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Its all aboot the iPhone, for sure...

May 27, 08 - 02:45 pm Comment from: Spark

Oh, Canada.

Thank goodness for Canada. Otherwise we gringos would have the worst mobile phone system in the world.

This is sad, very very sad.

May 27, 08 - 03:01 pm Comment from: Demon

Every Canadian with a cell phone will tell you that the service in Canada sucks and that Roger's price gouges everything. The Canadian cell phone system is so outdated, backward and just overpriced that it's not worth having a cell phone unless you absolutely need one.

May 27, 08 - 03:01 pm Comment from: ron

Those high phone taxes have to pay for the "Free" health care.

Canada - Upper US.

@ron "Those high phone taxes have to pay for the "Free" health care."

you sir are clueless....

Anyone reading here who has a iPhone with at&t;? I'm just wondering how much it costs per month to receive email and check the internet, and oh, make a few calls with an iPhone. I've got 4 phones with unlimited text messages (two teenagers) with t-mobile for about $130. a month.

@ron:

More than clueless, plain stupid comment.

The problem with Canada is that the land is huge and we're only 30M people to support it. No company is in an urge to enter our market and front millions of dollars just to develop a network that will take decades to pay off...

If we were 10 times the population (as in the US), then I'm sure we'd have a healthier competition .

@Bill in Providence:

Now, that's funny! And oh so true

May 27, 08 - 03:21 pm Comment from: McIntosh

As far as I know, Canadians still pay long-distance charges in addition to their minutes if they make, well, a long-distance call (just like on a landline). This has always been the case, and it really influenced how I thought about mobile connectedness when I had a Cdn cell phone. So imagine my shock when I first moved here two years ago; I could hardly believe that I could call Seattle from Florida for the same rate as calling across the street. And people complain here about oppressive U.S. service providers! Not me : ) I will absolutely never turn my back on Apple, if for nothing more than showing me what technological progress in the 21st century should look like.

Mike R.,

Via MDN: AT&T;and Apple announce service plans for iPhone starting at $59.99 per month

Ron, it is not hight phone taxes that kill us it is the Ted Rogers needs a new mansion Tax that kills us. I have Rogers Cable, Internet, and basic Cell service and my bill is over $200 a month, and there is still nothing to watch on TV.

Can any one tell me why G4 Tech TV is not in High Def on Rogers? If you look at the audience we are the most likley to have High Def TVs.

May 27, 08 - 03:25 pm Comment from: Ampar

MikeR:

What Jennifer said. Or you can go here too:

http://www.apple.com/iphone/easysetup/rateplans.html

May 27, 08 - 03:26 pm Comment from: Ampar

"and my bill is over $200 a month"

Holy crap.

@hilken that statement is so irrelevant for the Cell Phone industry, it is not like Cell Phones in Canada cover the entire country, they cherry pick the most populated sections and only provide spotty service in those areas.

@Jeff, "and there is still nothing to watch on TV."

What about Trailer Park Boys?

May 27, 08 - 03:28 pm Comment from: Ampar

"If we were 10 times the population (as in the US), then I'm sure we'd have a healthier competition."


Then you'd better get busy.

May 27, 08 - 03:29 pm Comment from: McIntosh

Oops, I should've added a line break before the last line in my earlier post...would've made the thought a little less mixed up. : /

In any case, I hope that competition enters the Great White North. Data users aren't all on Blackberries, after all.

I have an iPhone on AT&T;, and my bill is $66 and change every month.

@Jeff

But still, our population is still small compared to the US, or even France.

@Jennifer
Thank you!

@Wish I Was Here
Thank you. Users usually more realistic than the website.

May 27, 08 - 03:39 pm Comment from: MCCFR

And once again ron displays his characteristic lack of understanding of how things work based on several years of believing Rush Limbaugh to be a genuine political commentator.

What Canada is experiencing is a GSM monopoly based on the following…

• it is a large, sparsely populated country with a topgraphy that is probably relatively unsympathetic to cellular mobile

• because of it's historic ties to the US phone system and that market's protectionist attitude to technologies not invented in the USA, nearly all of Canada's mobile carriers are attached to CDMA as opposed to GSM.

