Rogers’ "unlimited data plan" is a consumer nightmare in the making
February 13, 2008 by Tris Hussey
Filed under Business
Sorry Canada, no iPhone for you
Apple’s “Jesus phone” (aka iPhone) still isn’t really available in Canada yet. Sure you can buy a hacked phone that is unlocked, but that is a risk that I’m not willing to take. One of the big stumbling blocks, we surmise, is that Rogers Canada (the only GSM provider) doesn’t offer an unlimited data plan. You might think that hope is on the horizon with Rogers’ recent ads for unlimited data plans. Ah, but no, there is a catch:
What does Rogers mean by unlimted mobile browsing though.? If you read the fine print you’ll see this: “Important: This plan includes unlimited on-device mobile browsing only. Plan is available on select phones only (PDAs such as Blackberry or Windows Mobile devices, PC cards and non-Rogers certified devices are not eligible). Data usage incurred on ineligible devices, incurred while tethering (using device as wireless modem for laptop) or incurred using non-Rogers (3rd party) applications downloaded to your device will be subject to pay-per-use charges of 5 cents/KB.”
What does that mean? It means that if you use a non-rogers browser (like safari) you pay the per-use rate. It also means that all you have is unlimted WAP data. Translation: crappy web browsing, not what the iPhone was intended for. Source: Unlimited Data Plan in Canada « A Life Untold
Yeah unlimited means that you can’t really use these devices as they are intended. As Titus continues:
So what does this mean for the iPhone. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. You do not get any added features on your hacked iPhone in Canada if you add this plan. In case you didn’t get that. This announcement does not mean that we will be getting the iPhone anytime soon. We Are No Closer to Getting the iPhone in Canada.
Shame on Rogers for continuing to screw their customers over. I hope that people read all the fine print closely before getting exciting and adding this feature. I’m worried that when next months bill comes some people are going to be in for a shock.
Finally I wish that American sites, like Apple Insider, who have no understanding of the issues would stop reporting on “developments” like this. Its getting annoying, please stop. Sites like ArsTechnica have understood that “unlimted” doesn’t mean unlimited, and I thank them for that. Source: Unlimited Data Plan in Canada « A Life Untold
I can’t wait until the consumer backlash hits Rogers for this one. Wow. Can you imagine the calls to customer service when people get huge cell phone bills with data charges? I certainly wouldn’t want to be a call centre person at Rogers.
When will the carriers get it?
As we all vent and muse about Canada needing better mobile data rates and plans I have to wonder if the folks at Telus, Bell, and Rogers are really paying attention to the explosion of mobile apps and developments in the rest of the world. At DEMO there were awesome developments in mobile, like Rove’s PCMobilizr out of Ottawa. Here’s a company that has an app that lets you control your home PC from your mobile device (Blackberry specifically). I’ve seen it first hand and it is a wow thing. Now are they looking at launching with a push in Canada? No. Why? Because our mobile data plans are so expensive people are scared to use things that use data. I’m lucky, I do have an unlimited, truly unlimited, data plan from Telus.
The carriers are forcing Canada into the mobile backwater because they won’t just bite the, short term, bullet and give us better data prices and real unlimited data plans that are affordable for mere mortals (mine isn’t very affordable, but I bite the bullet in the name of being connected). Canada is a leader in so many other ways in tech, and especially online, it is a shame and embarrassment that we don’t have data plans to match.
Okay Telus, Bell, and Rogers get with it and bring Canadians into the 21st century!
Thanks for clarifying the rules around this!
Telus does offer a $15 unlimited plan attached to their HTC device…which is a pretty decent browsing experience…but still nothing compared to the iphone.
Let’s hope a new fourth carrier will enter the market when the spectrum goes up for bid as the market will almost certainly become more competitive.
I hope so too Phil. I have noticed more and more promos for unlimited email and such, but only to specific people it seems. They might be getting smarter, but who knows.
A fourth carrier … I’m not holding my breath.
Thanks for the note. On the bright side, even this half-hearted unlimited plan is a step in the right direction. If Rogers were given the option of being the only carrier of the “Jesus Phone” in Canada, I’m hoping they’d find a way to make it work.
You can always subscribe to the pc card plans. Rogers has also introduced tiered billing for data.
It’s actually worse than this, they also appear to be screwing over anyone with an EDGE phone, since “unlimited” appears to only be for HSDPA phones.
http://scilib.typepad.com/techreviews/2008/03/rogers-vision-h.html
Just got my unlimited dataplan for my iphone ($7/month) to see if it is worthwhile to have as per the speed – I’m hoping to access my web based email and also the google maps feature – we’ll see how it goes. Looking at buying an iPhone in Canada? We are currently selling limited supplies of brand new totally unlocked iPhones (8 gig and 16 gig versions).
