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?
Rogers Wireless announced the numbers we’ve all been waiting for in press releases today. Eager iPhone purchasers will have the choice between 4 plans- all of which are “Voice and Data Packages”. This is different from other countries where the 3G internet option is an add-on to any voice plan. Fido plan details are, predictably, exactly the same with the exception of being billed by the second.
All plans include Visual Voicemail, unlimited access to Rogers and Fido WiFi hotspots, and unlimited evening and weekend calling between 9pm and 7am.
Here are the details so far:
- $60: 150 daytime minutes/400MB data/75 SMS
- $75: 300 daytime minutes/750MB data/100 SMS
- $100: 600 daytime minutes/1GB data/200 SMS
- $115: 800 daytime minutes/2GB data/300 SMS
New subscribers will be required to sign a 3-year contract.
The most noticeable difference between these plans and what we’ve seen before is the data limit. Seems like Canadians are suffering from not having nearly enough (or any) competition in wireless providers.
As previously pointed out, Rogers’ other “unlimited” internet plan was for internet use with specific applications on specific devices.
Interestingly, especially in the light of the recent launch in Canada of
Koodo Mobile, a provider who chooses not to charge extra System Access Fees, there is no mention of System Access Fees or any possible additional fees on the iPhone plan details page, or any other paged clicked on to get to the iPhone plan page.
From a press release issued earlier today, we’ve learned that Canadian iPhone users will have the option of choosing either Rogers or Fido as their service provider. It appears that we’ll have a choice of carriers come July 11th, each with their respective pros and cons. This is not much of a surprise considering both brands share networks and are owned by the same company. Handset pricing will the same $199/$299.
Apple ruined the surprise on Monday- several days before this latest press release- by disclosing that iPhone will be sold in Canada at Fido stores and at Rogers stores, implying both companies would have iPhone and data plans available. Rate plan pricing has still not been released.
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It is interesting to note that one feature many watchers have been calling for is the ability to make calls from their iPhones over wifi networks. Fido’s new “Uno” service that lets users with select WiFi-enabled handsets make unlimited local calls while on their wireless network at home. With the release of the iPhone SDK, many developers wondered whether they would be able to write software to take advantage of the handset’s WiFi connection to make unlimited in a similar manner to Fido’s Uno option. Apple has previously said that they will not permit developers to offer this type of software but, to our knowledge, no other carrier has had this option already in place and promoted it heavily. We’re interested to see if iPhone will be Uno-compatible.
New features:
- 3G internet- Faster internet than in previous version.
- GPS- Those location-based services I’ve been pining for should follow shortly.
- App Store- Availability of third-party apps will definitely make iPhone a more useful and attractive device.
- Extended battery life- Anyone who owns a cellphone right now knows how sweet this is.
- Uniform, reasonable pricing- $599* was steep. $199* is very attractive. And if you’re feeling fancy, $299* isn’t too much to spend on a phone/device of this calibre. Interestingly, this also marks the first time Steve Jobs openly appeared to consider what price someone is willing to pay for one of his magical toys.
Missing features:
- Video capture. specs list shows that it supports a lot of different formats, but not .3g2, a common mobile video format.
- MMS can’t send picture messages.
Initial verdict: It was close, but I’m going to have to say it’s a pass right now for me. The lack of video and MMS are deal-breakers; for someone who does not carry around a separate camera, video capabilities are really convenient and have become a must-have feature. Still no MMS: this is somewhat offset by unlimited internet, but getting random pictures from- and sending spontaneous pictures to- family and friends is also on my “must have” list.
Amidst the abundance of coverage and analysis, I still have one lingering question: What was in all those mysterious boxes?
* $USD. Despite near-parity of Canadian and US dollars, expect it to be slightly more expensive when released.
Update (10/6/08): According to the Rogers press release, pricing will be $199 or $299 for respective 8GB or 16GB models. Looks like dollar parity finally paid off. Still no word on plan details or whether we’ll see UK-style subsidized prices.
Well, almost. The takeaway news from this morning’s WWDC keynote:
- 3G iPhone released worldwide (70+ countries)
- tentative date for availability is July 11th
- available in black and white
More details here. That’s right the Apple store is back up, with pictures and specs of the new 3G iPhone.
update: release date is confirmed as July 11. Price is not yet available. Still no mention on Rogers.com that iPhone even exists.
(On a completely unrelated note, it looks like Twitter managed to stay up almost the entire time. Congratulations to them.)
Engadget says they have confirmed that Monday’s keynote will announce a few new iPhone features: 3G and GPS. We’ve heard this sort of speculation before, but they claim to have heard from “a reliable source”, which we take to mean carriers that have had access to the soon-to-be-released iPhone firmware, that these features will be included in the next version.
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