Filed under: iPhone
iPhone pricing and Rogers Wireless
Could Rogers Wireless be pricing the iPhone out of the Canadian market?As we all know, the iPhone is a GSM phone. Canada's lone GSM provider is Rogers Wireless. Back in April, Rogers made a point of telling CBC that they had not announced their intentions to carry the iPhone. Two months later (this past June 17th), an article appeared in the Globe and Mail in which Rogers' CFO said, "The truth is we aren't very far with Apple...." Apparently, no progress had been made.
What's the hold up? Perhaps Apple has been concentrating their resources on a successful American launch. Or perhaps Rogers' plans would price the phone out of the reach of most Canadian customers.
According to an article in The National Post by Peter Nowak, Rogers' most basic wireless plan ("Right Fit") is a far cry from AT&T's entry-level plan. While AT&T offers 450 anytime minutes, 5,000 evening & weekend minutes, unlimited data and 200 text messages for $60US/mo., Rogers is offering* 250 anytime, zero weekends, 25MB of data and an additional fee for texts for a whopping Canadian $97/mo. (US $93, as of this writing). Building a Rogers plan comparable to the AT&T basic would make the iPhone available exclusively to wealthy shoppers.
It has been reported that Apple has demanded (and received) a substantial cut of subscription revenues for the US iPhone, leading to friction with potential European partners. Perhaps Rogers and Apple are stubbornly butting heads over who gets the bigger slice of the pie? That might explain Rogers trying to squeeze customers for a few extra loonies.
*According to Nowak. We could not find details on the "Right Fit" plan.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
The Truthbearer said 3:08PM on 7-13-2007
"Perhaps Apple has been concentrating all of their resources on assuring a successful North American launch"
TUAW - in case you need remedial geography lessons: Canada is part of North America.
Reply
ALan said 3:08PM on 7-13-2007
Love your site, but I thought I should mention that Canada _is_ in North America!
Reply
Jon said 3:08PM on 7-13-2007
And don't forget Visual Voicemail and any other network upgrades Apple could demand (and probably will, as user experience is very important to them).
Reply
Gerry said 3:12PM on 7-13-2007
Data plans are ridiculous here in Canada. I was looking at a blackberry, and for $45/month I'd get 0.5 MB of data (i know WTF?!) and 150 Anytime Minutes. Compared to what AT&T is offering for $60/month, Rogers is robbing Canadians. If this is truly the sticking point, I don't see the iPhone coming up here anytime soon.
Reply
John said 3:11PM on 7-13-2007
Canada is a joke. I wish I could get out of here.
Reply
K. Brown said 3:26PM on 7-13-2007
Rogers is know wide and far as surpassing all other carriers in customer anti-satisfaction.
It packet-shapes its cable broadband, has continual outages and the phone service is spotty and support is abysmal.
If there's problem bringing in iPhone, especially if it involves Roger's share of profit, it's Roger's fault. They don't care if it affects customer satisfaction just so long as they're getting their money.
Hopefully Bell/Telus will get the contract, even if we have to wait for a 3G iPhone.
Reply
Jeremy said 3:25PM on 7-13-2007
@Jon - Visual voicemail and other add-ons are iPhone based software solutions that do not need any special features (of any note), to be added by the carrier at their end.
The only possible reasons for the delay are the revenue sharing that the larger EU carriers are balking at, and Rogers predatory service pricing.
This is why monopolies aren't good. If Rogers did not have an effective monopoly, then Apple would be able to play each company off the other as in Europe and at least one of them would be pleased to take the deal as we have seen. They also would not be able to get away with ripping everyone off for bandwidth if there was actual competition.
Sadly, Canada really likes monopolies in general, IMO because we have many times had a government monopoly in some utility and other areas. It's generally believed up here that a monopoly is not necessarily a bad thing. But then most don't seem to differentiate between a government monopoly, (which is often bad but at least the public has *some* control), and a private business monopoly which is *always* bad.
Perhaps if we had stuck to our lefty socialist roots and not switched rabidly to the right (when the US started it's massive swing to the right in the 1980's), we would still be fine. Now however, we have the worst of both worlds. Business interests are firmly in charge, but the public seems to stupidly trust them not to do anything bad with all the power we have given them.
Rogers is almost universally hated in Canada, as is Shaw, Western Canada's cable-company monopoly (not sure if they control the east as well).
Reply
5cents said 3:25PM on 7-13-2007
Yes, owing to a miniscule overall market, mobile phone plans are nowhere near par with those in the US. Offering a decent voice and data plan for the iPhone would certainly price it out of the average consumer's hands. My basic plan has 200 anytime mins, and 2000 weekends with voicemail extra and no long distance and costs 50 CAD/month. This after I negotiated with them, threatening to cancel at contracts end.
