Rogers caves on iPhone 3G plans, offers up 6GB for $30 a month
By Paul Miller 
posted Jul 9th 2008 10:27AM
posted Jul 9th 2008 10:27AM
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
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FIRST
OMG WOOO IM SO EXICTED
6GB!!!!
FIRST to get low ranked... These people are so annoying, let's flood his inbox XD
Posting to fill his inbox only.
Really? I mean... Really??
Free breakfast with the purchase of an iPhone!
Satisfaction has never been this attainable!
Will there be Canadian Bacon? Mmmmmmmmmmmmm
will there be crepes and syrup, eh?
Danish bacon > Canadian bacon > American bacon.
i think it is just called bacon ... ;-)
One time I purchased some Canadian Bacon in a bag in Toronto, and when I opened it, all I got was ham... :'(
You should see what Telstra here in Australia are charging for data packs...
AU$29 for 80 megabytes, with no sign of a special for iPhone3G!
http://www.telstra.com.au/mobile/plans/browsing_packs.html
still not worth the price...at all. don't cave, my friends, do not buy it! hold off until they match what at&t is offering.
At least Rogers is not charging incoming SMS like Telus and Bell will do next month...
@LCDY:
true, but, bell and telus are only charging for incoming if you don't have a texting plan. and they at least offer that in an unlimited form.
rogers is the only gsm provider, and that is truly sad.
Rogers data plan is better than AT&T data plan now, AT&T tells you it's unlimited but go over 5GB a month, see what happens, but nobody uses that much data anyway
It would have been worth it if the iPhone, like all high-end phones, could be used as a modem for your laptop.
@snitch:
at&t has a 'soft cap'. it doesn't stop you from using it, it just triggers them to monitor you for excessive use, and they call you, but they don't charge you any more.
So, it's basically the same plan prices with an extra $30 for a 6GB.
What a ripoff!
I don't live in Canada, but my support goes with you guys over there; as EMoShunz said, hold on.
Yeah but can you imagine someone going other 6GB on any smartphone though????
@snitch:
yes. I'd be surfing and downloading video with that thing all the time.
AT&T offers "unlimited" data plans that are capped at 5GB of downloaded data. This is actually better.
It's not that bad now. In England you end up paying ~15 for up to 3 GB (T-Mobile), some its only 300 MB (non-iPhone o2). 6 GB for $30 add on to an existing plan? I'll take it.
It's good news, and I'm glad to hear a decent plan is being offered. I still won't be getting one, though. $30 for data, $30 for a voice plan, $11 for essentials (call display, voicemail, 125 text messages), $7.45 for 911/system access, pst/gst = ~$88.65
Sorry, but I just can't afford to pay that much for cell phone.
HA! Good luck. AT&T is limited to 5GB anyway on their "unlimited plans"
I'm enjoying breakfast now...
Enjoy your low ranking too...
What? I was. It was a bowl of Cheerios.
It will be the most expensive breakfast ever.
but look at it this way, its a free iphone.
Yeah, I love the idea of paying off my breakfast for the next two years....
But what if they serve you cold pop tarts and a chewed pen cap?
@EricR
*3* years
6GB sounds like more than enough for any normal user, especially at $30/mo... shame we'll never get prices like that in the UK... but a 3 year contract? You'd never catch me signing into something that long.
You do realise that in the UK unlimited data is included with all iPhone 3G contracts? the $30 the Canadians are paying is on top of their monthly fee for calls/sms' + video voicemail. Plus they have to sign up to a 3 year contract, double the length of the UK deals, so I wouldn't be too envious of the Canadians if i were you!
Are you insane? Unlimited (properly nulimted too -- none of this run on rate crap if you go over your limit) data on T-Mobile is £7.50 a month. Or about $15 (both US and Canadian). The other networks probably offer something similar too.
Um, no.
T-Mobile have a "fair use" limit of 1GB on their £7.50 / $15 "unlimited" data add-on. It also cannot be used for: phone-as-modem, P2P, internet calls. go over the limit, get a warning, throttled D/L speeds. It's all here:
http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/services/uk/fairuse/
Orange, Voda and O2 are all more expensive than this. Voda laughably include only 500MB as their fair use limit for unlimited data.
