Mathew's comments - Latest Comments in Rogers iPhone: Get a second mortgage

Re: Rogers iPhone: Get a second mortgage

tgarbutt — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:04:35 -0000

We may be witnessing an historic event in Canada!
Canadian consumers are "mad, are standing up and are not taking it anymore".
Hopefully Apple will do the right thing and remove iPhone from Robbers.

All Canadian captains of industry should be aware, this is a shot across their bows for their neanderthal and predatory business practices.

Change NOW or perish!

Terry

Re: Rogers iPhone: Get a second mortgage

mathewi — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:32:07 -0000

I'm not sure whether new providers will help or not, Tris -- I sure
hope so. But then again, they may be just as happy to join the cozy
little club, and not be too eager to rock the boat price-wise.

Re: Rogers iPhone: Get a second mortgage

Tris Hussey — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:26:06 -0000

Thanks for the link Mathew. Do you think that the new providers will help this?
Irony: Moving to TO I have to use Rogers for a lot of services. Sigh.

Re: Rogers iPhone: Get a second mortgage

Robert Dall — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 02:20:22 -0000

I could not agree with you more !!! Love the headline!

Re: Rogers iPhone: Get a second mortgage

mathewi — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 23:59:04 -0000

That's an excellent point, Albert.

Re: Rogers iPhone: Get a second mortgage

Albert Lai — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 23:02:39 -0000

Matthew,
I think a lot of people are missing the most important point of all:

If we don't have fair and reasonable unlimited data rates in Canada... there will be very little in the way of 3d party (jesus phone or otherwise) mobile application adoption (and related development/innovations).

Re: Rogers iPhone: Get a second mortgage

Dave_Conabree — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 11:52:35 -0000

Well said Mathew,

Hopefully, the decision to split off a portion of the wireless spectrum auction to new players will provide some eventual relief.

I doubt that the big three wireless providers have really considered how many of their customers deal with them only begrudgingly, feeling fleeced with every bill and just itching to find a service provider that they feel will appreciate thier business.

It would seem that for many people, the Canadian cell phone rate experience is akin to getting a plumber on a Sunday night. You have no choice but to pay the massive markup because he is the only game in town at that hour. Until we get a few new plumbers, ones who must build a loyal customer base in order to survive, this situation is unlikely to change.

Dave

Re: Rogers iPhone: Get a second mortgage

Richard Budman — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 08:59:05 -0000

I found out there is still another cost to consider before we get the privilege of being hosed by Rogers. The cost of getting out of a current cell contract and/or adding an iphone contract. Rogers couldn't do the appropriate thing and maybe, like reward their long-term customers with an easy switch to an iphone plan if they so choose. They also feel the need to get you in the wallet on even the switch. No matter how you slice it - your going to pay a penalty of some sorts if you are already under a current contract (and I'm talking about a Rogers/Fido contract -same carrier!) Your either have to break your current contract or pay a much higher iphone fee to get started (a store rep told me this.) Can someone please make me understand how any of that makes sense? I'd say the way to go is get an iphone (no contract with ANY carrier) and use it's features and wifi.

Re: Rogers iPhone: Get a second mortgage

citizenziggy — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 03:22:03 -0000

btw: rogers prepaid data rate is 5 cents per KB. 50$/MB. $50,000/GB
isn't that outrageous?

to download a song from iTunes on data would cost 75$ for a short 3MB song.
BUT why is it if I buy that same song from the rogers music portal they waive the data charge and bill me $1.25huh?

even more confusing and nonsensical,
a voice call is still data. in fact, a voice call uses ~0.7-1.6kB/sec.
that's 10cents/ second in data??

42-97.5kB/ minute.
the equivalent of a 1 minute call in data is $2.10 - $4.87/ minute if data is used instead of voice. heck I get free voice calls after 6pm but then why not free data.
why are there two prices for what is effectively the same service.
I guess we let tel/cablecos bill once for voip(phone), again for iptv(tv), and once again for tcp/ip(Internet), why not once again for mobile.

now can we finally include mobile in the net neutrality debate?

