(Source: Globe & Mail)

Well,  I was in a state of shear elation the other day as I wrote this article entitled: Rogers iPhone Plans Revealed! And the reason I was so happy had little to nothing to do with the iPhone itself, although as I have mused previously, the iPhone although pointless for me will be the catalyst that will help to bring change to the Canadian Wireless Landscape.  My excitement that day was in response to the data rates that I included in the previous posts.  For people that are using Rogers prior to about a month ago your options for data were something like this:

Blackberry Plans
Windows Mobile Plans
Flex Data Plans (For PCMCIA Laptop Cards)
Data Plans (for Cell phones)

If you had a Blackberry you could not use it as a modem, ditto for the Windows Mobile plans,  that data was charged at the 5 cents a kilobyte range, data plans for cell phones were monsterously expensive on a per Kilobyte basis as well.  My company needed a new cellular and wireless data solution and our plans at the time looked like this:

2 Blackberry’s & 1 Cell Phone (300 / month for voice + 100 each blackberry for 1 gig data + System access fee etc etc etc)
2 Wireless PCMCIA Cards (50 bucks to buy, + $100 / month for EACH flex card + System Access fees)

Basically an estimated grand total (not including long distance, call display etc etc etc…

$735 / month

After the new Data plans came out with their reduced restrictions our requirements also changed.  We were now able to use flex plans on ALL data devices, and use ALL data devices as modems without penalties

2 Blackberry’s & 1 MotoQ (3G) (300 /month, + 30 / per phone for 300 meg flex plan)
No need for Wireless Cards….
New Estimated total before extras & long distance etc

$411…. a 56% savings!

We were totally ready and prepared to take it in the neck at over 700 a month for our services… the needs of our business was clear, however, with the changes coming in data, we will now save $324 / month… that is a VERY significant savings.  Now of course our data rates will rise and fall according to the Rogers Flex Rates… which we’re ok with.

Rogers yesterday released their iPhone Plans… and they are not being well received… this of course begs the question to all of you…. “Seriously, what did you expect?”  I was hoping for better plans, but knew in my heart that they would fall somewhere in this arena.  There’s been some spirited attacks and blog posts fighting back against Rogers and I say GOOD.  Go after them.  Our rates are WAY too high in this country, really.  REALLY.

As a blogger of course, now and again people respond with a comment (not as often as I’d like… but it still happens) and I almost always approve them, even if they disagree with me.  But today, and this is actually the reason for my post I received THIS:

Are you nuts ? “…I am so relieved to see that Rogers is starting to fall into line with the rest of the world…”

You obviously have no clue what you’re talking about. Are you even aware how behind this fucking country really is ? Every third World country has better cell phone voice/data plans than these rip-offs. Just search the Google, remember Google is your friend and you’ll see what normal people think of this Rogers plan. To simplify it to you, it sucks!

The poster did not use his name, or alias, or email address in his posting, but he was good enough to include links to his own blog   I thought to myself “Cool, another comment” but as I sat here reading it back to myself I thought… you know what… people really need to take into context what has actually happened this past month.  People really need to realise that this is a private company whose job it is to make money, and if you don’t like it vote with either your feet (but since we have really only two phone companies where are you going to go?)  or call your MP, and get involved.

I applaud Rogers for their new Data Pricing structure, it is a huge step in the right direction, and all of you whiny little b*tches out there need to remember no matter how mean, and evil their empire, they still did make changes this month that were very signifigant and will affect their bottom line.  If you are a business user with Rogers right now, you can probably get away with a much cheaper data plan.

Prices they are a fallin…. just not fast enough for some… and yes, even though I am thrilled with the lowering of rates… not fast enough for me either.

*Disclosure – I worked at The Source years ago and sold Rogers phones, and know all their nasty little tricks, also I have a large $500 cell phone bill in collections that I’ve almost paid off

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