3 are marginally better, giving you that 1GB for £5 / $10 (but you can actually go as high as 2GB before they switch you to a per-MB pricing structure), but still not great. At least they allow you free Skype-to-Skype and IM for that.
Facts straight get before posting please.
"It also cannot be used for: phone-as-modem, P2P, internet calls. go over the limit, get a warning, throttled D/L speeds. It's all here:"
How many of those things can the iPhone actually do? How many are sanctioned under the iPhone SDK's terms & conditions?
What do you mean?
My point is that none of the UK networks offer truly unlimited data, apart from (as far as I can tell anyway) O2's iPhone package.
The fact that what you CAN get from the networks is also restricted just makes things worse, but is not my main issue.
My take on things is that it's pretty difficult to use much more than a GB or two using a phone anyway, unless you can use it as a modem, so the 3, £5 deal for 2GB is pretty good for my purposes. Just don't like the use of the word "unlimited" when it really is nothing of the sort.
For what it's worth: iPhone lacks modem drivers, so cannot be used as a modem. It's only a matter of time before someone comes up with a good VoIP client (in fact haven't they already?), so it can be used for that. P2P, without modem use, is pretty much useless anyway. What's your point though?
@James
Um yes.
Where did I say that you could use the service for P2P and VoIP etc? I just said T-Mobile won't charge you if you go over the 1 gig FUP. You can't actually do any of those things with an iPhone anyway, but that's another issue. In terms of usage, it's basically unlimited (or nulimited, thanks fat fingers). And won't cost you more.
You don't get something for nothing in this life. If you want VoIP and P2P and other bandwidth hogs, you'll have to pay for it (and T-Mobile do these too, if you're willing to pay more to get more).
My point is that you can get data that would be suitable for the iPhone for less than half the Rogers price.
Most people (that includes almost everyone who doesn't visit this blog) does not give a crap about VoIP or P2P from a mobile. Most people don't want to use their phone as a 'modem' (otherwise how do you explain the popularity of USB modems?).
T-Mobile have no run-on rates for UK data (and their roaming data is pretty cheap in comparison to others -- still expensive, but cheaper). If you consistently take the piss, you'll get your usage throttled, but you'd have to seriously cane it.
I suggest, James, you read what I actually wrote, and then take issue with that. And not take issue with something I never stated in the first place.
Rich, like I said, I was only pointing out the lack of VoIP, modem use etc as a secondary grumble to my main issue:
You stated, point blank, that T-mob's web 'n' walk £7.50 addon is, and I quote (with spelling corrected), "true unlimited".
I stated that in no language does a 1GB "fair use" limit equal "true unlimited". They may not charge you if you go out of bundle, but they WILL throttle your service if you "cane" it (which current policy holds to be one month usage of 1.5GB).
I was just asking you to get the facts right. Unlimited does not equal 1GB/mth.
Free Breakfast, this is almost sounding better than the launch in the US. Nah, I think 6GB is unlimited for some people. That's much better than what they offered before. I think they should be able to get away with this.
I'm glad they caved, but it still leaves people in a position where they'll have to monitor their usage, and could inadvertently go over the limit and face a huge bill if they accidentally leave some browser window open, etc.
I'm very sad that the larger issue was missed here, reasonable internet rate plans for any wireless device in Canada. In the US the carriers have stated they will support any compatible device, in Canada you get second class treatment if you're not using one of the carrier's products, which will severely limit what people in this country can use on the wireless net.
Now, I'm no Roger's sympathizer. I really do hate the ****ers, but in fairness, they send you text messages at 80%, 90%, 95%, and 100% of usage to make sure know when you're about to go over.
Brandon, that won't help you much in terminal conditions. Don't you think it'd be better if you could choose to be disconnected before getting into the serious charges territory?
Granted, this is unlikely to happen with 6gb, but some will opt for their lessor plans.