Re: Rogers iPhone: Get a second mortgage

citizenziggy — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 02:52:18 -0000

I not surprised but shocked. its not much different around the rest of the world, tho.
Australia is the worst at 40+c / 30sec. calls. and no data on most prepaid.
I'd like to point out there is a big difference between prepaid and plans. everyone talks about postpaid plans when most of the world suffers much worse on the ghastly prepaid plans. most times no data at all.

in all my recent travels airtel, India and tmobile, UK offered unlimited fixed price data plans for prepaid. its a shame more people in north America don't talk about
this more.

most early adopters, we already have iphones or will simply obtain and unlock. and hopefully new national gsm carrier in Canada is data friendly. the early adopters will get around it like using the secret sacred sixty plan (60$/1GB) ask for it. its the same plan as the hsdpa data card.

but wait a second... doesn't canadian copyright bill make reverse engineering illegal? criminal maybe, like the US dmca?

[looks like iPhone safari text input is failing me now. post before it crashes :o ]

sadly it seems that only open competition in a truely free market will deal with this problem -- that includes foreign competition.

this is just the tip. try roaming data on for size?

Re: Rogers iPhone: Get a second mortgage

Lead Goat — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:06:40 -0000

Firestorm? I'd say it's going to be browner.

Re: Rogers iPhone: Get a second mortgage

Partners in Grime — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:02:19 -0000

Yikes! And a three-year contract.

Re: Rogers iPhone: Get a second mortgage

David — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 16:06:33 -0000

Question for all the indignant Canadians... would you rather be tied to Bell or Telus for 3 years? Probably not. The entire Canadian cell phone business is a huge consumer rip-off. We probably have the longest "standard" contracts and highest data rates in the world and that's before you tack on that marvel of misleading advertising, the system access fee.

Given our geography, however, I can't see anyone capable of challenging the status quo any time soon. There's no way someone like Shaw could suddenly put up thousands of new towers while simultaneously undercutting the pricing of the established players.

Re: Rogers iPhone: Get a second mortgage

Casey — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 15:37:37 -0000

I think that Rogers has severely under estimate the passion and net savvy of the Canadian Apple community. There is a firestorm of bad will towards Rogers brewing here.

Please everybody sign the petition and send an email to the big wigs at Rogers and Apple (addresses on the petition web site).

It would also be helpful to Digg the pages in order to get more visibility on Digg.

Re: Rogers iPhone: Get a second mortgage

cfomarshall — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 11:47:20 -0000

The other thing to consider (and the reason why BB data usage is a meaningless comparison) is that the iPhone is specific designed to be conducive to driving far more data usage than the BB. I am a BB user (Corporately) and was considering getting an iPhone personally but will not be doing so largely because the reason I would get the iPhone is to use it to browse and stay connected in ways I won't with my Corp BB.

Rogers really missed the boat on this and I believe/hope sales of the iPhone and the recently released rate fail miserably so that they reconsider. Don't even get me started on the 3 year mandatory plan!!!!

Re: Rogers iPhone: Get a second mortgage

mathewi — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 09:57:04 -0000

I think you're right, Jules -- I think most Berry users (like me) have
corporate plans, so it's not as painful, or at least not directly.
But the iPhone is a totally different market.

Re: Rogers iPhone: Get a second mortgage

mathewi — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 09:55:05 -0000

Thanks :-)

Re: Rogers iPhone: Get a second mortgage

Zunaid Khan — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 09:04:00 -0000

Love the headline. Not surprised by this. I am big Apple fan but I will stick with my Blackberry thank you very much

Re: Rogers iPhone: Get a second mortgage

jules — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 08:18:07 -0000

Meh.
The $100 plan is pretty comparable to the average blackberry plan. It's not good, but it's not surprising. I've got a feeling that Rogers used their blackberry customer usage stats to come up with the price plans, but they forgot that most berry users expense their berries back to companies, they don't pay out of their own pocket. I've got my doubts that companies will allow employees to expense their iPhone ;-)

Re: Rogers iPhone: Get a second mortgage

tamera kremer — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 08:10:09 -0000

Classic headline Mathew!

I'm not buying it... plan to upgrade to the new BB Bold when it arrives... it suits my purposes to a T and won't break my bank. I love shiny toys, but only when they're useful and fairly priced in the marketplace.

Re: Rogers iPhone: Get a second mortgage

buckpost — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 07:38:24 -0000

Great headline!

Mark