Attention Rogers Mobile: You blew it with the iPhone data plans and you know it

Since Rogers Mobile announced their iPhone pricing this week, the reaction to their plans has been less that enthusiastic (to say the least).

RuinediPhone.com has started an online petition to Rogers to change their rate plans and an open letter to Steve Jobs on what is certainly a slap in the face.

Did I sign it?  You bet I did.  Do I think it will make much of a difference?  Yeah, not so much.

That said, this is what I left for them:

Rogers, Canada is a world leader in technology, but Rwanda has cheaper cell and data rates than we do.

Canada will be left behind in the global push towards information workers.

Have you no national pride?  This isn’t about money, this is about Canada leading and not following.  This is about Canadians having jobs.

Get your head out of the sand your hands out of our wallets and make Canada a competitive force.

That said…this is making a splash.  Techmeme has a growing list of links—Techmeme: 10,000 Canadians petition Steve Jobs for iPhone rate relief (Philip Elmer-DeWitt/Apple 2.0)—including CNN getting into the fray:

For one thing, it comes with a mandatory 3-year contract. In the U.K., O2 offers an-18 month contract and throws in the iPhone for free. And although both AT&T (T) and Rogers offer calling, data and text messaging for $75 a month, Rogers at that price gives Canadians a third less calling time, half as many text messages, and puts a 750 MB cap on 3G data usage — with steep fees for users who go over their monthly limit. Source: FORTUNE: Apple 2.0 10,000 Canadians petition Steve Jobs for iPhone rate relief «

What I wonder, as I have before, is if the current Tory minority government really wants to increase Canada’s profile and competitiveness on the world stage.

Mathew Ingram notes that there are folks trying to get the attention of both the government and the Competition Bureau, but I think it needs more than that:

The most common response to the plans so far, at least to judge by a Twitter search and a blog search, is virtually unprintable — but you can get a pretty good idea by the domain name of this website, which is collecting names on a petition to send to the Competition Bureau (in half an hour, the number of names climbed by more than 300). There are some detailed responses here, and also here, and serial tech entrepreneur Albert Lai has a response to the plans here. Former Tory candidate Stephen Taylor calls it “a rip-off.” Source: Rogers iPhone: Get a second mortgage » mathewingram.com/work |

Here’s an interesting idea, what if the government did a little analysis of how much businesses could save if our voice and data plans were more in line with the US.  Hmm, I’m betting millions, if not billions, of dollars could be saved.  Something that could be put towards expanding and building business.

Just a thought.

Yeah I know, improving the economy, it’s crazy.

Image courtesy of RuinediPhone.com