I'm with Fido, and I don't receive the warning messages for voice usage, even though they've supposedly fixed the problem twice.
still very much of a rip off in my opinion. but i guess it makes us feel better especially after learning how the new zealanders are being owned big time.
Good for you Canadians. Btw that pic isn't real, is it?
Sigh... Wish big corporations had a better sense of humour
engadget actually photoshopped the original to say those things.
Don't believe the hype. Those cries fell on def ears cause Rogers has an extra layer of green $$ fat that covers their ear drum. No, the real credit goes to the "JobO the Hut Syndicate" who I'm sure did some major behind the scene arm twisting!
a step towards hope for mankind
Close enough? Do you work for Rogers Mr. Miller?
Would you pay 30 dollars a month for 6GB data? Would you pay it when a rival company is offering Samsung Instincts with UNLIMITED DATA for $10 per month extra!?
You can write whatever you want, freedom of speech is great; but don't cave in so easily to such a terrible, absolutely terrible excuse for a data plan.
If you don't care enough about us Canadians getting ripped off, don't write the article.
We need unlimited data and pricing plans that are similar if not better than the plans offered by AT&T.
We need to eliminate access fees, terrible billing procedures, and we need to stop caving in to such tiny advances in the industry.
You think that anyone up here is going to fall for this? We are a bit smarter than that, so stop feeding the corporate pig would you Paul?
IT'S NOT UNLIMITED DATA. IT'S UNLIMITED BROWSING. GOD. So no unlimited data, okay? Just browsing on some crapass mobile browser.
I don't think you're getting it...for Rogers this is HUGE considering as everyone has made very clear before, had the most expensive and least value-added plans. I was going to pay $30 for 300MB before I read this, THAT is ridiculous. 6GB on the iPhone 3G is more than enough and is close enough to unlimited, how many people have actually used 5+? Considering you can't tether the iPhone for data I have a very hard time believing it's even possible to reach 6GB, the app store isn't going to let you download applications more than 10MB(?) unless you download using iTunes or wifi. Is anybody going to be using bittorrent with their phone? Doubtful, that's what your computer is for. Maybe it's just me being ignorant but I can't see any possible way to use that much data on this phone at this point in time.
Yes Rogers is a big corporate pig and they suck blah blah etc, we know, I've been with them for 4 years and have had my gripes, they can be good at times, they can be terrible...shouldn't be saying that since I work for a dealer but hey! If people are going to continue to complain after being offered 6GB for $30, as compared to anything they've offered in the past that doesn't even come close to comparing...then I've lost a little more faith in humanity.
@Rick - Its true that average user probably will never reach 6GB w/o tethering... however, what if you did reach it? will Rogers bill you up the arse per KB then... point is that having a cap ultimately means some poor joe will be screwed over some how. In the most extreme scenario, what if some poor fool went on vacation for two weeks leaving his iphone docked and safari running and happened to be on a site that refreshes itself with loads of data every 3 seconds... over 3G. There is a small chance in the most extreme scenario that you'd go over 6GB, and then what... Roger steps in to rip you off again?
I am just saying, if Rogers is so confident that 6GB is close enough to unlimited, why not just make it unlimited?
Unlimited Browsing, unlimited downloads but no tethering.....but it's still $10 at Bell.
Regardless, we shouldn't be comparing these companies to themselves, we should be comparing them to their competition; Bell included.
If nobody is going to go over 6GB, why the cap? Why not $30 for unlimited? Does that not look slightly better in the public eye than 6GB?
No, people are going to go over 6GB, and Rogers know it. We are talking youtube, google video, AGPS map downloading, social networking sites that contain millions of pictures for browsing, the whole rich web.
This isn't the 90's and pages can be absolutely huge.
I've been with this company on and off for 8 years because they have the best network in Canada (sadly). They have terrible customer service, a terrible billing process, and terrible prices. They don't deserve a free publicity stunt, they are just a company.
A corporation is a person by law only, and does not need to be defended by real people while it plunders people for their money, who have no better alternative for their small business communications etc.
