Call me crazy, but I’ve waited over a year for the iPhone to come to Canada, and when it was finally announced that Rogers would carry it, my face lit up. However, a couple weeks later that smile disappeared as Rogers announced its iPhone plans and well, I wasn’t satisfied at all. I felt as if Rogers had taken such a great opportunity to take customers from Bell and Telus and tried to abuse its position as the only GSM provider in Canada, by not only giving us such low bandwidth allotments, but by giving us even less daytime minutes.

But not all was lost. A petition over at www.ruinediphone.com, which had more than 31,000 signatures at the time this article was written, may have just swayed Rogers to shift its position on the iPhone packages. A recent trip over to the Rogers Wireless iPhone plans reveals some new verbage and additional features now included with each plan.

The first thing you’ll notice is you now get 3 months unlimited calling…ok we’ll take that (but we’re still locked in for 3 years with 150 minutes on the base package). The second thing you’ll notice is the additional cost per minutes should you exceed the ones included (standard stuff). But the newest and most important change is that you can now add data packages to your EXISTING voice plan.

“While the iPhone 3G Voice and Data Packages allow you to use this device to its fullest and offer savings over separate voice and data plans, they are not the only options available to you. Other pricing options are available. For example, you may choose to combine one of our new data plans ranging from $30 per month (for 300MB) to $100 per month (for 6GB) with a voice plan. They are available by calling 1 888 ROGERS1 or by visiting your nearest Rogers retail location.”

If this was planned from the beginning, then strike one to Rogers for bad execution as every news outlet has picked up the story of how Canadians are getting ripped off on Voice and Data packages. But either way, we’re glad to see this as there was no way I was going to give up my unlimited incoming package for an iPhone.






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