Some background: I am currently a Roger's customer, but am out of contract and ( being a mostly-enthusiastic Mac user ) have been looking forward to seeing a legit iPhone in Canada. Even though I signed the Ruined iPhone petition, I'm probably still going to get one this Friday, but more on that later.
This morning I spent about 35 minutes on hold listening to some of the worst muzak ever, waiting to get a clarification on one single question: is the 'Hotspot' access available at any 'Hotspot', or only ones implemented by Rogers/Fido? My fervent hope was the former, but knowing Rogers and reading the vague wording on their website I suspected the latter. It turns out I was right, the Rogers rep I spoke to had to ask his boss, but eventually came back and clarified that only Rogers or Fido-operated hotspots were included.
Why is this distinction important? For Vancouverites, it is *very* important. According the to the Hotspot website, there are only 3 Rogers hotspots in all of metro Vancouver. If the access had included bell-operated hotspots as well, the coverage would instead extend to all 119 hotpost locations listed on the website, including what looks like half the Starbuck's in town.
Clearly if you're in the lower mainland, you might be better served rolling some sort of custom plan for your 3G iPhone instead of choosing this bundle; Rogers seems to think the hotspot access is a valuable part of the bundle, and if you were in Toronto this would be the case as there are far more Second Cup locations there.
3 comments
I did the math today. In
I did the math today.
In Quebec, on the 1G/month plan, the iPhone will cost a total of:
199 + ((36 * (100 + 6.95 + 0.50)) * 1.05 * 1.07500) = 4 565.23075
Rogers is a bunch of greedy [insert expletive here]s. The iPhone will fail in Canada. Rogers will blame the market. Apple will blame Rogers. And Apple will be correct.
I hope rogers falls so hard that they have to rethink this mess.
See also: http://www.tuaw.com/2008/07/07/apple-and-rogers-falling-out/
S
I've been doing a bunch of
I've been doing a bunch of math, I'll post that later. Basically the plans are 'pretty good for Canada', but actually not that good compared to other markets. I'm especially cheesed by the 3 year commitment. =/ My own calculation is
..based on the premise that I *want* a 16GB model, and am only willing to commit to the cheapest plan for now.
Good point. I forgot to tax
Good point. I forgot to tax the phone, too (-:
Still... 3 grand for a phone that will be obsolete in 12 months? No thanks.
S
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