While 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]