I have been on the 4& dollar plan for over a month now. Using it with my Nokia N95. Uploading pics to Facebook, vids to youtube, browsing, Skyping, Google mapping. GPS’ing and at the end of the month just the $7 charge. Amazing deal as far as I’m concerned. I was a little worried at first and called every few days to see if I had any data charges. Nope. As long as your connection it to their wap server you are fine. BTW: The N95 I grabbed while in Hong Kong rocks@
http://www.movy.tv has a downloadable java player that you can install on your Rogers handset and,
using edge or 3g, stream video to it.
Would movy.tv be covered by the Rogers unlimited plan?
Mark, I kinda doubt it. I’m guessing their idea of unlimited is rather, well, limited.
I have the $7 unlimited plan and my phone is 3G, is it covered like HSPDA or whatever?
Wow, did I ever get the run-around from Rogers on this “unlimited” on-device browsing. I bought the N95 a couple days after it was released (in May), along with the $7 “unlimited plan”, after the people at the local Rogers store gave me a demo. Three weeks go buy and Rogers sends me a bill of $150 for “data charges”. I called Rogers, and they said I shouldn’t have been charged and removed the charge. A couple days later I get a text message from them stating I’ve spent $25 in data charges and that I should call *611, which I did. After talking to about 8 people in every department, I got really frustrated, as no one could explain the charge or give me any useful information. They told me things such as I had to use http and not www when connecting to a site (???), that I might need to download a browser from their website (how do you do that if you don’t have a browser on your phone?), etc. There isn’t a download of a browser on their website; if there is, it’s pretty hard to find. Plus, the N95 already came with one.
Finally, after yet another $25 data charge test message, I talked to a guy in customer service who explained that the $7 unlimited plan requires the use of the Rogers specific browser. I told asked him that I’d been using the “web” program (browser) on the N95, and could he tell me where this Rogers browser is. After a couple minutes, we figured out that the Rogers browser is buried under the Vision icon, and is labeled “Internet”. He told me that WAP browsing is all that is allowed in the “unlimited” plan. I said thank you, and tried that. It works in a limited fashion – somewhat good because it makes the pages fit the phone. The Rogers browser takes you to a Rogers website that has links to some stuff like download games, ringtones, etc., as well as web links. I tried some of the web links, like Google and the weather network, and it that seemed OK.
Well, today I got another text message about an additional $25 in data charge. So again I phone customer service and get explained the same thing. I’m told that I used 125KB at a time when I was sleeping (I work during the evening, and was in bed at 8am; the charge was at 11am, when I was dead asleep). I asked how this was possible, but all I was told was that my phone downloaded something and I had to pay. I didn’t think it could get any worse. I (fortunatel) listened to the person and was transfered to data tech support. The support person there told me that when I launch the Rogers Internet browser, I have to use GoRogers as the access point. The support person I talked to the previous day told me to use use the “Rogers Internet” access point. Amazing!
I was pretty frustrated, and the tech support person told me that just two days ago Rogers introduced a new data plan for the phone: $30 for 300MB. After hours of dealing with incompetency, I opted for that.
Rogers’ website now (and not when I purchased my phone) has a bunch of disclaimers about the N95. Only one out of, what, maybe 10 support people understood anything about the phone and their unlimited data. They kept telling me that they properly instructed me on how to use the unlimited browsing, which is totally false. They kept telling me that I was downloading data or e-mail attachments, when in fact I was only browsing some web sites such as Google or CNN. They told me I would get text notification of usage, which I did, but not until after $150 of charges were incurred. I was told that I would be prompted to continue browsing if the site I would go to was not one that is supported by the unlimited plan. This never happens. I was told that Rogers really cares about me, the customer, and was making a real effort to keep my costs down. But best yet, the manager of the local Rogers store told me that I could use the default browser on the N95 because the plan stated “unlimited on-device browsing”, and said the Rogers support was wrong.
I complained to the last two or three support people I talked to about the way Rogers was marketing the plan – how the plan description is essentially a lie. I complained about how incompetent a lot of their support people are. I told them that if their are limitations to the browsing, that I should be notified when the limitation will be exceeded BEFORE any charges are incurred.
I suggested some other things, but then I decided that it to not bother to continue as they won’t change their immoral method of doing business.
I wanted the N95, and I wanted to stick with Rogers as I’ve been a customer since around 1992. I’ve never had anything other than a couple trivial issues in the past, but this was incredibly annoying and frustrating.
So although I don’t want to spend any more time on this issue (otherwise I’d look into suing this company) I’m adding this comment in the hope that someone else may benefit.
If you don’t care about your mobile provider, or getting the N95, then use someone else. A guy at the local car dealership showed me his Blackberry. For $30 a month he gets true, unlimited e-mail and HTML Internet browsing.