Rogers releases iPhone pricing

Rogers releases iPhone pricing

JACK KAPICA
Globe and Mail Update

June 27, 2008 at 11:04 AM EDT



Canadians finally have a chance to see how much Apple's new iPhone 3G will cost them.

Voice and data plans will start at $60 per month when the coveted device arrives in Canada July 11, Rogers Wireless announced Friday morning.

Fido, which is owned and operated by Rogers Communications, made the same announcement this morning.
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All iPhone plans are based on a three-year contract, Rogers said.

The cheapest plan, for $60, includes 150 minutes of voice calling (unlimited Evenings and weekends) with 400 megabytes of data; 75 sent text messages with unlimited incoming text messages and visual voicemail messages.

Three other plans are available: a $75 package that includes 300 minutes of phone calls with 750 MB data and 100 sent text messages; a $100 package that includes 600 minutes of phone calls with 1 GB of data and 200 sent text messages, and $115 per month for 800 minutes of phone calls, with 2 GB of data and 300 sent text messages.

Rogers also announced two extra plans on top of the four monthly plans: a $15 monthly value pack that includes Caller ID, Who Called, Caller Ring Trax, 2,500 Sent Text Messages and 2,500 Call-Forwarding Minutes; and a $20 monthly value pack including Caller ID, Who Called, Caller Ring Trax, 10,000 Sent Text Messages and 6 p.m. Early Evening Calling and 2,500 Call Forwarding Minutes.

The pricing includes unlimited Wi-Fi access at all Rogers and Fido hotspots, Rogers added.

Rogers has described the plans as “high-value price packages to meet the needs of Canadian iPhone aficionados.”

The announcement of the packages has been much anticipated because the iPhone relies on a large amount of data transfer. Previous plans, if they had been applied to the iPhone, which was not available in Canada, would have made the monthly costs of the iPhone prohibitively expensive.

The iPhone 3G has a data transfer rate twice as fast as the EDGE network used by original iPhone, a built-in global positioning system, and support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync for e-mail.

“We've designed a pricing structure that offers affordable, flexible voice and data packages so Canadians can truly unleash their iPhone 3G experience on Canada's fastest wireless network,” Rogers chief marketing officer John Boynton said in a statement.

Rogers calculates that the plan using 400 MB of data is the equivalent of 200,000 text e-mails or 3,100 web pages or 1,360 photo attachments. The 2GB plan represents up to 1,048,000 text e-mails or 16,000 Web pages or 7,000 photo attachments.