View this article at: http://www.electronista.com/articles/07/07/12/canada.iphone.still.costly/

Thursday, Jul 12, 2007 4:15pm

'Realistic' Canadian plan s...

The problem of Rogers' excessive data prices in Canada still creates dire prospects for the iPhone even when a more practical plan is chosen, says the country's National Post newspaper. While the journalist claims to have received "howls of protest" from wireless industry backers who claim that a $295 plan would feature more than any one cellphone user would need, with most use topping out at 25MB in a given month, he notes that many of Rogers' plans are still prohibitively expensive to be useful.

The MyMail Right Fit is the key example of the gap between American and Canadian service. While it meets the 25MB monthly data limit, it strips out almost half the minutes (declining from 450 to 250) and eliminates most of the features found in the AT&T plan, such as all nighttime and weekend minutes, text messaging, and voicemail for $97 Canadian ($93 US) -- far more than the $60 US of the AT&T plan that offers unlimited data and all the missing features. A typical package restoring voicemail and SMS texts would lift the price to $145.

Rogers has yet to formally respond to the charges made against it but may ultimately miss the core argument if it objects to a rate change as part of an iPhone deal, according to the claims. Under current terms, most of the Apple handset's features would be limited or switched off altogether for all but the wealthiest users.

"[It's] still a greatly inferior plan to AT&T's with nowhere near the same data allowance and almost half the talk time," says the Post. "By any measure, Rogers is giving far less for far more."