Reply
paranoia.paranoia said 3:46PM on 7-13-2007
All of the Canadian cellphone companies charge absolutely obscene prices. Regardless of how much money you're willing to spend, Rogers doesn't even offer an unlimited data plan. However, the comparison with the Right Fit Plan is flawed: the reason the price is high is because there's no penalty for using as many minutes as you want; prices per minute decrease as you use more. It's also a business plan, so not likely something that they'd offer to iPhone customers. A real comparison would look at a plan that offered a fixed number of minutes. For instance, 500 anytime minutes w/ free evenings and weekends runs about $50, and the text messages and most other services would probably be $15-25. The data plan is the sticking point: the best data plan Rogers offers is 200MB/month for $100, which is absurd. I'm guessing that Apple's going to make Rogers offer a plan equivalent to the at&t one for about $80-100, which most Canadians wouldn't have any trouble with. (We're already quite used to being raped on cellphone charges)
Reply
Canada said 3:57PM on 7-13-2007
To poster #4
Get out then.
Reply
disgruntled said 4:08PM on 7-13-2007
#4. If you don't like Canada, then leave or kill yourself... stop bitching!
Reply
Travis said 4:09PM on 7-13-2007
Chances are decent that FIDO might get the iPhone, which would result in a lot of Rogers users jumping ship. (last stat I heard - admittedly from rogers itself - was that 54% of cell users in canada use rogers.)
I use Rogers, and would have had a Blackberry or Ipaq long ago if it weren't for the outrageous data plans..
Here's hoping when the new spectrum is auctioned off we get a big player from outside Canada that can push Rogers around a bit - I'd love nothing more than a big GSM price war.
Reply
disgruntled said 4:08PM on 7-13-2007
In Canada we get overcharged for cell phone charges (except old City Fido customers $40/unlimited). On the other hand, our broadband market is excellent. $49 for 9bmps and $100 for 25mps. I'll take the cheap broadband at home over expensive pokey wireless internet devices any day!
Reply
Henry said 4:12PM on 7-13-2007
Maybe what Apple should do is provide a way to turn off GPRS/EDGE data (maybe it already does -- I don't have one) for Canada.
Reply
punkassjim said 4:10PM on 7-13-2007
While I feel for our cousins in Canada after reading these comments, I'd like to address something in the Guardian UK article:
I think it's funny that they're pointing the finger at Apple for not only wanting a slice of the pie, but more amusingly, their insinuation that Apple is trying to "limit the types of media" that people can access. I can only imagine they're talking about something like Verizon Vcast, or some such other nonsense. The reason they're bitching is because they won't be able to rook people half as badly as they can now, since the iPhone will empower people to watch their own damned videos, etc.
Reply
Michael said 4:13PM on 7-13-2007
Rogers is simply desperate. They have spent a lot of money on building the Rogers empire and the only thing that really rolls in the dough is the Wireless arm.
The rest is either breaking even or running a slight loss, not a good recipe to pay off all the debt Ted Rogers has accumulated over building his empire.
The reality is that Canadian prices suck. I am with Fido for the last 7 1/2 years (ever since I came to Canada) and the reality is that ever since Rogers bought them the service has gone down and the price has gone up. There is now really no big difference anymore between Rogers and Fido. A shame.
Neither Telus nor Bell are offering anything comparable and so we keep on paying through the nose for services that are almost free in other countries.
There IS a movement now trying to change things but it'll be a while, maybe Rogers needs to be broken up again (lose Fido) to re-instate some competition in the market. As it is Rogers and the rest have no incentive to change a thing.
Reply
PorradaVFR said 4:19PM on 7-13-2007
"...available exclusively to wealthy shoppers."
Dang it, so the fact that I cannot afford a Ferrari is not due to MY socio-economic reality, but to THEIR discrimination of financially less endowed consumers.
Brilliant! ;-)
Reply
Jesse said 4:25PM on 7-13-2007
I've always hated Rogers. All cell phone carriers in Canada are horrible.
I do hope Rogers / Fido makes a special plan for the iPhone, if not the iPhone in Canada will not sell, or the only people going to get the phone are mostly the people who have a couple billion in the bank somewhere.
All I know if it doesn't work out I'll just buy the Nokia E90 and another iPod, when the time comes.
Reply
conjuror said 4:27PM on 7-13-2007
@ travis.. unfortunately fido is Rogers.. they were bought out a few years ago.
Rogers is horrible in all aspects in every venue of their business.
Reply
adisor19 said 4:56PM on 7-13-2007
Argh.. Fido was the only cell company in Canada that offered great plans ! Too bad Robbers bought them out and screwed us over. I'm one of the lucky ones who still has the Fido2Fido 25$ plan with the all inclusive smses.. I'll keep this plan till they rip it off my dead cold hands.. err.. i didn't say that..
Anyways, chances are that Robbers will be stubborn and Canada will end up with no iPhone for a loooong time untill Apple decides to sell it unlocked at retail and i really HOPE they'll do that instead of forcing us to bend over for Robbers !! Argh, just thinking about it makes me mad.. Comme one Apple, sell this thing unlocked already !
As for Telus and Bell, they're CDMA companies and i'll never go with them out of principle : CDMA = The Qualcom tax and you have to sell over your sould to the devil. I rather stick with Robbers then sell my soul.
Adi :)
Reply