Wirelessnorth.ca

That would mean Rogers has more power/influence at Apple than AT&T or big EU telcos… Pretty sure Rogers has to bend to meet Apple on this one and it took over a year. Our market is too small for Apple to care enough to change their standard.

1GB data cap + HSPDA: another prediction: we'll have customers with $500 monthly bills

1GB and 500$ is not possible anymore. See Rogers new data plan: 50 bucks for 1GB [...] up to 100$ for 5GB.

I would expect a plan around 80$ (seems to be a realistic prediction) however with unlimited browsing included. (with the famous legal notice: unlimited means browsing on your iPhone, moving your sim somewhere else like a datacard not allowed)

re: currency parity

I'm generally positive on a strong Canadian dollar (I know lots of people who think the overall effect is negative, but I would disagree). I'm also generally positive about Canadian social policies — single-payer healthcare, higher minimum wage — and one natural consequence of expensive social programmes is higher taxation in all its many forms. Part of a iPhone price-gap with the USA may just be Roger's gouging but another part is the cost of living in an awesome country.

Sharp, unlimited browsing would be nice. I could see them matching the 1gb cap however of their existing $65 plan. The iPhone in Ireland has a 1GB cap so there is precident. That being said, it's a LOT easier to get to 1GB with 3G than it is with EDGE.

Unlimited “browsing” is another option, but as with the $7 plan, it's pretty hard to define or enforce what exactly browsing means. anything through port 80? only wap or http requests?

The billing confusion and uncertainty around that would be a nightmare.

$500 is easy. Roaming. That's how most people do it.

$1000/month blackberry bills are not uncommon for anyone who does business travelling.

Rogers charges, you guessed it $50, a megabyte for roaming data. And the roaming voice can be ugly too.

Compare $50 / MB to the EU parliament recently cracking down on “intollerable” cross border roaming fees of $7-$11 a megabyte on data from some european operators.

Where is that plan on their site? I still only see PC card plans like that. Nothing for phones (whenever I've called, the CSRs say that the PC card plan cannot be used on phones).

http://www.rogers.com/web/content/wireless-plan…

“Data usage incurred on ineligible devices or incurred while tethering (using device as wireless modem for computer) or incurred using non-Rogers (3rd party) applications downloaded to your device will be subject to pay-per-use charges of 5 cents/KB”. “unlimited” for Rogers apps and browsing through a designated APN “using the Rogers Mobile Internet Browser only”. The 1GB & 5 GB data plans (that is, the “real” data plans) are for PC cards.

[...] Earlier on WirelessNorth.ca, here’s our predictions of what the Rogers iPhone: Rogers iPhone Predictions [...]

[...] rumoured is a 1GB cap on mobile data. Currently, 1 GB/month is the most data you can currently buy on either Rogers or Fido, and at $65 [...]

> This means each iPhone will earn Rogers (cost you) about $3300 over the life of the contract. Yowza.

In Australia carriers are obliged by law to provide this information in any ad for phones or contract. I think we should have that in Canada too. People just don't get it; that free phone costs a lot!

[...] Rogers voice plan, system access fee etc. Basically this gibes with recent comments by Rogers CEO (and our own predictions) that the iPhone will cost the average customer about $90 a month. That’s not super cheap but [...]

FIDO OR ROGERS IPHONE SHOPPERS:

3300 over 3 years is not a requirement…. Look at the phone as an ITOUCH with a built in phone for half price….

When buying your handset, DO NOT TAKE A DATA PLAN. There is no obligation to do so, contrary to what the salesperson is telling you. In fido or rogers stores, they ptobably will not give you the phone without hooking you up (they lose their commission on that 30$ a month. They will tell you you need to get a data plan or they wont sell you the phone. Aske them to put this in writing.
However, when the phone is hooked up (by calling FIDO or Rogers customer support to get it, tell the rep to DISABLE your DATA FEATURE to avoid pricy charges. This is a simple thing for the agent / rep to do. This will save you $$ and potentially case the phone compnies to lower their data packages. The you have an Iphone with no 3300$ life charges and keep your hopefully good old plan!

FIDO OR ROGERS IPHONE SHOPPERS:

3300 over 3 years is not a requirement…. Look at the phone as an ITOUCH with a built in phone for half price….

When buying your handset, DO NOT TAKE A DATA PLAN. There is no obligation to do so, contrary to what the salesperson is telling you. In fido or rogers stores, they ptobably will not give you the phone without hooking you up (they lose their commission on that 30$ a month. They will tell you you need to get a data plan or they wont sell you the phone. Aske them to put this in writing.
However, when the phone is hooked up (by calling FIDO or Rogers customer support to get it, tell the rep to DISABLE your DATA FEATURE to avoid pricy charges. This is a simple thing for the agent / rep to do. This will save you $$ and potentially case the phone compnies to lower their data packages. The you have an Iphone with no 3300$ life charges and keep your hopefully good old plan!