Rogers Wireless is the only service provider in Canada that can possibly carry the iPhone for obvious reasons: it’s the owner of the only Canadian GSM network. One would think that a Rogers iPhone would be academic, but, then, why hasn’t Canada’s biggest wireless provider made an iPhone announcement yet?
The reason, according to National Post’s Peter Nowak is the exorbitant cost of Rogers data plans. A plan in Canada comparable to the $59.99 iPhone plan of AT&T would cost Canadians $295. An equivalent plan in price from Rogers offers 500 minutes and no roll-over and a 500MB data plan in itself costs $210.
The best Rogers has to offer is 200 minutes and 25MB data, which, including long distance calls, unlimited texting will cost $144.95.
Comments (4)
Why is everyone fixated on the fact that CURRENT plans would not be cost effective for customers? No kidding.
I am just wondering, might not their be a special iPhone plan for (and therefor pricing) as happened with AT&T?
I’m sorry I missed the original article because obviously something is missing here. From your post, I envision Roger’s boardroom filled with confused exec’s agreeing that they can’t launch iPhone because Roger’s plans are too expensive. Hmmm
If Rogers does come out with a plan like AT&T’s for under $100 their existing customer base of BlackBerrys and smart phones will demand a similar one.
So I don’t think its Rogers not wanting to release the iPhone, they just don’t want to eat into their existing revenues by having a reasonably priced data plan.
Thanks for making me aware of this… perhaps I will keep my existing plan (with another cell phone company) and just purchase the itouch. On the bright side, if I keep my PDA separate from my phone, I don’t have to take my work out with me on a night out :D.
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