For the past week there have been rumblings about some sort of super special announcement from Fido about special revised terms for early upgraders. Loads of Fido customers were rather put out with the release of the iPhone because they hadn’t made it far enough through their contracts to be eligible for an upgrade. Fido has responded with a new set of terms that, while better, are still going to cheese some people off. Their new terms are as follows:
Policy Details
Customer Profile Eligibility Criteria
Active agreement more than 12 months
Outisde of renewal window
Customer subject to administration fee.(See table below.)
Active agreement less than 12 months.
No agreement rebate on phone in the last 12 months.(excluding City Fido Unlimited and $70 Unlimited Calls Anywhere in Canada).
Eligible without administration fee.
Active agreement less than 12 months.
No agreement rebate on phone in the last 12 months.(City Fido Unlimited and $70 Unlimited Calls Anywhere in Canada plans only).
Eligible without administration fee.
Must agree to remove monthly system access fee discount (DTLIR).
Number of months completed on current agreement
Fee if customer is currently on a 2-year agreement
Fee if customer is currently on a 3-year agreement
13 - 15 months
$35
$110
16 - 18 months
$25
$85
19 - 21 months
N/A (use LHO)
$60
In short, you are eligible for an upgrade if: A) You’ve been in your contract for 13 months, or B) You’ve been in your contract less than 13 months but did not get a subsidized price on the phone you bought with your package. If you are eligible, then the upgrade fee is noted in the table above based on 2- and 3-year contracts respectively. I can only assume that you are also eligible if you did not buy a phone when you signed on the dotted line (i.e. used a phone from a previous contract’s tenure or used a phone you bought elsewhere).
If you’re under 13 months and you bought a phone at a subsidized price, you’re still stuck with it until you’ve done your minimum time. Although the din of tin cups rattling against the bars has died down, there are still those who are pretty dissatisfied with the business. I can’t say I blame them.
(via ehPhone)
Written by Eric March on July 24th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on iPhone Canada and iphone 3g.
Now there was a twist I was absolutely not expecting. It’s almost Hitchcockian.
The biggest gripe for Canadians when it comes to mobile technology? Rogers has the lock on the GSM market. (Fido is owned by Rogers, remember.) They have no useful competition to force them to offer more reasonable rates, and except when users band together in large numbers and scream loudly enough, as was the case with the recent iPhone rate fiasco, we have little say in how they choose to shaft us. Threaten to go to Bell? Sure, we could — but that’s hardly much of a threat. Bell is CDMA, and while they offer more attractive rates, it’s only because they don’t get all the cool phones because many of the cool phones aren’t available to CDMA providers, and that’s because CDMA is dying. With only 20% of the global wireless market, CDMA has been steadily losing out to GSM, which most of the rest of the world uses.
And in a startling turn of events, both Bell and Telus, the second and third largest wireless carriers in Canada behind Rogers, have finally decided to toss in the CDMA towel and cast their lot with GSM.
In case you TLDR’ed that: Bell and Telus are converting to GSM.
Any Canadian will be able to tell you how fundamentally game-changing that is. If Ted Rogers wasn’t particularly concerned about the spectrum auction generating some minor contenders, he ought to be stocking up on his Depends now. Bell is huge. They were the home phone monopoly in Canada for the longest time, and even after the government deregulated the telecom industry, no significant competition ever cropped up. (Sprint tried but failed quite spectacularly.) Although Rogers offers home phone technology, it isn’t quite up to snuff, and Bell is still the de facto monopoly.
Bell switching to GSM, and Telus following suit? That ought to be enough to have Ted very, very concerned. Obviously this isn’t going to be an overnight thing; the move will reportedly cost an estimated $360-480m, and Huawei and Nokia-Siemens are favourites to win in the list of contenders to handle the transition.
