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Rogers passes costs onto consumers with increased BlackBerry prices

By: , IntoMobile
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 9:41 AM

rogers-logoWhile not completely confirmed, there is a strong correlation between Rogers’ $30 million budget shortfall and the Canadian carrier’s move to increase the prices of its BlackBerry handsets by $25-$50, even when purchased with a 3-year contract. It seems the carrier is looking to pass on the costs of its recent spending spree onto its subscribers.

An email from a Rogers exec explains that the senior executive team was caught off guard by a $30 million deficit in their acquisition budget. We’re not sure how a fiscal-hole of that size goes unnoticed, but hey, we’re not dealing with multi-million dollar budgets on a daily basis. Still, Rogers’ move to increase the price of certain BlackBerry smartphones seems to be a little too coincidental to be just pure coincidence.

The email from a Rogers VP reads:

On Wednesday, the senior executive team realized that they were over budget $30 million dollars on their cost of acquisition. How I don’t know why it took so long. [sic] They then did their knee jerk response. Your DBM’s and other local managers know nothing more than this and are in the dark as much as we are on this other than we were told VERBALLY that in market quotes would be honored for 30 days from today. The exception lists are due Monday and only for non named accounts. I have requested in every region for a positioning statement and to this moment have not heard a response. If it makes you feel any better the retail has even more uncertainty.

The email seems to have been proofed with as much care as the senior executive team took to ensure their budget was on track…

[Via: BGR]

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About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...

  • Aaron

    Not only price increases, but if you’re an existing customer with a blackberry, you’re being forced to wait an additional year before you can get another one – which turns out to be 2 years later instead of 1 year later, like every other customer on the Rogers’ Network.