iPhone in Canada

Finally the iPhone will touchdown in Canada on July 11th. After scanning most speculation and chatter on the internet about the reason for the delay, I could only think this was a massive political stunt on behalf of Canada’s parasitic wireless telecoms network Rogers Communications. Rogers is Canada’s only GSM cell carrier.

GSM is a section of the wireless telecoms market where the cell phone contains a SIM card which can be removed and placed in another GSM phone. GSM is better technology for world travelers and people that like to change their phones without notifying the network. Today in Canada there are two CDMA carriers (Bell and Telus koodo = Telus by the way)

Parasitic, you might say I’m being harsh but I strongly feel that Canada is long overdue for healthy competition in the GSM market or some decent governing body to stop Canadians getting ripped off for any moderately up-to-date technology. In the UK there is a company called Ofcom (http://www.ofcom.org.uk) which watches over the telecoms network and one of the duties is to ensure a wide range of telecoms services is available to everyone in the UK. This is great as it looks at the big picture and governs the service as a whole … not just on their by own bottom line.

I’m struggling to understand why the technology isn’t used to its potential in 2008! 11 years after GPRS was widely available in Europe at a reasonable cost, however there was no decent services as there are today.

So Roger’s proposal is that the cheapest data plan is $65 which includes 150 minutes between 7am and 9pm mon-fri and unlimited all other times, 70 text and 400MB … on top of this don’t forget the $7 activation fee, call waiting, voicemail etc $13 sends you to a phone bill of $85+ call charges at 35cents per min and taxes.

I mean seriously Rogers, is this plan even feasible for someone who even needs a device like an iPhone? Surely your best consumer of the iPhone is people that are on the road and need the internet in their pocket. I very much doubt these people would talk at least 150 minutes a month from 7am-9pm each day! That’s one conference call a month for me. Also can you imagine the cost of the roaming data rates if you venture … OMG … from Toronto to Mississauga!!!! although I’m just speculating here.

So they firstly they do not offer an unlimited data plans and then second they restrict iPhone purchasers to plans where voice calls are limited and expensive. Which makes me turn around and say “Rogers you really don’t give a damn do you?”

Check out my blogroll to join a community for this named iPhone in Canada and if you are so inclined, you could visit the appropriatly named site, www.fuckyourogers.com and see how people feel about this whole thing.