From the “Flying Pigs” Dept.: Rogers (Partially) Caves on iPhone Plans

Posted by Eric March on July 9, 2008 at 11:49 am

Holy hell on a taco. Did you think you’d live to see the day? The day that Rogers backs down on screwing their customers, even an inch? I certainly didn’t — and yet here we are, because Rogers have grudgingly given a wee bit of ground on their iPhone plans.

It seems that amid the uproar and demands for rolling heads and glowing metal objects inserted into places no glowing metal objects should go, Rogers has offered a concession. A small one to be sure, and for a limited time only, but a concession from Rogers is like the government saying, “It’s okay, you can pay your taxes next year, it’s all good.”

The promotional offer, which is good only on a 3-year contract and purchase of an iPhone until August 31st, will let you pair any existing voice plan with a 6GB data plan for — are you ready for this? — $30. Yeah, sure, it’s not unlimited, but 6GB for $30? That just put the iPhone 3G back in “want” territory for me. 6 gigs is a respectable amount, and let’s face it, most people won’t be using that much on their iPhone just for general surfing and E-Mailing and Installer/Cydia refreshes and installs. And the ability to tack it on to any existing voice plan? I’m so there.

Not yet though — I have some things to pay off before I can do it, but I can’t pass up this opportunity to take advantage of Rogers actually backing down on something, even to such a small degree. It’s unprecedented, and I’m going to go for it before the startlement from the public backlash wears off and he remembers that he owns everyone’s ass.

More interesting? 6 lucky Rogers Plus stores in major Canadian cities will be hosting an 8AM launch — complete with free breakfast.

No kiddin’.

Check out the full press release here, and those of you who know you’re going to hell when you die — try and work a parka into your burial plans.

As for what will happen after August 31st, your guess is as good as mine. I suspect they’ll try and to back to business as usual (i.e. their original ridiculous plans) until they realize iPhone sales have completely dried up, and then work out a way to get that 6GB/$30/Any Voice deal into their plan schedule on a more permanent basis.

Behold the powers of Canadian indignity!

(via Engadget)

2 Responses to “From the “Flying Pigs” Dept.: Rogers (Partially) Caves on iPhone Plans”

UncleBoogie said:

July 9th, 2008 at 4:24 pm

So Rogers cave a bit just in time for the launch, and will probably jack it up again in a couple of months once the iPhone 3G hype has died down.

Smart business move. By then, nobody in the media will give a crap.
Eric March said:

July 9th, 2008 at 6:18 pm

By then the media won’t matter. Once the promotion expires and the rates go back to the way they were, I suspect their paltry sales figures will speak for themselves and prompt further action — like the inclusion of this promo price on a more permanent basis.