@Rick
Its not even a matter of unlimited or not for me. Granted that 6GB is unreachable without tethering, they are requiring this plan to be activated on a 3 year contract on an EXISTING VOICE PLAN... have you seen how shitting their current voice plans are?
You can't even combine this offer on grandfathered plans, which means they will milk you for even more for their ULTRACRAPPY voice plans.
Right, 6GB + some shitty voice plan ...... NO THANK ROGERS...
I agree with Rick.
My Blackberry which is on a corporate unlimited plan. I spent 2 weeks of traveling by road and I had the GPS and Google Maps turned on for most of that time and I had my instant messaging on the whole time. I racked up 1.5 GB of data for the month (yeah my telcom department kind of freaked on me for that but since it was unlimited they didn't really care that much). That's pretty extreme (plus the battery drain, but I plugged it into my car to maintain the drain).
I wanted to see how much I could rack up on that phone. Now granted I never browsed web sites on the blackberry (because it sucks!) but the usage I pushed it to was pretty intense. Unless I was doing some peer to peer serving, I'd find it hard to do 6 GB per month and actually I think that used to be the written limit on my Shaw broadband cable connection anyhow (10 GB now?). So pretty close is true, but the price is still a little more than what other competitors are offering, but better than the first initial offerings from Rogers.
I have to side with Rogers on the 6Gb limit (6Gb/30$ seems "fair" to me and a big step forward for Rogers).
If Rogers were to go ahead and say "unlimited", and make it TRULY unlimited, then there are certain people who will abuse that. They've got to cap it somewhere.
And I think it's better than advertising "unlimited" and actually having a cap. They're disclosing (a bit) more information about the true terms of the contract/plan.
Doesn't effect me at all b/c I'm not getting an iPhone, and I don't live in Canada.
Just wanted to say though, that image is awesome. I lol'd.
I can't wait to find out how much money I'd save if I bundled it with other services!!!!
Rogers gives discounts based on the number of services you sign up for. 2 services is like, 5% off your whole bill, 3, is 10%, and all 5 is 15%, or something like that.
Nobody seems to have noticed one thing here - this is an introductory offer only. Sign up after August 31st, and you get the shaft all over again!
I love how companies make bandwidth out to be "magical" and thus needing caps. It is electricity over wires/towers etc, not magic but in the US cell companies and now cable companies are capping things. WHY? Greedy. 6GB is ok, but for those that really get movies over the air, well that will not last. I feel for the canadians.
Bandwidth is capacity. If everyone started downloading BitTorrents on their phone, then it would force the networks to upgrade their capacity or face provider-wide slowdowns which would disrupt service. The reason why Bell offers a $10 unlimited data plan because the network is under utilized and has the capacity to support many more devices (cause there are more GSM devices out there than CDMA obviously).
It all comes down to capacity and how much the provider is willing to upgrade their networks to support it.
UNLIMITED BROWSING!!!!!! GOD!!!!
@gary, it's not unlimited browsing.. it is data.
http://your.rogers.com/investorrelations/news_communications.asp
A bandwidth cap is reasonable under some circumstances. Most networks can not support everyone maxing out their connection at once. Instead, they rely on the majority of people to alternate between light and heavy usage. Think of it like power companies - they let you draw however much power you want, but if everyone maxed out their draw, then there isn't enough to go around. Phone companies cap bandwidth to try and prevent the network from getting overloaded, because if you have a cap then you won't be careless about your consumption. Here, however, the cap and the price to get it are pretty much a fuck you to people who want a good data plan. As has been noted, 6 GB is pretty much the same as unlimited since it's pretty difficult to use that much, so why not just make it unlimited. Or, why not lower the price since it isn't an unlimited plan.
From the pic the "iPhone" looks more of a shining tombstone....LOL
It's the Monolith from Clarke's 2001.
I thought Canada was famous for their cheap medicine. Will any Canadian be brave enough to make a Michael Moore's SiCKO-like documentary that exposes the blatant rip-off of mobile pricing scheme in their country? I guess we could call it Roger"s" & Me as an homage to Moore's first documentary.
