All Articles Tagged canada

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?)

I shouldn’t blog this. It’ll only make the lines longer. But, dagnabit, it’s just too… well… not unlimited good… but better and somewhat less cr@ppy!

Effective July 11, and as a limited time promotional offer for customers who activate by August 31 on a three year contract, a data-only offering of 6GB of data for $30 per month is being made available that can be added to any in-market voice plan. For example, with 6GB of data, iPhone 3G users can visit 35,952 web pages, or send and receive 157,286 emails, or watch 6,292 minutes of YouTube videos each and every month.

It’s a start!

(And yup, looks like Rogers’ Fido brand is following suit!)

Now, I’m in Montreal… Where do I line up?!?!

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WOW! iPhone plans and prices are dropping faster than Rogers stock these days. With a 22 country launch on Friday (and a few days later in France — vive la difference, eh?), some with multiple co-exclusive carriers, each with different tiers of service (from cheap, all-you-can-eat unlimited to tiny $$$ per byte ultra-rip-offs) it’s a lot to keep track of — but we’re still going to try!

Read on for the good, the bad, and a lot of ugly!

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The iPhone 3G on Rogers saga continues! Crazy Canuck Rogers Rumor du jour? Apple, upset about Rogers disgustingly high price plans for the iPhone 3G and the negative press towards what should have been a triumphant launch for both parties, is cutting its losses and giving Rogers the same shaft Rogers has given Canadian consumers.

How so? By redirecting much of the iPhone stock once destined for Canada to Europe, leaving Rogers embarrassingly short on launch day, causing them to lay off the temp staff they’d lined up.

Caveat: So far this is only coming from a single blogger with no named sources and no history of iPhone or Rogers rumors, true of false. We’re also only a few days from launch, the peak time for hoaxes and attention seeking.

And lets not forget media manipulation. Couldn’t Rogers just as easily be panicking over the negative press and, desperate to make sure they don’t lose fence-sitters or people who might have held out on the first day just to make a protest. Nothing like false scarcity to scare up some business, eh?

Either way, we’ll probably only know for sure on Friday. Though nothing (but lack of common sense) stops Rogers from stepping up and introducing some reasonable rates before then. Monday will do. $30 on top of voice for unlimited data.

Make it so.

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Thanks to reader, Adam R. who wrote in to let us know Australian rates have been revealed, and his Blackberry can now “go the way of the dodo”.

First up is Optus who’ve announced both pre-paid and post-paid plans. Pre-paid Turbo Caps start at AUS$30 for an AUS$30 “mycredit”, AUS$110 “mybonus”, and AUS$30 “mytime money” — but no “mydata”. At AUS$100 you get 100/800/100 and Plus 1GB “mydata”. On these plans, and 8GB iPhone 3G will run you AUS$729 and 16GB, AUS$849. Not confusing enough for non-Ozzies, plan rates weigh in at AUS$0.78/min. for national calls,AUS$0.35 per “Flagfall” call, and AUS$02.2/KB weekdays and AUS$1.1/KB for “iZoo Browsing”.

Read on for Post-paid, Telestra’s first statement, Canadian craziness, and some Swedish relief!

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Sister site WMExperts brings word that T-Mobile is raising the a la carte price of SMS text messages to an exorbitant $.20 per 160 characters (sadly, an industry average…) While they have their theories as to why tiny text qualifies for thousands of dollars per meg of data charges, others only really care about one thing:

A change in the terms of service may — just may — be a way for those of you stuck on contract with T-Mobile to get out of jail and into a sexay new iPhone 3G.

Whether T-Mobile lets you out or not will likely depend on who you talk to and how much you scream, but a chance is a chance. And could T-Mobile have had worse timing in providing that chance?

Nope.

On the Canadian front, GSM monopoly Rogers is still amending their iPhone info, after correcting the embarrassing typo that made it seem like the early termination fee was $1100 ($100 turned out to be correct). Now it’s info on non-iPhone specific plans, and warnings galore on off-plan data usage ($0.05/KB!) and roaming ($3/MB on plan). Clarified, however, is that using Visual Voice Mail won’t count towards your minutes or your miserly data cap.

Also interesting is the inclusion of anti-Jailbreak/Unlock verbiage:

Your iPhone is restricted to use on the Rogers network, unless you are roaming. If you attempt to unlock your iPhone and use it on another network, it may become permanently unusable. Making unauthorized modifications to the software on your iPhone violates the iPhone software license agreement, and any resulting inability to use your iPhone is not covered under your iPhone’s warranty.

