Rogers revises iPhone data plan

So, last time this topic was brought up, there were no details on the pricing of the Rogers iPhone data plans. Last week they were released and here’s to sum up:

note: All plans come with unlimited evening calling (9pm-7pm mon-fri, and weekends), visual voicemail…and that’s just about it).

Option 1: $60

150 weekday minutes
400mb data
75 text messages

With this deal, you have just enough weekday minutes to call in to the Rogers’ support department and bitch at the first human you speak to. There’s just enough data for you to read this website a few times, and text messages to last you a night out at the club.

Skip to Option 4: $115

800 weekday minutes
2gb data
300 text messages

The weekday minutes are more than sufficient, although a questionable limit on the data. 300 text messages still wouldn’t get a text-fiending teenager through the week.

Source: Rogers.com

To put it bluntly, these plans suck. If it weren’t for the massive public outcry of the 57,000 potential iPhone buyers, I doubt Rogers wouldn’t have released the new time-sensitive offer of 6gb/month for $30 addon. Of course this offer expires at the end of August. Awesome.

Now why is it that Canadians are paying, on average, 33% more for cellphone usage than anywhere else in the world? Answer: because we have two companies charging whatever the fuck they want, only having to compete with one another’s HIGH prices.

It’s great that Rogers has revised their data plan for the iPhone, but can you believe what it took for them to do it? About 50k people complaining. But even then, isn’t it ridiculous that they were able to come up with this extra offer so quickly? I’m just curious as to how much money Rogers is really making. The problem with having only two major cell phone service providers is that they can throw a number into the air without really having to worry about the competition, because the competition has no problem boosting their charges just as high. Sidenote: I’m going to bring my Blackberry back into this conversation because for $30 extra dollars, someone with an iPhone can get 6gb of data per month. For that same price, you get a measly 300mb (for those technology and mathematically inept: the iPhone plan gets you 20x more data). If you wanted 6gb for your Blackberry, it would be another $100. Fucking ridiculous. Fuck you Rogers.

Anyways, I should feel sorry for all the Canadians spending so much money on their cell phone bills, but it’s hard to feel sorry for myself. We’re getting royally fucked.