• a recent report suggested that the costs being presented to Telus' board to migrate to GSM were around $500 million, which is about $26 for every Canadian mobile user and around $95 for every one of their current customers.

Maybe ron can come up with an unassailable business case, given that he's such a genius: maybe Telus would benefit from such a move, but - on the other hand - what if one of the other operators also went GSM and now you've invested $500 m and simply created a commercial environment with more opportunities for customer churn.

Over to you, ron.

Basic Nokia cell phone on Rogers. Don't use up all of my minutes (300 per month), and unlimited data that I *never* use since the browser is so crappy.

$80 per month.

@MikeR

I have an iPhone in the U.S. on AT&T;(of course). The data plan is $20 per month, which is unlimited email, web surfing, etc. My monthly bill is about $130, because I chose a higher monthly minute plan and we have three other phones on the family plan ($10/month each).

I really don't think there could be a more expensive network than "America Movil" or more specific, Telcel or any other mexican carrier.

Could be a saving grace depending on how you look at it.

Amazing how important a tiny little brick has become to many people. Many people spend all their time talking into it, looking at it and playing with it and their sense of self-worth seems to be defined by it.

I run a web business and amazingly, I don't need data or email or photos or special widgets to run a successful business. Despite all the hype, there's really not much that can't wait which is the same as it's always been.

Most of what passes for necessity is just distraction.

Demon

Every Canadian with a cell phone will tell you that the service in Canada sucks

Unless you are with Bell in Alberta and the service is stellar. Bars everywhere except the backwoods.

Unless you mean customer service. Some of the a-holes up here try to charge you to receive text messages.

May 27, 08 - 04:29 pm Comment from: mike k.

this topic has been beaten to death:

- Rogers is a hateful company and so is Bell
- even though the US and Canada are right next to each other on the map they do not have the same demographics and so they cannot be really be compared
- ron is a douche

So, like, what if a moose, like, eats your phone while you're cooking up some back bacon, eh ? Do you get stuck for, like, roaming charges ?

Oo wo coo coo, oo wo coo coo.

May 27, 08 - 05:00 pm Comment from: Jimbo von Winskinheimer

@toonie,

No one "needs" an iPhone. In fact, most people don't "need" a computer either. The iPhone has improved my life and has given me the ability to use a real browser as opposed to those on other phones.

You say you run a web business. I don't know if you mean that your business is on the web, or if it means you build web pages. At any rate, I find your thoughts on mobile web use to be odd. You are a person that tells us your business is on the web, but then says that it doesn't matter if you have instant access to stuff.

If all others felt the same way you did, you could go out of business. They could just go into a store rather than shop from home. "Who needs to shop on the web???" Or, if you are a web designer, they might ask "Who needs a web page anyway???"

I would think that a person whose own business relies on accessing the internet might be a bit more interested in ways for people to access said business.

Odd indeed.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a consensus.

Ron is a moron of the nth degree.

Anyone know which town in the US has lost its village idiot?

@Bob McKenzie

Hoser, you just get the beast to toss back a two-four and some Ex-Lax. The gas buildup will make it, like, pass a liquid-gas mixture.
That will, you know, fire that phone out of the chute like Celine Dion after a large poutine and a pogo.

That means no roamin charges but Rogers will, like, send you some foamin charges.

May 27, 08 - 05:50 pm Comment from: MCCFR

Buster…

The worryng thing is that - if queried - ron claims to be an émigré from the UK who the US, of it's own free will and volition, allowed into the country at some point in the Seventies (could be Sixties, but I'm working from memory).

I know there's no bar on stupidity on getting into public office on either side of the Atlantic, but surely one of the solutions would be stop people like ron from entering your country in the first place and dragging down the collective IQ. Poor and huddled masses is all very well, but it doesn't say anything about having the intelligence of rhubarb.

