Rogers Wireless Continues to Disappoint Consumers in Q4
By James Falconer on Monday, November 3rd, 2008 at 7:27 AM PST In BlackBerry, RIM (Research in Motion), Rogers
My ongoing gripes with Rogers (NYSE: RCI) continue. Although they are a huge business and need to of course please the shareholders, it seems that they are the slowest and most expensive carrier out there north of the border. It sure would be nice to have an unlimited data plan to use (like the rest of the world), and although your extra add-on options are nice, I honestly don’t give a hoot.
I have an iPhone plan on Rogers, and have the My5 Canada-wide… and to tell you the truth… I haven’t even setup my My5 yet! In the welcome email I received from Rogers regarding the My5, the link to activate/add numbers to my My5 was broken. No dice there. I’ve fully intended to give them a call to activate, but I’m too indifferent on the matter I suppose. One of these days I’ll activate it, but bottom line is Rogers needs to do more to impress/keep customers. Surely THAT will please shareholders? More customers? You’d think so!
Enough ranting for now. Below are a few overviews of some of Rogers’ plans:
Smartphone & BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Data Plan
- $45 for 200 anytime minutes, unlimited evenings and weekends from 9PM, 500MB data.
- Options (choose 1 of 4): My5 Canada-wide, unlimited incoming calls, unlimited network calling, 5PM early evenings
BlackBerry Messaging Plan
- $45 for 200 anytime minutes, evenings and weekends from 9PM.
- Unlimited personal email
- Unlimited BlackBerry Messenger
- 10,000 SMS
- 10,000 MMS
- Options (choose 1 of 4): My5 Canada-wide, unlimited incoming calls, unlimited local network calling, 5PM early evenings
iPhone Plans
- $60 for 250 anytime minutes, unlimited evenings and weekends from 9PM, My5 Canada-wide, 75 SMS, 1GB data, unlimited access to Rogers/Fide hotspots and visual voicemail.
- $75 for 400 anytime minutes, unlimited evenings and weekends from 9PM, My5 Canada-wide, 100 SMS, 2GB data, unlimited access to Rogers/Fido hotspots and visual voicemail.
Expensive… EH?
[Via: BGR]
Yes, those are some pretty sad plans. I have the 400 meg plan through Fido, which is still Rogers, but at least evenings start at 7. Until Rogers has some real competition I don’t think the shareholders need to fear. It’s not like Rogers is hurting at all either, they just had a fantastic quarter. Maybe Globalive will shake things up a bit when they join in the national market.
Of course it’s expensive. I am with Rogers as well and in a 3 year contract on a BlackBerry Bold, paying $75 for both a voice and data plan (500MB).
I’ve got an unlimited 3G data plan from Fido. Rogers and Fido both released unlimited data plans on 1 Oct 2008.
It’s $100/mo. But, if I use less than 1GB of the unlimited data like over 90% of their customers, it’s discounted to about $35 for the month — so it’s actually *better* than a “true” unlimited plan.
Complaining about Rogers isn’t going to fix Rogers, that’s been proven time and time again. Only regulatory intervention has been able to make progress.
Thanks to WNP and the recent spectrum auction, Canadians are now getting a 4th wireless provider starting up in 2009, and we’ll also have unlocked handset portability thanks to the Bell/Telus GSM switch that the auction has forced.
…Patiently waiting for Bell & Telus to get their GSM networks up and running..
95% of iphone users don’t even go over 500mb.. no one actually needs “unlimited data”.. it would probably be expensive and it would be completely unnecessary. check your iphone for your actual usage (settings>general>usage) and you’ll be under 1GB/month for sure. (unless you iphone all the time and never sleep)
I’m currently with Rogers right now but in about 14 months I plan to pay the $200 and cancel. I will not use any wireless services in Canada because it’s bad as a Canadian to keep these companies afloat with my money. I’m just one person so I hope that others can take a lead as well and force the companies in the way that it hurts them most, money.