All Articles Tagged fido

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!

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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?!?!

Read

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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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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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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