But it’s not the iPhone that prompted Bell to take the plunge - or not only that. Besides being the industry standard wireless technology, GSM also makes it possible for switchers to bring their phones with them to Bell or Telus. It also allows the two telecoms to benefit from lucrative roaming charges when visitors from abroad bring their GSM phones with them — and if not roaming charges, then prepaid SIMs for local calling. Either way there’s big money in it for them.
But the big winners here will be Canadian wireless afficionados. Between Bell and Telus switcing to GSM and new entrants to the arena popping up from the wireless spectrum auction also expecting to use GSM technology in the next 12-18 months, Rogers is going to have a great deal of competition in a very short period of time, some of it a clear and present threat to Rogers’ own dominance. This means that we’re going to be seeing wheels turning and deals being spun left and right as Rogers tries to keep their customers from being swayed by the sweet sounds of the competition luring them with even better deals.
Oh, these are definitely interesting times.
(via CBC News)
Written by Eric March on July 22nd, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Breaking News and News Related and iPhone Canada.
Canadians, can’t make it to a Rogers store? Don’t feel like spending all that time in line? Still not enticed by their free breakfast? Well, don’t worry. You can still see all of the madness and mayhem from the comfort of your armchair. RGB Filter has all lineups with none of the hassle for you. Evidently people have been lining up at the main Toronto store since 1AM — but at least they’re in good company, with the media biggies from CTV, CITY-TV, Global TV, AM640 and talk radio station CFRB 1010 are hangin’ out in the rain and getting their scoops.
Check the link for all the details and wish all of these poor soggy folks the best of luck on this wet launch day.
(via RGB Filter)
Written by Eric March on July 11th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on iPhone 2.0 and iPhone Canada and iphone 3g.
In more than two dozen countries, in about 8 hours (give or take, depending on your time zone and store hours), the iPhone 3G will be unleashed on the masses. Everyone who has been clamouring for it will finally be able to get their grubby mitts on one. In Canada particularly this is a momentous occasion, since it will be the first iPhone this country has been able to buy domestically. (Sure, other countries are in the same boat, but given that we’re usually not too far behind the US technologically, and given how Canadians have been hotly anticipating the Jesus phone and its second coming, it hits particularly close to home.) Rogers has even extended a promotional offer that’s actually not half bad and a damn sight better than their initial plans on offer.
All around it is going to be a good day, and I wish I could join in on it, but sadly, events have conspired to prevent that from happening. Oh, I will be getting my 3G, don’t you worry — just not today. How about you folks, though? Are you taking the plunge? Are you standing in line for hours just for the chance to snag one on opening day, or are you going to wait ’tilt he fervor dies down? (And if you are reading this after the fact, did you stand in line or are you still waiting?) Do you even have plans to buy one, or are you perfectly happy with your original aluminum first-gen? Or are you going to jump ship altogether and go with some other phones?
I’m especially interested in hearing from fellow Canadians. Are you going to give in to Ted Rogers’ promotional peace offering, or are you going to hold out until he sees reason and drops all of the rates to something approximating said offer? Is 6 gigs for $30 on top of any voice plan too good to pass up, or are you going to gamble on future changes? (For what it’s worth, I’m going for it. Sorry folks, I may be selling out, but let’s face it: It’s a good deal, especially for Canadians. 6 gigs is still quite a lot, and when Teddy-boy realizes his sales have petered out after the promotional period has ended he’ll have to reconsider his permanent plan structures.)
Have your say in the new poll on the sidebar to your right, and join us in the comments if you have anything to add!
Written by Eric March on July 11th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on iPhone 2.0 and iPhone Canada and iphone 3g.
If I seem like I’m focusing on the iPhone in Canada situation a lot, I apologize — but obviously, this is a topic that hits where it hurts for both me and Jody, and for millions of other Canadians from what I’m reading.
