Rogers Canada to Offer $30 Unlimited Data Plans...for iPhones

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.ehmac.ca/ipod-itunes-iphone-apple-tv/65885-rogers-iphone-information-activation-data-plans-sign-up-process-etc.html#post688463' target='_blank'>http://www.ehmac.ca/ipod-itunes-iph...html#post688463</a><br /><br /></div>Yeah, I know most of you are sick of seeing the word &quot;iPhone&quot; 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 <a href="http://www.ehmac.ca/ipod-itunes-iphone-apple-tv/65885-rogers-iphone-information-activation-data-plans-sign-up-process-etc.html#post688463" target="_blank">information in this thread is accurate</a>, Rogers will be offering two flat-rate data plans: one consumer-based plan for $30 per month that offers &quot;Unlimited Data (E-mail/Web), includes Visual Voicemail&quot;, and one enterprise-based plan for $45 per month that offers &quot;Unlimited Data with personal and corporate e-mail, web, includes Visual Voicemail&quot;. I'm not sure what qualifies as &quot;corporate email&quot;, but even if I have to pay $45 per month, I'll do it gladly.<br /><br />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...

[Dyvim]

Unfortunately, I think this is far too good for Canadian customers to be true. I call shenanigans on that "memo".

[subzerohf]

Unfortunately, I think this is far too good for Canadian customers to be true. I call shenanigans on that "memo".

$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.

[Jason Dunn]

Unfortunately, I think this is far too good for Canadian customers to be true. I call shenanigans on that "memo".

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.

[ctmagnus]

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.

[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? 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.

[ctmagnus]

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?

Correct.

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.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.

[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

[ctmagnus]

Rogers has it too. :p 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.

[Gerard]

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.

[ctmagnus]

Telus at least is sticking with CDMA, aren't they?

I've heard that they are going to switch to GSM. I expect in time for the 2010 games so that Rogers doesn't get the lion's share of the revenue from internationals calling home.

[Gerard]

Yeah, they're going to replace their entire national network infrastructure for 2 weeks of visiting cellphone users to one city. That sounds like a good business strategy. I'd not heard that Telus plans such a change. Better do some reading.

[Paragon]

Yeah, they're going to replace their entire national network infrastructure for 2 weeks of visiting cellphone users to one city. That sounds like a good business strategy. I'd not heard that Telus plans such a change. Better do some reading.

You are right Gerard, they aren't going to rebuild their entire network, but the rumors have been rather solid that they plan to build a GSM network in the Vancouver/Whistler corridor, then use the revenue to possibly build it in other parts of the nation.....who knows?

Back on topic....my original point was that data rates have already fallen, months ago, and they are available on "interesting" phones on their network. I have used it on both my Touch/Vogue and my P4000.

Dave

[Jason Dunn]

Are you guys not aware that for several months now Bell and Telus have had unlimited web browsing for $7/$15 a month?

Yeah, but it's for friggin' CDMA devices. :mad: CDMA is just a non-starter for me...I need the flexibility of being able to test out different phones, and that means GSM. I am impressed though that Telus finally has what SEEMS to be reasonable data plans...I'm highly suspicious of it though, it almost seems too good to be true (and keep in mind $15/month is for unlimited email, if you want "application" support it goes up to $30/month).

[Darius Wey]

I guess it was too good to be true (http://micro.newswire.ca/release.cgi?rkey=1606278441&view=84735-0&Start=0).

[Dyvim]

Still an improvement though isn't it? Didn't Rogers previously charge $60 for 30 MB and $40 for 8 MB with no minutes? So $60 for 150 minutes + 400 MB + some text isn't too bad (relatively speaking). It's limited but in the U.S. you can't get an iPhone 3G plan for less than $70 (unless you're using it as part of a family plan in which case your total bill is even higher but your per line bill might be slightly lower).

It stinks though that you don't have the flexibility to choose your voice and data plans separately (e.g. in case you need lots of minutes but not so much data or vice versa).

[Jason Dunn]

I guess it was too good to be true (http://micro.newswire.ca/release.cgi?rkey=1606278441&view=84735-0&Start=0).

WHAT THE FRACK???

That's not at ALL competitive with what Bell and Telus are offering. That's a bit better than what I'm paying now with Fido: I pay about $60 per month and I get 150 minutes of voice, I think 150 text messages, and 18 MB of data per month (yeah, 18 friggin' MB!). So for $60/month on this new plan I'd go up to 400 MB/month. Much better, but not unlimited and thus I couldn't switch back to my "use it without thinking about it" way of using Windows Mobile devices.

Oh Apple, why couldn't you beat up on Rogers some more? :( People are going to hate their iPhone the first time they get a $500 bill because they were streaming YouTube videos. :rolleyes:

[ctmagnus]

Srsly? Are Rogers execs just greedy? I pay $50/mo with unlimited incoming texts and the good data plan. I'd go through 150 texts in a week. And that's with Twitter turned off.

[ctmagnus]

Also, way OT, but I get the following 70% of the time that I try to access my account online:

Note: Rogers.com is temporarily unable to access the account information required for online self-service activities. We apologize for this inconvenience. Please try again later. It appears that management is not the only area where they are lacking.

[Cybrid]

Vodafone owns 45 % of Verizon thus Verizon is going W-CDMA LTE. Verizon had 25-30 % of Telus and that might be enough to convince Telus to go W-CDMA LTE.
I saw a full page ad by a local Rogers dealership..... " New pricing" ..... " 300Mb for $30" . I don't believe that to be a coincidence.
During the Bell/ Telus thing, I managed to score $40 (400 min/ unlimited eve, weekends) + free caller ID + free voicemail + $15 unlimited ( I asked what the unofficial cap was ..... to be told "..none within reason".... which meant bandwidth intensive streaming was not allowed. ) With taxes $66-70.

[onlydarksets]

Back to square one - $30 for 6GB on Rogers:
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2008/07/09/rogers-caves-on-iphone-3g-plans-offers-up-6gb-for-30-a-month/

Which, if you are on Verizon, is actually more than unlimited data!

[Jason Dunn]

Back to square one - $30 for 6GB on Rogers

:rolleyes: I'll believe it when I see it!