I think the most notable part of this deal is that it is only available until August 31st. Given that Apple has restricted the number of iPhones being shipped to Canada and you can only get this plan before Aug. 31st, isn't this offer essentially a "The first X number of customers get this plan" type of offer?
So basically, they offer a good deal to a fixed number of people (the people able to obtain in iPhone before Aug 31st), thus limiting lost revenue.
That's an excellent point. Essentially, only the picket line crossers (scabs) will get the reward and those who break down later to buy (or don't buy at all) will not get the deal due to its expiration. This is not Rogers caving in at all, but is the equivalent of union busting. If the deal were permanent, it'd be a concession, but until it is Rogers is still deserving of wrath.
FYI: ATT's Unlimited data is really 5GB.
http://www.iphonematters.com/article/insanity_att_imposing_5gb_soft_cap_for_data_781/
So this is a better deal than ATT.
No, it is unlimited. All it is is a 'soft' cap where if you go over 5gb, at&t will call you and tell you to 'slow down', but you don't get charged extra for data over 5gb
I have to say this... I was so pissed at Rogers, but now that there's a $30 almost-unlimited plan to be used in conjunction with any other Rogers plan, us Canadians can now get an iPhone for $199 or $299 with a minimum plan cost of just $55 CDN. That's like $20 less than Americans are gonna pay. WOOOOT
I do not remember having had the same handset for three years; I am not sure that Apple's will last such a long period of time despite its quality. Does anyone know how the issuing of new versions of the iPhone will be covered by these kind of contracts?
I'm a Rogers customer (though only grudgingly) and I was worried about this at first too. Turns out you can get phone upgrades once a year at the new contract price if you extend your contract every year. So as long as you're willing to be perpetually locked in with Rogers for between 2 and 3 years, you aren't too screwed. I'm not saying this is a good thing, just slightly less pure evil than it sounds.
Can we assume that Fido will have the same deal?
Tha'ts not bad cause not much people use that amount of data in a month also don't forget this is a WiFi phone, am a heavy user & haven't gone over 1 1/2GB in month, so i think canadians can say that they have a cheap unlimited data plan now, cause although AT&T tells you it's unlimited as soon as you go over 5GB they start calling you to find out what the heck is you doing
To begin with (I really want this phone):
I am an existing Rogers customer and i have no intention of giving up my current plan and re-signing a three-year contract just to get this phone.
Fuck that. I have a family plan with my partner ($100/month for two phones) and, as i understand it, we would both need to sign new contracts if I wanted the iPhone (the iPhone is not available under the Family Plan so she would need a new plan and I would need a new plan). That is ridiculous.
Why are they making it so fucking hard to get a phone, especially for existing customers? Please prove me wrong.
If you really want an answer to that question, it's because they're greedy. They want to gouge their customers for as much as they can get away with.
Still 3 years, that's excessive. It's only 18 months over here in UK.
Sadly, this is what happen when a company have a monopoly over the air (and that Bell and Telus will start charging for SMS, and that they chose to do it at the same time, that is call a Cartel my friend).
I do not believe things will change, to the contrary, it's getting worse:
Rogers cave... I find it so funny! seriously, how can a company that have monopoly over GSM can choose to not screw us Canadian... go check gsmworld, they are the only one, they can do what ever they want and us, canadian, will simply eat it.
On the same line, Bandwidth throttling, Copyright legislation... we eat it all, submissive and defenseless.
sorry, but the iPhone will still be sold out friday morning, because Canadian cannot unite.
6GB for $30. Not bad. Just be careful not to go over, it'll be $812,123,102.09 per additional byte.
" have to say this... I was so pissed at Rogers, but now that there's a $30 almost-unlimited plan to be used in conjunction with any other Rogers plan, us Canadians can now get an iPhone for $199 or $299 with a minimum plan cost of just $55 CDN. That's like $20 less than Americans are gonna pay. WOOOOT"
Ya, just don't forget to add Roger's "System Access fee" and 911 fees to your $55 plan.
A three year contract! Three years! I'm on my third phone in 3 years. Can you imagine signing a contract for that long? 15% of marriages don't even last that long! Ouch.