@His Shadow wrote
Every Canadian with a cell phone will tell you that the service in Canada sucks

Unless you are with Bell in Alberta and the service is stellar.

You're either an Albertan or a clueless dispshit, likely both if you're an Albertan. I get two separate cable boxes, all the channels on TV (there is still nothing to watch) satellite radio, high speed wireless internet, unlimited (I mean completely unlimited) land line and cell phone long distance for $100/month and I've never had a dropped call or been in an area where I couldn't use my cell. That's from SaskTel (and I can hear the pissing and moaning now about it having a monoply but they don't). It's the best deal I've come across, better than Bell, Telus, Sprint when they were around, Rogers and Shaw (those bastards) so blow it out your arse. Fscking Albertans, arrogant pricks.

@MacMaster

Don't tell me. You're a little bitter towards Albertans.

Frankly, I think Ted Rogers tried to hold Steve's feet to the fire with no success and then realized that he was just cutting off his nose to spite his face.

I'm sorry, was there a point to that? I've had stellar service on my cell from Bell. Did I say anything about prices or tried to guess what cable receiver you have sitting in your trailer? Get over yourself, fvcktard.

Seems like this would have been an opportunity for someone to start up a new cellular network. Could have started small, in just the major metropolitan areas in the eastern half of the country with iPhone exclusivity and rapidly gained enough customers to be sustainable & profitable. Does anyone remember the cellular networks here in the USA 20 years ago? It was only in the big cities. Now you can almost assume that it is everywhere you go (except for sparsely populated areas out west).

@ His Shadow

No point really, just love winding you guys up like tops. Everything"s always better in Alberta isn't it. Get over yourself as well, fscktardhttp://www.macdailynews.com/images/smileys/grin.gif

May 27, 08 - 07:42 pm Comment from: 84 Mac Guy

I think I now understand why our Canuck friends like beer and hockey. Either they need to drink a two-four of Molsons or get hit in the head with a puck to forget how they are getting jacked by Rogers, eh.

May 27, 08 - 08:52 pm Comment from: ron

Canada is still uppa US. With a Sicilian accent.

90% of all Canadians live within 60 miles of the lower USA border. While the US/Canada border is long, it wouldn't cost that much to cover 80 to 90% of the population and the major roads between the population centers.

That is what Rogers has done. That is why, if you work outside of that populated zone and you want an iPhone, you need a second, CDMA phone and contract.

I have a Telus cell phone and I have never had a major problem with coverage. The long distance anywhere in Canada and USA rates are about twice the American rates. Data prices are just plain prohibitive and I charge clients $50 per day for communications.

@MCCFR
Hopefully you didn't think my country was the US. Its not. If I lived in the US, they would jail me for b*tch-slapping him silly. In Canada, I get a free two-four and season two of the Red-Geen show.

Oh and Ron? In Canada we can spell...even with a Sicilian accent. You sure put the B back in dumB.

May 27, 08 - 10:50 pm Comment from: ron

Uppa US Buster.

@Al

er, "within 60 miles of the lower USA border..." would be, like, Mexico, dude.

Canada has cities like all other countries and thats where most cell phone users live.
The demographics are the same as anywhere.

There is NO excuse but greed for the fucking mess that Rogers call a cell phone service.

I pay $400 a month for two phones 1200 minutes and 500 mb of data, to Rogers so I can use my iPhone.

I really dont like rogers.

Speaking of AT&T;'s rate plans... does anyone know if you can sign up for the $99 Unlimited minutes plan and add a line to it? In other words, $99 Unlimited rate plan for iPhone, then add 4 other phones to it for family members?

@ MikeR: I have an iPhone Plan with 1350min/mon @ 79.99 + 20 unlimited data + 20 unlimited text ~ $130/mo. I never exceed the 1350 min/mo so I have over 3000 roll-over mins... so I have practically unlimited mins.

Auction anyone?

I find it amazing that no one has commented on the wireless auction and the impact it had on both forcing Rogers to make a deal with Apple and hopefully on more competition:

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/05/26/tech-spectrum.html