Six things about Canadian iPhone Pricing
So, yes, the plans for the iPhone in Canada were released. And people are not happy about it. (The “fuckyourogers.com” site is a saga in itself — a day after it launched, they changed to the more-PC domain name “ruinediPhone.com”. Now, their site appears to have crashed under the load of pissed off people. It was a petition for lower prices, in case you were wondering.)
I’m pretty pissed about this as well, especially after the rumours a few weeks back of true unlimited data. I’ve spent a bunch of time (probably way too much time, honestly) reading about it, all in the hopes of learning something that will make my decision on whether to get one of these things easier.
Here are six points I’ve picked up:
1. The Canadian wireless industry really sucks
People are reacting to this as if it’s a singular incident, but the sad truth about it is that these prices are pretty well inline with other plans Rogers offers. Sure, there are a lot of people who have much better plans thanks to calls to the Retention department (most of them seem to post on the howardforums) but Roger’s baseline, publicized plans are just as terrible as the iPhone plan.
Look at the baseline “Mega Time 25″ plan: $25 a month (plus fees) gets you 100 daytime minutes, 1000 evening+weekend minutes. That 100 daytime minutes works out to 5 minutes of talk time per weekday. That’s terrible. (You do get unlimited network-calling, which is a nice bonus, but even that is a recent development.)
2. Even ignoring the plans themselves, Canadian cell service sucks
Here are some things my Canadian friends may not realize about cell service all over the world:
- “Long Distance” only applies to international calls. Calls in-country are considered local.
- Nobody pays for incoming calls anymore.
- We’re the only country that allows all of our cell carriers to impose a $6 “system access fee” for literally no reason.
- Nobody pays for CALL DISPLAY. This is literally something that costs $0 these days to offer to customers. Rogers actually has to turn it off if you don’t pay for it.
- Our one benefit: Americans actually pay for incoming text messages. At least we’ve got one-up on them there.
3. Canadians are way too nice about this
I think most of the high prices are driven by the lack of competition in the marketplace, but there’s something to be said for Canada’s overall tolerance for this sort of thing. Some of that is people who are just ignorant about the cost of cell service — kids who never see their bill are a big factor — and part of it is good old-fashioned Canadian optimism. “It could be worse” is a bit of a national mantra.
4. There is no other phone that’s just as good as the iPhone
With the recent announcement, a lot of people have been championing other phones on other services. And, indeed, with the HTC Touch you can actually get true Unlimited Data on either Bell or Telus. But, jesus, look at the thing. The Windows Mobile interface is an unquestionable pile of crap. And I’m really tired of tolerating awful UIs just to save some money. Call it a vendetta, but this isn’t something I want to support.
5. Rogers may, in fact, change their plans
I don’t think Rogers was counting on the sheer amount of bad press they’ve received over this announcement. They’re put in a really tough spot, at the moment, as I’m sure, even at these rates, the phone will sell, but announcing even a slight reduction in rates in the face of all the backlash would generate enormous goodwill towards the company.
It’ll be interesting to see where they go. Five years ago, I’d say a company changing policy based on a bunch of mad internet people would be an impossibility. But it’s becoming more and more common. Look at Apple lowering the iPhone price last year and then, after some backlash, giving previous owners a rebate. Or things like Netflix keeping User Profiles around after a big internet petition.
That said, I don’t think it’ll be a huge reduction if it happens. My guess would be that they’ll relent and throw in Call Display as part of the main package and/or lower the start time of Evenings to 7 p.m. If they did both those things, things would look a little more palatable.
6. Of the two services offering iPhone in Canada, Fido is probably the better bet
One of the more irritating things about the Canadian cell market recently has been the big three creating or acquiring spin-off companies, wholly controlled by the parent, all in the hopes of creating the illusion of choice for Canadians. Bell has Solo, Telus has Koodo, and Rogers has Fido.
Still, though, it means both Rogers AND Fido are offering the phone, which led me to look at the big differences between the two carriers:
- Fido has per-second billing, which Rogers doesn’t. Rogers just rounds up. So if you make a 15 second call on a Rogers phone, they’ll bill you for a whole minute. Fido will just bill you for 15 seconds.
- On Fido, evenings start at the far-more-reasonable 7 p.m.
- Fido has a slightly smaller coverage area which could be an issue if you spend a lot of time in the woods.
Fido seems like the winner, off hand. But it’s kind of like winning a weightlifting competition in prison. Even with the prize, you’re still in goddamned prison.