Subscribers who activate before Aug. 31 can pay $30 a month extra for six gigabytes of data
Gillian Shaw
Sun
Rogers Communications has caved into consumer pressure and is offering a limited rollback of rates for the new Apple iPhone 3G being launched Friday.
However, it remains to be seen whether Wednesday’s announcement represents a temporary move aimed at ensuring the company isn’t embarrassed by a promised consumer boycott or whether the lower rates will last past the announced Aug. 31 cutoff date.
A growing online consumer protest movement launched over high rates wasn’t appeased by the offering, which still leaves iPhone rates in Canada higher than those in other countries and doesn’t offer the same unlimited data. Rogers is the only carrier in Canada with a network the iPhone can operate on.
The new Rogers rate, available only for subscribers who activate their phones before Aug. 31, is $30 a month for a six-gigabyte data plan that can be added to new or existing voice plans with Rogers — but only if they sign up for a three-year contract. Rogers is also limiting sales to two phones per customer.
“I read it as they want to sell their inventory,” said Rob Sheinbein, co-founder of the company OilChange.com, which runs the consumer protest site ruinediphone.com. “If I was trying to sell it, I would make limited product availability and a limited time offer to get people to sign up.
“It’s game playing, but we’re not children. I don’t think this is a time for game playing, I think this is a time to be honest and true to your customers.”
Sheinbein, whose company switched from Rogers wireless service to Verizon in the U.S. to cut its bills by up to two-thirds off the $2,000 to $2,500 a month it had been paying Rogers, said Canadians are still being “gouged” by high wireless prices.
“I want unlimited data and I want a voice plan equally as competitive as in the United States where you can drive [everywhere] with Verizon and there are no long-distance charges and no roaming fees.
“How can Americans talk with unlimited long distance and roaming and we can’t? That is not fair.”
Ruinediphone.com, which has almost 60,000 names on a petition it plans to deliver to Rogers, and more than 1,100 Rogers customers, who said they are leaving the company, plans to host a Webinar Friday at 10 a.m. Eastern Daylight Savings Time. Liberal Member of Parliament David McGuinty, who is calling for an end to the system access fees charged by most Canadian wireless carriers, will participate.
When it first announced pricing for the iPhone, Rogers offered plans ranging from $60 to $115 for the highest data package that caps data use at two gigabytes. That’s considerably less than in the United States, where the iPhone carrier, AT&T, offers a range of plans, all with unlimited data.
The new short-term offering is also outstripped by Bell Mobility and Telus Mobility that are both touting flat rate unlimited e-mail and Internet surfing plans for their smartphones.
Rogers isn’t the only iPhone carrier to face a consumer backlash over high rates.
Swedish consumers were incensed by initial iPhone plans offered by carrier Telia Sonera, which came with limited data with an option to pay an extra a 199 kr/month (about $34 Cdn) for unlimited data. Telia Sonera responded to the outcry by letting customers add the unlimited data to existing cellphone plans that start as low as 99 kr/month, or the equivalent of $17 Cdn.
Rogers plans an early 8 a.m. opening for six Rogers Plus retail stores across the country on Friday to promote the launch of the new iPhone, including one at 2097 West Broadway in Vancouver.
Along with Rogers Plus stores, the company said the new iPhones will be available at Rogers Video and Rogers Wireless retail locations and through a few authorized Rogers Wireless deals including WirelessWave, TBooth and Wireless etc. The company is also selling the phones on its website through its phone customer service at 1-888-764-3771.
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
