Rogers Shafting Non-Data Customers? Doubtful.

by Eric March on August 26, 2008 at 7:57 pm

Rogers and Fido customers who bought an iPhone 3G (or who are using an iPhone 2G with firmware 2.x on the Rogers/Fido network), does any of this apply to you?

• You have turned off EDGE or 3G on your phone so as not to use data
• You have requested through official channels that internet access be blocked on your account
• You just don’t use the internet on your iPhone

If so, you may still be in for a shocker come your next phone bill. According to a Fido rep, Rogers have opened a new port that allows iPhones to connect to the network so that apps and OS calls that function in the background and require internet access will still have that access — even if you have turned off your 3G/EDGE and/or requested that the internet be blocked on your account — and they want to make you pay for it just the same.

According to a source inside Fido, not blocking this new port for those users who requested that all else be blocked is a deliberate practice by Rogers as an underhanded means to pressure iPhone users to sign up for their data plan, and Fido reps won’t acknowledge that this is a mistake on their part. One customer apparently received a call from a Fido CSR demanding $1600 for 29 megs of data access fees, even though he had requested that the internet be blocked on his account 5 months earlier — a fact confirmed by the CSR, but which seemed not to matter to the situation at hand.

Furthermore, the “inside source” within Fido claimed that Rogers plans to hike the data rates to $100/month in September.

Now, I’m the first to jump on the Rogers Hate bandwagon — I signed the petition and wrote politicos with the best of ‘em when Rogers first announced their absurd data plans — but I really have to call hardcore shenanigans here. The whole iClarified article reeks of parroted FUD.

First of all, though it isn’t explicitly stated, this is apparently a relatively recent thing for Rogers and certainly didn’t exist prior to the 3G’s release. I’ve been using my iPhone on the net more and more while I’m on the go and after two and a half weeks I’ve only just crested 100MB in data usage. That’s intentional data usage. Now, we have to assume that this “new port” thing had only occurred during this poor unfortunate soul’s last billing cycle, so we’re talking, at most, 30 days of unintentional data usage. That suggests almost 30 megs of data that background apps have been chugging down over the course of a month — a megabyte a day.

Bull****. Apps don’t auto-update; you have to do it manually, so it ain’t that. Third party apps aren’t allowed to run in the background, and it is assumed that this guy hasn’t downloaded apps that need net access and kept them open, because that would be weapons-grade stupid for someone that supposedly had his net access blocked. Even if he jailbroke, there are no apps for Firmware 2.x in the jailbreak scene yet that run in the background and access the net.

So what’s eating a meg of data per day? Answer: Nothing. Nothing eats a meg a day all by its lonesome without any user interaction whatsoever. The App Store might sip a few K at a time checking for app updates, but I seriously doubt that amounts to more than 100k/month. Also, at Rogers/Fido’s ad-hoc data rate ($0.05/k), 29 megs would cost $1,450, not $1,600, but that’s nitpicking.

Furthermore, even a soulless GSM monopoly like Rogers wouldn’t secretly open ports even on data-blocked users for data to slip through unattended. That right there is a class-action lawsuit on wheels — a guaranteed win, with the judicial process a mere formality to determine the payout, and Rogers would know it.

Finally, the “inside source” blew his creditibility to hell when he mentioned the $100/month data plan. $100 data plans make Canadian shed their normally polite exterior and pound the warpath on a quest for blood. Rogers knows this. They’ve been at the end of that warpath before, and they backpedalled faster than Canadians could run pleading “Wait, wait, wait, here! $30 data! 6 Gigs! PLEASE DON’T KILL ME!” Yes, Rogers will almost certainly reveal a new tier structure in September if not a few days before, and yes, it will absolutely be more expensive than the current $30 promo plan, but knowing Rogers, we’ll be much more likely to see something like a $60 top tier with a smaller data cap — say, 2-3 gigs/month. Hit ‘em at both ends (higher price + lower data) is more Rogers’ speed, particularly in light of the furor over their initial structure.

As much as Canadians love nothing more than to get their hate on against a company like Rogers whenever they step over the line, I really wouldn’t put any stock in this rumour. Wait for September before you break out the torches and pitchforks to see what it is you really want to lynch.

(via iClarified)

If you enjoyed this story, join the growing number of subscribers to our RSS Feed for live updates!

Related Stories:

• There are no related stories for this entry.

Posted in iPhone Canada