Angry Canadians protest Rogers iPhone rates
By Erna Mahyuni
Angry Canadians have taken to the Web to protest what they see as unreasonable data rates from telco Rogers.
The blog GeekCulture posted news of angry Canadian reactions, as well as a link to a URL dedicated solely to protesting the rates – fuckyourogers.com. I suppose angry Canadians aren’t used to mincing their words, huh? Besides the aforementioned site, GeekCulture’s forums also has a thread dedicated to voicing their displeasure on the plans with Canadian Mac fans also showing their ire on the ehMac forums.
Are the plans all that expensive? There are three main plans for Canadians to choose from, starting from $60 a month, all the way up to $115. What GeekCulture notes is the absence of an unlimited data plan.
Let’s have a look at whether there’s a point to the hue and cry by peeking at the rates:
The $60 plan gives you 150 minutes of talktime, 400MB of data, 75 text messages and no charge for incoming texts and visual voicemail. Pay $15 more and you get 300 minutes, 750MB and 100 texts. $100? 600 minutes, 1 GB of data and 200 texts.
Willing to pay premium? Then that’s 800 minutes, 2 GB of data and 300 texts for $115.
To add insult to injury, there’s an extra $6.95 charge for system access and to top that all off – a mandatory three-year contract. You wonder whether Rogers wants to encourage, or discourage, iPhone buyers.
Admittedly, the plans aren’t exactly on this side of really affordable. The $115 might be justifiable if you were getting unlimited data. Even in the US, there are unlimited data plans available for AT&T users to entice them into buying an iPhone.
It boggles the mind why Rogers wants to charge that much, especially as it won’t have exclusive rights to the iPhone, unlike AT&T in the States. Not to mention Apple’s given up on its grandiose early notions of revenue-sharing deals with the countries that would be getting the iPhone. Instead, it seems they’re opting to reach as many markets it can by shipping to 70 countries.
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Read more entries by Erna Mahyuni.
June 28th, 2008
So far as anyone knows, Rogers does have exclusivity on the iphone. Until next year when the airwaves are auctioned off, anyway, they’re the only ones with GSM. The fact that Fido is offering iphone in Canada as well is an irrelevant point. Fido IS Rogers. Same network, same company, just a different name–aside from them giving you billing by the second (assume this still applies) the iphone deal is exactly the same as well.l
June 28th, 2008
Don’t forget Rogers demands a 3 year commitment as well. As far as I know, the only iPhone provider in the world to do so.
F*ck Rogers.
June 29th, 2008
wow thoes prick can go f*ck there mother wow i hate them im done with rogers and all canadian cell phone companies thoes prick bastards can suck a fat cock
June 29th, 2008
In the US for $99 you get unlimited text, email in and out, websurfing, nation wide calling, video messaging, picture sending and roaming. If the roaming and nationwide calling included Canada I would sign up and skip Rogers and every other Canadian carrier all together. I live on the Canada and US border and travel the states regularly. Rogers is just ultra-exploitive of its captured regulatory client base. The CRTC should let Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, Cricket and Nextel into Canada’s cell phone market. We are not being served by our “made in Canada” monopoly protected service providers! Stop the pricing abuse!
June 29th, 2008
Oh and let’s not forget that in these Rogers plans, unlimited evenings start at 9pm. Also you’ll have to fork over an additional $15/month for the “monthly value pack” if you want exciting value-packed extras such as…caller-id. But wait - for the super-duper $20 monthly value pack you can get your unlimited evening minutes to start at 6pm instead! Awesome!
July 5th, 2008
And what’s up with 75 text messages ? Not even 76 ?!! Fuck that lol!!! Fuck Rogers! Fuck everybody!!! Canada is the best coountry to live in, but their cell phone providers/plans/rates are incredibly stupid. Something badly needs to change, something bad needs to happen in order to achieve that. I believe after reading all those customer complaints, Rogers definitelly is going down after this. So many people already canceled other services Rogers is providing (cableTV, internet, home phone etc.) and all that in protest of what Rogers is doing regarding the iPhone data plans. Go and ready ruinediphone.com and almost 30000 people signed petition by now. And the number constantly keeps growing…
July 5th, 2008
Rogers is brutal! They are are screwing Canadians in all areas of communications and entertainment and worse, using the protective socialist umbrella of the CRTC to do it. Their tv hd programming sucks and they have nothing to offer. Again, thanks to the CRTC they are over-riding US signals and filling in their crap instead. CRTC, Rogers, CTV, Global - they all suck! Freedom of choice and freedom of information is dead here in socialist land. The IPhone scam was only to be expected.
July 6th, 2008
These theives are aloowed to operate feerly under the CRTC - who must be getting greased. How esle can this travesty exist? The blatant crimianlity of this is obvious but the commi’s that purportedly do this in our best intrestes are no better than the commi’s in other parts of th world - ours just wear a business suit vs. military uniform. A$$hole$……Mr Rogers = Mr Burns (simpsons) …..enough said
July 21st, 2008
OK I get the iPhone and they tell me because of my credit I have to put down a $200 deposit??? OK sure (bell never did that with my Blackberry) so I got the $30 data and $45 voice and $20 extras thing. 7 days later after the phone comes out they cut it off. WTF!!! so I wait on hold for 30min and the Rogers rep says you have reached your $200 limit and they canceled my service… Why? Because the first bill is Pro-rated and that comes to $209. I have had the figgen phone for 9 days!!!! I gave them such shit and the turned it back on and they asked me for $9… 9 fucking dollars!!! My clients can’t get a hold of me for $9?
Roger’s policy’s stink and I want to go back to bell.