Virtually no one is happy with Rogers’ rates, and the displeasure ranges from disgruntled comments to corrosive venom, with the only “what’s the big deal?” comments from data neophites and people who don’t understand the full scope of what kind of data-hungry apps iPhone 2.0 engenders. The day that Rogers announced their plans was the same day a petition site with a harshly-worded URL went up. E-Mail addresses of Rogers execs and links to a report page to the Competition Bureau of Canada flew (and the Competition Bureau has subsequently stated that they’ve been getting many reports). The blogosphere is humming with derisive articles. IntoMobile, iPhone In Canada, macQuebec (en français), p2pnet, andPOP, iPhone User and others feature pieces on Rogers’ highway robbery. The forums are similarly hopping mad, with threads on Howard Forums (and here), The Computer Mechanics, MacRumors, iPhone in Canada forums, the Engadget thread, — even Digg commenters. Canadians are not happy with Rogers. But what choice to Canadians have? Rogers have a virtual GSM monopoly in Canada, and even with the wireless spectrum auction looming, Rogers won’t see any potential competition come from that for a few years yet. Our voices are a faint buzz in Ted Rogers’ ears, barely able to penetrate the fingers he has inserted into them on a more or less perpetual basis, and what sound leaks through is neatly drowned out by repeatedly shouting “lalalala I’m not listening lalalalala!“ They even went so far as to defend their pricing plans amid the consumer outcry — and they didn’t even get their cites right.
Petitions don’t go very far unless the number of signatures is enough to cover Ted’s entire field of vision. Complaining with our wallets — not buying into Ted’s outrageous rates — is a good way to get the message across, but provides little instant gratification, especially since we’d be depriving ourselves of a coveted device. What we need are voices that carry more weight than our own. Perhaps the news media can help with that.
In browsing the media this morning I’ve come across a number of articles from reputable sources that echo our despair, albeit in a much calmer, more media-friendly manner. Reuters Canada had a rather non-committal article that spent a paragraph or two echoing the sentiment. The Toronto Star starts off more optimisic, positing that these plans put the iPhone “in the realm of reality” for many Canadians, though its position seems to come from comparing the current rates to last year’s even more astronomical ones, rather than comparing our overall rates to other countries. It does delve into the disappointing aspecs of the rates though, citing market research firm KDC’s Kevin Restivo as saying that the rates are aimed at people who treat web browsing as a novelty rather than a core function. The Winnipeg Free Press is fairly neutral on the issue, simply stating the basics.
The Globe and Mail’s article lands more firmly on the pessimistic side, offering up Info-Tech Research Group senior analyst Michelle Warren’s quote, “These rates are just another indicator that Canadian cellphone rates are really high and that essentially the carriers feel like they can charge whatever they like. Rates should be going down, they shouldn’t be going up, and these are expensive rates.” Amen, sistah.
C|Net Crave decided to get downright scathing. “In its press release, Rogers does provide a convenient chart to gauge your data usage–apparently, 2G amounts to 16,000 Web pages (who knew?)–but we don’t approve of such an arrangement at all. The iPhone’s Web browser is one of its top attractions, particularly on a 3G network, and asking users to limit their data certainly isn’t putting the “Internet in your pocket.” Rogers is offering unlimited Wi-Fi access at all Rogers and Fido hotspots, but that in itself is limiting if you have to be in one place.” Yeah, they know what’s up.
So with all of this negative press, both small-time and mass media, will Rogers pay attention? It’s hard to say. We are all painfully aware that the Rogers collective lives in its own universe, separated from the hoi polloi by mile-thick steel walls that nothing short of the CRTC’s Regulation Cannon can penetrate, but can the massive consumer backlash that is building fast and hard create enough ammo to threaten these plans with the death of a thousand paper cuts? We’ll have to wait and see — but if I wouldn’t go holding my breath. Even if the riots break into Ted’s world, they’ll still have to contend with Ted’s fingers.
Written by Eric March on June 28th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Rogers Wireless and canadian data rate rip-off and iPhone Canada and iphone 3g and jolly rogers wireless and robbers wireless and rogers iphone data rates.
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