Rogers unveils price plans for iPhone service in Canada
Clients must commit to three-year deal
DEREK ABMA CANWEST NEWS SERVICE
Rogers Wireless said yesterday the price of its basic voice-and data combo for iPhones, which become available in Canada on July 11, will start at $60 a month.
Customers must commit themselves to a three-year contract under this and all other plans.
The $60 service provides 150 minutes of voice time with unlimited evenings and weekends, allowance for 75 outgoing text messages and, with all plans, unlimited incoming text messages and voice mail. With this package, customers get 400 megabytes of data. Rogers said this amount will allow a person to transmit up to 200,000 text emails or 3,100 Web pages or 1,360 photo attachments.
The plans come with unlimited Wi-Fi access at Rogers or Fido hot spots.
The highest-end service costs $115 a month and offers 800 minutes of voice, permission to send 300 text messages and two gigabytes of data transmission. This amount of data, Rogers said, is equal to more than one million text emails or 16,000 web pages or 7,000 photo attachments.
Rogers spokeswoman Liz Hamilton said customers will be warned as they approach their data limits. Any data used beyond what’s specified in their plans will cost an extra 50 cents per megabyte for the first 60 megabytes, after which it drops to 3 cents per megabyte.
She said the iPhone itself will cost $199 for the eight-gigabyte model and $299 for the 16-gigabyte version.
Asked about requiring a three year contract, Hamilton said: “Our business model is not unique in Canada. It is a subsidized one that takes many factors into account, including cost of acquisition, cost of customer services, etc., that permits our customers to have very affordable handsets. And, in turn, they sign up for a contract.”
Breaking the contract early will cost a person $20 for each month short they are of the contract’s end, or a maximum of $400.
The iPhone 3G is what Rogers will make available. It is promoted as being twice as fast as the first iPhone launched by Apple Inc. last year.
Rogers said dataless plans for the iPhone, with just voice and basic text, will start at $15 a month.
Bruce Cran, president of the Consumers Association of Canada, urged caution for those considering being among the first legitimate iPhone users in Canada. He said the amount of data allowance for the $60 plan is “very, very little,” and customers could find themselves paying a lot more than they bargained for.
“Spam alone would eat up that amount (of data),” he said.
Cran also said the three-year contract requirement will be an expensive proposition for those who decide shortly after acquiring an iPhone that it’s not for them.
AI
