perplexingly by using the EMEI number of you phone. While they say Rogers can’t tell data usage this way, they can tell WiFi is being used, and will bill based on time. Ridiculous? Sounds like it. But what’s even more ridiculous is Rogers telling this to (some of?) their stores and people in the field. Crazy!

ORIGINAL POST:

So I was waiting in line at a Rogers store yesterday when the staff came out and said that if we didn’t take the Rogers’ iPhone specific plans, anytime we used WiFi it would be counted towards our custom plans (like the newly announced $30/6GB promo). They said that even though the iPhone would show WiFi, it would still count down (crazy fast) 3G data, and we’d only find out come bill time when charges came in. One of them said they were waiting on clarification from Rogers. Another said this was what Apple wanted and implemented. (Yeah, I know… I’m just repeating the comments).

We didn’t run the story then because we couldn’t get any confirmation of the rumor, but now other reports of people being told the same thing at different Rogers stores has turned up.

Read on for more!

Read the rest of this entry »

Taking my cues from Dieter, I just ran my freshly (and thankfully) activated iPhone 3G through its http://inetworktest.com and this is what I got:

600kbps baby!

Okay, that was the 3rd and highest of 5 sequential attempts. Test 1 and 4 were 405kbps and tests 2 and 5 were 545kbps. Rogers does claim to invest heavily in their network (which they remind us every time we pay the monthly network improvement surcharge!), and 3G pretty much covers the greater Island of Montreal, where I am, so maybe they’re at least putting some of the massive amounts of money we fork over to good use!

Speaking of Rogers, please forgive me making a quick shout-out to everyone who was in the line at Fairview, Pointe-Claire (especially those who are readers of TiPb!), and to the staff who remained friendly, classy, and courteous through Rogers continual plan changes, server crashes, and iTunes activation all leading to me — who was first in line — finally getting out some 3 hours after the store opened! (Next time, tell head office to call up Google for some pipes, b’okay?)