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Canadian Data Fees Seen as Hurdle for iPhone

quigleybc said:
More and more i'm starting to think that we just won't get the iPhone....at all.

By the time our cell carriers work this all out, a new iPhone will be out...

what a rip off.....we need to start a petition...cuz those ALWAYS work....right guys?? right...:(


us = screwed
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Yeah, I've pretty much thought the same way.

I found the petition by the way, it's here: http://www.petitiononline.com/iPhone99/petition.html
 
Ugh! I was just in Canada this weekend. I used wi-fi in my hotel, and the restaurants I ate breakfast and dinner at, but forgot to put the phone in Airplane mode before leaving the wi-fi zone. The next time I went to use it I noticed that I had received email while walking around Vancouver. I fear for what I was charged when that happened.

Does anyone know if there's a way to disable EDGE but leave the iPhone open to discovering new Wi-Fi networks?
 
I agree, our Canadian data rates are horrid...
I'm on bell (cdma so no iphone.... ever most likely) and without a data plan it is 51$/mb... thats right 51 dollars per megabyte.... I got caught with this on my cell phone when i got it in march, just looked at the tv preview and bam mega charge phone bill....
We need us companies to come here and drop the prices, or at least not give into making larger profit like everyone else. Virgin used to be cheap here, then they changed to "pre-pay" Plans... yeah now they too cost as much as everyone else....
data rate will never come down, there is no incentive. Screw customers make crap loads of money instead (wtf is customer appreciation, loyalty or service anyway?)
 
bob_hearn said:
Take out the SIM card.
Click to expand...

Or turn off automatic email updates? You can set it to like 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes or off I think?


Back on topic - I'm on Orange here in the UK.

They've just introduced these "fantastic new price plans" for data:

"Unlimited Evening & Weekend Browsing" £5pm - but I think this only covers "Orange World" sites (i.e. not the WWW)

30Mb = £8pm

80Mb = £41.13

T-Mobile and Vodafone apparently offer a totally unlimited package either £25 or £40... Any you'll notice that all the above figures are Mega bits, not MegaBytes... so 1/8th of a megabyte. 80Mb effectively is the same as 10MB of data usage, I think?

I feel these prices are appalling.

oh, and £41.13 = CDN$88.26
 
With the highest data plan that Rogers offers being around $200 for half a gigabyte of data, it doesn't look promising.

Rogers will need to lower data prices at an extreme rate to get the iPhone, but it won't happen, since there's a 3 way monopoly between Rogers/Fido, Telus and Bell, they're taking their time with everything. I've seen prices go up rather than down. I remember 4 years ago I could get an excellent voice plan for 20 bucks and options for pretty cheap, but due to the monopoly structure.. the plan I had 4 years ago is now worth 2x more if I was to get it as a new customer now.

Fido had an unlimited data plan for $20 before it was purchased by Fido, then again look at their original foot print, it was exclusively in urban areas with hundreds of thousands of people.

Rogers has a large infrastructure to look after, many times in areas where there's only a few dozen customers within the radius of the tower. With that being said, there is the SAF, and rival carriers are able to offer cheaper data at the same time while at times having coverage in much more remote areas with much fewer people than Rogers does. CDMA carrier MTS has a half gigabyte option for under $100, which is half the price of Rogers.

Comparing phones, Rogers now sells the TyTN by HTC, with a $60+ voice and data plan (I think) it costs $400 with a new account with Rogers, while for the same phone on AT&T it's $100 less, plus Rogers requires a 3 year contract with it, for a 2 year on Rogers it's $600.. yikes.
 
Now that the Canadian Dollar has near price parity with the US dollar, the higher prices there are no longer a joke. It costs more to live there by 30%+ more.

Rocketman

BTW there was a guy publishing Pringles can wifi antennas for about $20 apiece. Canada needs these to be deployed widely. Let's pitch in since the $200/mb cellular customers are wayyy too stupid to (do so).
 
Yup canadian cell phone companies suck. the tax in Quebec is ridiculous, too. My cellphone cost 32$ a month and the plan I have sucks....like 100 weekday and 1000 weekend. text msg. cost extra, and I have no caller ID or call waiting!
 
Rocketman said:
Now that the Canadian Dollar has near price parity with the US dollar, the higher prices there are no longer a joke. It costs more to live there by 30%+ more.

Rocketman
Click to expand...


That's not true at all, I guarantee my cost of living is much lower than the majority of the USA and Western Europe when you factor in things like housing costs.


Anyway, back on topic. I agree with all the people above who say that the Canadian carriers are horrible. Their data rates are atrocious, their voice plans offer scant minutes, and their support lines are feeble. Not to mention the fact that their signal quality is poor anywhere but major urban areas, and they force you into contracts much more than they should be allowed to. I had Rogers service for years and gave it up, switched to Telus hoping for something better, and while my reception improved, the service and cost are still bad enough to make me want to give up the whole idea of cell phones entirely.
 
kwajo.com said:
That's not true at all, I guarantee my cost of living is much lower than the majority of the USA and Western Europe when you factor in things like housing costs.
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Where in the world are you getting that from???? Housing costs are nuts here! I'm from Washington originally (moved to Canada because I met a girl here at college) and I am astounded at how much more expensive this country is; especially housing.
 
davidlt said:
2.8$ for 50MB. (Lithuania) (standard connection in the phone for internet, I think it's called EDGE)

WiFi, 4$ per month, 5Mbps, unlimited. But for now, that's already more than a year while it's free for everyone.
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The Baltics have made a huge commitment to internet connectivity. It just goes to show how government can make a huge difference in the market. It doesn't hurt that Nokia is just across the water! The Baltics are also quite small with fairly dense population.

