Rogers Extends $30 Data Promo, Announces Future Plans

by Eric March on August 28, 2008 at 6:57 pm

Well, well, would you look at that. It would appear that all the doom and gloom surrounding Rogers’ future plans for data plans has been for naught, and may be even better than my cynical mind had expected — which may very well be a first for Canada’s only GSM provider. Rogers Wireless have announced today that they will be extending the $30, 6 gigabyte promotional 3G data plan by another month, to be ending September 30th while they continue to revamp their eventual tier plans.

The extension comes hot on the heels of Rogers’ release of the Blackberry Bold last week, and is intended to give time for buyers of the popular executive toy the chance to take advantage of the current 3G promotional rate, which was originally to have ended August 31st. Fellow Canadians who have not yet had the chance to get their grubby hands around Apple’s latest and greatest are therefore being given a month’s reprieve to do so. Keep socking away those pennies, countrymen, you’ve got 33 days left to hop on the 6-gig data bandwagon.

Rogers have further intimated on future tier pricing for the iPhone and other smartphones, which have apparently been tailored around Rogers’ observations of how iPhone users consume data. “We learned a lot,” said Rogers spokeswoman Liz Hamilton of their monitoring of iPhone data usage patterns, “We were educated by customers by what they wanted and we were educated by customers by what they used.”

According to Rogers’ stats, just over 1% of iPhone users used more than 1GB of data in their first month, and about 95% used under 500MB. Although it is not explicitly stated, it is presumed that this is on-device internet usage. Since Rogers allows tethering of smartphones to full computers, these stats do not likely reflect tethered data usage — which, on the iPhone, would be restricted to those lucky enough to have nabbed Netshare before it was yanked from the iTunes store.

Based on my own personal usage, these numbers don’t actually surprise me. Although I haven’t done a great deal of rich content viewing, I’ve administered the blog, checked E-Mail, written portions of articles, uploaded images to my Facebook page, used the GPS with Google Maps, downloaded and installed apps from the App Store, and surfed the web, among other things, and my data usage after just three weeks is approaching 130MB. Granted, I was conservative for the first week or so as I monitored my usage carefully, but once I realized that I wasn’t burning through nearly as much as I thought I would, I began to use my data oblivious to usage, and I’m finding it very difficult to bust out of the 95% of <500MB users. Perhaps with tethering or even further extending my normal usage I could do so, but my usage habits have certainly made me realize that 6GB of monthly data is, for all intents and purposes, unlimited. I am genuinely curious how others stack up when it comes to data usage — how many of you burn through half a gig in a month? A gig? More? Have any of you eaten up over 6 gigs of data on your iPhone? I feel a poll coming on.

As for the planned tiers that Rogers will introduce on October 1st, full details on all tiers are not yet available, but a statement by Liz revealed that there will be a $25, 500MB monthly plan, as well as a $30 1GB monthly plan which, like current data plans, must be tacked on to a voice plan. Furthermore, Rogers will be introducing a “peace of mind protection plan,” which will take the form of periodic, free incoming text messages that inform users of their data usage when they cross certain thresholds, such as when they’ve consumed 80% of their monthly data allotment. Excess usage charges for users that go over their monthly allotment will also be capped at $100, which means that any data usage over and above your overage that exceeds $100 in charges will not cost you any extra.

I am fully aware of how strange it feels to type these words, but these plans actually aren’t that bad. It may not put us in the same league as AT&T, and we may still have one of the most expensive rates in the world by virtue of the mandatory 3-year contract, but on a month-to-month basis, we’re actually below the global average of US$71 a month on the lowest-end plan, which is $60/month — though that doesn’t include system access fees or taxes which, taken into account for Ontarians, would end up putting us slightly above that average at $75/month. We also pay extra for the Visual Voicemail bundle — an extra $15 — so that puts us at over $90/month for a properly decked plan.

I will withhold final judgment until October 1st, however, when I can see the full spectrum of plan tiers.

(via CBC News)

One Response to “Rogers Extends $30 Data Promo, Announces Future Plans”

Jody Mitoma said:

August 28th, 2008 at 7:35 pm

That is just awesome! Here’s to hoping I can save up $200 to get the iPhone 3G by September 30th.

Even if I cannot do it because of massive debt, $30 for 1GB of data will most likely suffice, also.

Sweet post, Eric.