06-19-2008, 07:29 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Rogers Canada to Offer $30 Unlimited Data Plans...for iPhones
Yeah, I know most of you are sick of seeing the word "iPhone" on this site, but this is news worth sharing for our Canadian readers. I've been waiting for this moment for over a year now: I knew that our one and only GSM phone provider here (Rogers/Fido, same company) couldn't release the iPhone with the same insanely expensive data rates they've kept us shackled with for years, and believe it or not I was rooting for Apple to come up here and shake things up. It looks like my wish was granted: if the information in this thread is accurate, Rogers will be offering two flat-rate data plans: one consumer-based plan for $30 per month that offers "Unlimited Data (E-mail/Web), includes Visual Voicemail", and one enterprise-based plan for $45 per month that offers "Unlimited Data with personal and corporate e-mail, web, includes Visual Voicemail". I'm not sure what qualifies as "corporate email", but even if I have to pay $45 per month, I'll do it gladly.
If they somehow shackle this data plan to the iPhone hardware it might present a problem, but I'm confident someone will figure out a clever way to get this type of plan working on any GSM phone. Or maybe in a stroke of business sense, Rogers will realize that it's ridiculous to offer certain data plans restricted to certain types of phones and everyone will have access to flat-rate data for $30 to $45/month. I'm not holding my breath though...
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06-19-2008, 09:47 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 676
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Unfortunately, I think this is far too good for Canadian customers to be true. I call shenanigans on that "memo".
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Early 2011 MacBook Pro 13" (dual boot with Windows 7), Early 2009 Mac Mini
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06-19-2008, 09:52 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 156
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dyvim
Unfortunately, I think this is far too good for Canadian customers to be true. I call shenanigans on that "memo".
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$30 data plan sounds right for an average consumer. But in Canada, the word "unlimited" and "data plan" do not exist in the same sentence. However, I won't be surprised to see $30 for 100 meg, if Ted's feeling generous that day.
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Why, oh why didn't I take the blue pill?
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06-20-2008, 04:05 AM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dyvim
Unfortunately, I think this is far too good for Canadian customers to be true. I call shenanigans on that "memo".
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Well, we'll know in a couple of weeks. I sure hope it's accurate...but I agree it seems almost too good to be true.
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06-20-2008, 05:14 AM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 5,616
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This sounds reasonable. Not as good as it could be (why do feature phones get $7 data) but on par with our nearest neighbours, at least.
What I want to know is, can I use one plan with both an iPhone and a Windows Mobile phone, just swapping the sim between the two? That's what I would like to do, for the near future, at least.
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06-21-2008, 03:43 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,043
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ctmagnus; I was gonna say something along the lines of 'you're not from around here, are ya?' but then I remembered, I think, that you live in Golden, BC. Is that right? Well then, perhaps you're just being especially charitable in your estimation of Rogers' pricing plans for us mere consumers. $30/month for 'unlimited data'??? That'll be the day! Or maybe you meant by 'reasonable' that it's about what you'd like to pay. Agreed. But Rogers would be less than likely to call it reasonable. From their perspective it'd be like giving it away, when us customers typically have to pay double or triple that just for basic phone plans with enough minutes to carry on life and business. My bill tallies to $90/month before long distance. Nothing reasonable about that, and I don't even use the phone all that much, maybe an hour a day on a very busy day, half an hour is normal for me.
Hey, if this daydream actually proves to be true, I might just start thinking about one of those stinkin' iPhone thingies for my next phone... this O2's ear speaker is pathetically quiet, and there's always a bit of a memory problem with just 64MB of RAM.
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Gerard Ivan Samija
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06-21-2008, 05:35 AM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
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Posts: 5,616
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gerard
ctmagnus; I was gonna say something along the lines of 'you're not from around here, are ya?' but then I remembered, I think, that you live in Golden, BC. Is that right?
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Correct.
Quote:
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Well then, perhaps you're just being especially charitable in your estimation of Rogers' pricing plans for us mere consumers. $30/month for 'unlimited data'??? ... My bill tallies to $90/month before long distance. Nothing reasonable about that, and I don't even use the phone all that much, maybe an hour a day on a very busy day, half an hour is normal for me.
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iirc the average Rogers customer pays $60/month for wireless services. I currently pay around $50, mainly because I have no long distance on my plan and make very few ld calls. I read that the average Rogers customer *with an iPhone* will be paying around $90/month. I anticipate that I will be paying at least $75/month if I jump.
But then, this is Rogers, so as far as I'm concerned, nothing is set in stone until July 11. And it may change after that.
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06-21-2008, 11:44 PM
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Magi
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 2,341
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Are you guys not aware that for several months now Bell and Telus have had unlimited web browsing for $7/$15 a month? Technically it's not supposed to include tethering...although some folks do. I'm not sure if the limited feature set of the iPhone allows it to tether, does it? 
Dave
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06-21-2008, 11:48 PM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
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Rogers has it too.  The only issue is that technically, it's not supposed to be used for any interesting phones or purposes.
I was hoping that this is the plan they would use for the iPhone. There's still three weeks, so they may still implement it.
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06-21-2008, 11:57 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,043
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Paragon
Are you guys not aware that for several months now Bell and Telus have had unlimited web browsing for $7/$15 a month? Technically it's not supposed to include tethering...although some folks do. I'm not sure if the limited feature set of the iPhone allows it to tether, does it?
Dave |
Not sure I could tether my O2 Atom to a Telus or Bell phone... nor that I'd want to incur all the other charges associated with another full account. And I kind of like sticking with GSM, for the SIM portability between devices and for potential use in other countries. Telus at least is sticking with CDMA, aren't they?
But that's not really what jumps out for me the most here. Wasn't there quite a bit of discussion not long ago about Bell's 'unlimited' package, to the effect that unlimited meant 100MB or something absurd like that? I seem to recall a lawsuit in Ontario somewhere, some guy getting a multi-thousands of dollars bill from Bell for using his tethered 'unlimited' cellphone for p2p movie sharing, used something like 50GB+ of data in a month and they whacked him with this ridiculous bill. $70,000 wasn't it? And he talked them down to 'only' a few thousand?
Anyway, if these companies truly are offering even a 1GB/month 'unlimited' data plan at those rates, times are definitely changing. I've just been dismissing the possibility of using anything but Wi-Fi for data with my O2 because of this very thing. My business really can't justify data-anywhere when it costs so much as it has in the past, but it would be nice, if not too outrageous.
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Gerard Ivan Samija
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