Is WiFi available in all towns?
 
mikedotca said:
I am going to give Rogers the benefit of the doubt (though I have no idea why I should trust them), and assume that the real problem is Canada. Any evidence Steve Jobs has ever been here? How long did it take to get the iTunes store... and yet where are the tv shows and movies. There are even Canadian made shows on iTunes that we can't access.
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TV Shows not being available is due to licensing with Canadian TV networks. Canadian networks pay for the exclusive right to broadcast in Canada. I'd bet that is the reason. I don't know if Apple is negotiating or not to bring TV shows to Canada. They've never really said.
 
KD7IWP said:
Where in the world are you getting that from???? Housing costs are nuts here! I'm from Washington originally (moved to Canada because I met a girl here at college) and I am astounded at how much more expensive this country is; especially housing.
Click to expand...
That's because you moved into Canada's most expensive housing market. GVRD prices are quite high, but they pale in comparison to the SF Bay Area, NYC, LA, or other major American (or global) cities. For people moving from comparable US cities, the costs are still substantially lower, even with the poor exchange rate.
 
matticus008 said:
GVRD prices are quite high, but they pale in comparison to the SF Bay Area, NYC, LA, or other major American (or global) cities.
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Actually while you point out correctly that Vancouver is the most expensive housing market in Canada, it is also one of the most expensive in the world. In fact it is the 13th most expensive AHEAD of places like NYC, Miami/Palm Beach, Vegas, Seattle, and DC. So when people are appalled by the Vancouver housing market, there's a good reason why.

Being from Vancouver I just had to throw that in, but let's get back on point maybe? Does anyone know when the 3G spectrum auction is coming up? I think that represents the best opportunity for the market to drastically change. While pressure from the iPhone may force Rogers to drop prices, I am not holding my breath.

Also interesting is that MTS is partnering with AllStream, which is AT&T no? That would make things very easy for who gets the iPhone! Now that I think about it, if Rogers really wants this (and they will have some lead time looking at how the item pans out in the US) because they see it as a long term success, they may go ahead and drop pricing just to secure the iPhone ahead of an AT&T backed company. But I suppose that would also mean dropping BlackBerry pricing otherwise RIM will have fits. That all boils down to major revenue losses for Rogers, who just like the other 2 big guys, makes almost all their money from corporate clients.
 
AlbinoPigeon said:
Actually while you point out correctly that Vancouver is the most expensive housing market in Canada, it is also one of the most expensive in the world. In fact it is the 13th most expensive AHEAD of places like NYC, Miami/Palm Beach, Vegas, Seattle, and DC. So when people are appalled by the Vancouver housing market, there's a good reason why.
Click to expand...

And I live in the second most expensive housing market in canada, calgary... (we're now beating the GTA yay??!!?) (June numbers for an average bungalow (IIRC): Vancouver $771,000:eek:, Calgary $495,000 (peaked at just over 500K at the start of june, but went down a wee bit), Toronto $487,000)

anyway, the only way to get a "good" deal on anything is cell related it to be a corp customer, average joes get screwed, corp customers at least get vasoline;)
My cell plan (bell preferred customer plan) is 30/mo for 200 daytime min, unlimited evenings and weekends caller id and voicemail, system access and 911 fee included, priced out for regular people this is over 45/mo. it pays to be corporate but stgill the USA beats us by big money. I can add unlimited "mobile browser" for 12/mo. data plans though for crackberrys and the like start at 60+/mo. it is ridiculous!
 
Telus,bell,rogers, And Fido Suck!

i live in canada and i own a htc s720 and i pay like 65$ a month to get:
100 minutes
unlimited incomming calls
unlimited eveniengs and weekends[ eveneigns start at 9!!]
and a whopping 4 mb a month

ALSO THERES NO SUCH THING AS UNLIMITED DATA IN CANADA!!!!!!!!!!!

so ya basically us canadians get f$@#ed up the a$$ like no other
 
I know, Rogers is awful. I don't have a data plan for my RAZR and back in January, I used my phone in class to check Engadget's Macworld Keynote coverage. I loaded the page twice.. and ended up with a near $300 phone bill that month, when I normally pay $35-40 each month :eek:
 
AlbinoPigeon said:
That all boils down to major revenue losses for Rogers, who just like the other 2 big guys, makes almost all their money from corporate clients.
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I don't think Rogers would have major revenue losses if they adjusted their data prices. The only reason why most current data users are corporate is because noone else is willing to pay the rip-off rates. If Rogers went to unlimited data for $20.00 or $30.00 a month they would have a lot more regular customers than corporate and that would = more data costumers = higher volume for Rogers = higher earnings for Rogers = happy Canadian costumers.
 
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