I have Telus and an HTC Touch. I pay $70 a month and I get the following:
-150 outbound Daytime minutes
-Unlimited inbound calls any time
-Free evenings (after 6) and weekends
-Caller ID and Voicemail
-Unlimited data
The data plan is $15 out of the $70 and I have tested it... I don't ever go over 6gb and I use it heavily. I just LOVE that I don't have to worry about going over.
They may start charging for text messages? So what. All my friends either have unlimited data on a different provider or have blackberry plans. We just e-mail each other.
I guess my whole point here is that you can get a phone that is just as good in my opinion (got my touch for free when I signed a 3year contract, I however had the option of buying the phone and not having a contract) and an unlimited data plan with other providers. Using a program like PDANet I can connect the phone to my computer and get EV/DO speed wherever I have my laptop in Canada without additional charges. Show how unhappy you are with Rogers by not giving them your money. I personally only take issue with their wireless "services" and products. They should NEVER have been aloowed to buy Fido... but I realize that the other option was that Fido would have just stopped existing...
THREE YEARS???
THREE?
YEARS?
SPARTA?
There should be a law against a mobile phone contract being that bloody long!.
seriously? who keeps one phone for 3 years? apple probably will came up with a new iphone every year.
second, why is rogers charging a premium for the data? when other rival is only charging 10$ for unlimited data? is the rogers data more precious?
Has anyone called to confirm this with Rogers? I just did and the sales rep said that it's still 300mb for $30. I don't know when they'll update their plans but so far, she hasn't heard about the 6gb. I was hoping it would b e true cuz then I'd just add it onto my plan.
I also asked her about the bricking of the phone if you take out your sim. She hasn't heard about it either but I'm still skeptical about that part. Anybody know if it's true?
Also, they'll be take phone calls for the iphone on Friday and she can't tell me how much it'll cost to upgrade to the iphone until they get their inventory and see how much revenue will be generated from the iphone sales. I don't know if it's true but that's the info I got.
Hopefully there is a 6gb data as I would def love to have it.
finally some satisfaction.. now.. just get rid of system access fees!
http://your.rogers.com/investorrelations/news_wireless.asp
It just came out today. Give the reps some chance to read up!
http://your.rogers.com/investorrelations/news_wireless.asp
I think someone read the website incorrectly. It's $100 for 6GB on top of a voice plan.
From the rogers website:
"While the iPhone 3G Voice and Data Packages allow you to use this device to its fullest and offer savings over separate voice and data plans, they are not the only options available to you. Other pricing options are available. For example, you may choose to combine one of our new data plans ranging from $30 per month (for 300MB) to $100 per month (for 6GB) with a voice plan."
See: http://www.rogers.com/web/content/wireless-products/iphone_voice_data_packages
I retract. Looks like different areas of the website say different things.
Yes, but it sounds as though the deal until August 31st will be that $100/month is dropped down to $30/month
From the bulletin:
"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."
6GB data for 30 dollars is not too bad... I mean, who's going to exceed that in a month, unless you're the biggest YouTube addict ever? It's still a bit steep, but hey. I hope Fido mirrors this policy, seeing as Rogers owns them.
Exactly... I don't see why they don't just name it "unlimited" data - I can't imagine many will bust that threshold, especially as I'm sure like every other mobile phone carrier in the North Americas, they charge extra for phone to PC tethering.
My hardware upgrade is coming at the end of the month! YAH!!
But I don't know if I'll get the iPhone, since I was never really interested in it, but I am very glad Apple created the iPhone. If there is one thing Apple Fanboys are good at, it is whining and creating a huge fuss. I can't beleive they actually managed to get an evil corporation to offer decent data rates.
I will never hate on an Apple Fanboy EVER again.
Btw, with these three year contracts, you get a hardware upgrade every year as long as you had no collection activity (account in good standing). So even though it IS a 3 year contract, that does not mean you have to stick with the same plan and same phone for the whole 3 years.
Today is a good day. :)
I still don't want to be raped for three years. I want to jump ship.