UPDATE: Rogers has posted early-cancellation fees for their already ridiculously expensive iPhone price plans, and not surprisingly they appear at first glance to be stratospherically high: (ii) $1100 or (iii) $220 per month remaining in the service agreement, to a maximum of 400

The 400 there, as well as this thread on iPhoneinCanada.ca, makes it look like a typo — ironically Rogers money grabbing reputation is what probably made people think otherwise initially.

UPDATE 2: Yup, it was a typo. $100 and $20 were (and now are) the correct figures. Ouch. Could Rogers have picked a worse time to be sloppy about their dollar figures? If nothing else, it certainly increased the scrutiny they were already under.

Now, if only Rogers would fix the typos on the data rate plans. I’m sure it’s not really supposed to read $115 for 2GB, but $30 unlimited, right?

Thanks to rwwilliams for letting us know they fixed it!

Confederation Day, the day when everyone from Pacific to Atlantic, from frozen north to the US border, came together and voiced their common disgust for… GSM monopoly Rogers/Fido iPhone 3G data plans.

We’ve already covered them, of course. And the reactions to them, domestic and in news reports from the US and Europe. And Rogers’ PR panic, involving everyone from their VP to outside contractors sending out spin as ineffective as it is impenetrable. Heck, even Crackberry.com is feeling our pain!

One local petition, ruinediphone.com, hoping for some rate plan redress, has now reached 22,000+ signatures (though it did go down, and has since come up, though scattered reports indicate those who use Rogers for their internet connection can’t get to it… hmmm…)

Will it have any effect? Common sense and international embarrassment hasn’t, but there’s still just over a week until launch day on July 11, so there’s still time for Rogers to come to their senses.

Little help, Ted?

And for those non-Canadians curious about our holiday, those who appreciate pointed humor, or just those who want to skip to 3:25 for a healthy dose of Rogers hate, please enjoy the video following after the break:

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Given the massive, and increasingly — embarrassingly — international outcry over Canadian GSM monopoly and thus de facto iPhone 3G exclusive carrier, Rogers’ expensive and decidedly limited pricing plans, is it any wonder they’ve gone into full blown PR panic mode?

(If the below is legitimate, of course).

Thanks to sister site’r Crackberry Kevin for sending this our way!

Hello. My name is [redacted] and I’m writing on behalf of Rogers to give you some additional information about the Rogers rate plans available for the iPhone. The iPhone 3G bundles released June 27 are not the only price plans available to customers, they are the high value plans that allow Rogers customers to use the device to its fullest and offer considerable savings over separate voice and data plans that exist in market today.

Keep reading for the rest!

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We’ve done our share of protesting the plan rates released by Canada’s GSM monopoly, and therefor de facto iPhone 3G exclusive carrier, Rogers Wireless. But we’re hardly alone. Reports have even surfaced of angry consumers egging Rogers retail stores.

Now CNN/Fortune have cast their spotlight on it, focusing one what was originally the explicitly, if sincerely named [redacted]rogers.com, now more safely (if less satisfyingly) rebranded ruinediphone.com.:

What’s wrong with Rogers’ rate plan? Both AT&T (T) and Rogers offer calling, data and text messaging at $75 a month, for example. But for $75 Rogers offers a third less calling time, half as many text messages, and puts a 750 MB cap on 3G data usage — with steep fees for users who go over their monthly limit.

In addition to ruinediphone.com’s petition, would-be-Canadian iPhone owners should head on over to David McGuinty’s petition for House Bill C-555 to promote transparency and fairness in Canadian telcos. and the Competition Bureau of Canada

I hate to say I told you so. I hate to have told you so. But mostly I just hate Rogers’ breathing guts for telling us all so: No unlimited data for Canadian iPhone users and — wait for it — no reasonable data rates beneath the meager caps either! (But then, maybe I just hate myself for ever daring to hope the GSM monopoly would ever move off the worst data rates in the data world!). Not even the 5/6GB options available to BlackBerry and WinMob/Palm users?!

Thanks to Cherryhead25 for the tip!

UPDATE: Via Engadget’s comments, here’s the direct link for the Canadian Competition Bureau, where complaints can be registered:

http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/epic/site/cb-bc.nsf/en/01260e.html

UPDATE 2: Via HoFo, here’s the link to Rep. David McGuinty’s petition for House Bill C-555 to promote transparency and fairness in Canadian telcos: http://www.davidmcguinty.com/english/TakeAction/PetitionTheHouse/PetitionC555Fraisdacces.html

Plans, similar for both Rogers and their Fido sub-brand, after the break!

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