the beautiful backlash.

Almost inevitably, from the viewpoint of anyone familiar with cellphone rates in Canada, the backlash over Rogers Wireless’ iPhone pricing structure has begun.

Aside from a few other personal gripes about the 3G iPhone, these new price plans have effectively eliminated my lingering considerations for not only buying an iPhone, but switching companies to do so.  Here are the main drawbacks to Rogers’ iPhone plans:

• limited data (no other country has an iPhone plan with data usage caps.)
• per-minute billing (one arm of the company charges per minute, the other only for what you use.)
• few included minutes (no unlimited incoming calls, plans start at 150 daytime minutes- low by anyone’s standards.)
• extra fees (call display is not included, SAF.)
• mandatory 3-year contract.

The growing public discontent, which started off as a few Twitter grumblings (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), has inspired a  website with online petition, comic strips, heated message board discussions, and even coverage in mainstream media outside of Canada.

The response to these plans is a welcomed change to years of quietly accepting prices out of line with the rest of the developed world.  After years of unreasonable charges, it seems like Canadians have finally had enough.  Any thoughts on whether petitions and emails will have an effect on iPhone plan rates?