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Rogers is what happens when a cluess, asshat government allows a monopoly in the world's most prolific cellular standard.

Its criminal. Glad they finally are rectifying the problem, but you Canadians need get tough on your do nothing government.

Apr 29, 08 - 08:54 am Comment from: ron

MDN, Also, we're trying to figure out just how much more we can extract from our already-vastly-overcharged customers via our Big Ass Canadian monopoly that no other sane capitalistic country would even come close to allowing.

But we get FREE health care! Riightt!

Anyway we can always go to the US to get immediate operations.

Apr 29, 08 - 08:54 am Comment from: cptnkirk

The main reason they won't divulge the details yet is that Rogers has got his lawyers trying to figure out how to get around the stipulations in the contract so they can charge $800/month for data and to recoup the 50% they will owe Apple for monthly fees.

And all Canadian collectively let out an "Eh?"

I am hoping for more than just the iPhone in the Great White North, come on Apple give us the Win CE/Palm replacement.

As far as cost is concerned I am paying $110/month with no data plan currently.

"...but you Canadians need get tough on your do nothing government."

<cough>IRAQ</cough>

YES! Finally when all my fellow employees walk in with a Blackberry, I'll just whip out by iPhone, which'll be compatible with their exchange server in June.

Apr 29, 08 - 09:08 am Comment from: Jay-Z

@ Cdn and MDN:

Let the off-topic political debate begin...

Apr 29, 08 - 09:12 am Comment from: Cubert

I wonder if they use a Big-Ass Table to manage their Big-Ass Monopoly?

Just when I thought I was out, Roger's pulls me back in-- I left Rogers years ago but now I may be forced to go back... any speculation that Bell might get in on this with a 3G iPhone?

Apr 29, 08 - 09:22 am Comment from: Buster

@Scarbro.....you and me both. Rogers has NO coverage near my cottage but Bell does. Rogers told us they have no intention of increasing coverage in that area. Crappy coverage, crappy service....it will be crappy (for me) if Bell can't get in on this action.

got tired of waiting and signed onto a BB with Bell YESTERDAY. I knew my decision would accelerate the iPhone showing up the "next day" literally it seems. No loss, I got a decent enough deal to give me the one feature I wanted on my phone, email. I am sure I'm paying half of what the iPhone plans will cost in canada (75-99 range is my guess)

So MDN just "has" to slam Canadians too eh? Okay Mr I'm paying almost $4.00 a gallon for gas purchased from oil company monopolies.

Apr 29, 08 - 09:46 am Comment from: Buster

I e-mailed my wife the MDN headline. She bought an unlocked iPhone last friday because she was sick of waiting. Boy is she gonna be pissed.

Apr 29, 08 - 09:48 am Comment from: aaplsaur

@ Gone Nuts

Oil companies are not monopolies. They should probably be regulated in the manner that other utilities are. They may be taking immoral advantage of a fair wind in their industry. They may be charging too much for gas at the pump. But they are not monopolies.

Apr 29, 08 - 09:59 am Comment from: Jeferz

Finally ... I have been patiently avoiding the unlock saga of iPhone here in Canada, as I knew 3G would be a matter of time. I currently pay about $700/month for a combo three phone plan on Rogers, using Blackberrys. I wonder what the iPhone plan will look like? maybe I will break the $1K or $2K mark? I am just glad they finally announced the release!

Don't hold your breath for a June release of the iPhone with Rogers. They will still need to put some equipment in (visual voice mail). Maybe they will get around to it by the end of the year.
Canada is also opening up to more cell phone carriers this year. Rogers will only add the iPhone when they have to.
BTW, I've heard this announcement before from them. Best just to wait for Apple's official statement. Seems odd they would announce it before Apple.

Apr 29, 08 - 10:30 am Comment from: Demon

We don't need either of the Democrats or the Republican candidate. We a need a real World Class Leader.

I say, Draft Tony Blair for President of the Uniter States.

Apr 29, 08 - 10:37 am Comment from: 84 Mac Guy

Let's open a two-four for our Canuck friends and hope the hosers at Rogers give them a monthly plan that doesn't cost 200 loonies. Oh, and by the way, since it is Canada, it will have to be called an iPhone/iTéléphone, by Apple/Pomme, eh?

^^ Hilarious. Seriously, that's priceless 84...

Apr 29, 08 - 10:48 am Comment from: Predrag

$700 is insane.

Apr 29, 08 - 11:03 am Comment from: DogGone

Holy cow - I thought $700 in Canadian would be less in US$, but the currencies are almost equal.

How can anyone justify that. Paying $70 for two phones in the US seems too much for me. You guys have my sympathy. Hopefully the Apple deal will reduce the price a bit.

While I would expect to pay slightly more than AT&T;in the US, I think it won't nearly be as bad as everyone thinks. I'd expect monthly plan with 500 minutes and unlimited data to be around $75/month.

Telus charges $30/$45 dollars for two of their unlimited web usage data plans.

@Gone Nuts

"... almost $4.00 a gallon for gas ..."

With gas currently at $1.25 per liter in many places in Canada, that converts to $4.73 per U.S. gallon. Dumbass.

Apr 29, 08 - 11:06 am Comment from: Spark

Granted, this chart is a couple of years old, but the dynamics are the same. Bottom line is that companies like Apple and Microsoft typically make more profit per dollar of sales than do oil companies. I don't like paying so much for petroleum products, but I like less the idea of governments having the power to decide that a company made too much profit and needs to take some of it away. If the government would treat the subsidies it give out as loans, then maybe it could expect repayment from successful companies when they have highly profitable years.

See profit comparison chart here:
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h57/texasrainmaker/ProfitsOilVsOtherIndust3rdQ2005.gif

Everyone assumes it will be the new 3G iPhone that us Canadians are getting soon. My money is on Rogers now only offering the current iPhone, 2.5G on reduced rate plans. That way they can say they have the iPhone, but can run it on their old technology without such a revenue hit. If you want to use Rogers 3G, then iPhone won't be available, but other higher priced access plans will be on other devices.

You read it here first.

Apr 29, 08 - 11:33 am Comment from: Frank

whew..my Xmas list is done

Years of minimal market share? Almost, before Jobs returned.
The relentless onslaught of various and assorted i-Pod-Killers? No.
A decade of illegal Mac Clones and Psystar? No.
CopyCat iPhone killers? No.
Partnering with Rogers? Very likely.

Question:
What could signal the beginning of the end for Apple?

Apr 29, 08 - 11:57 am Comment from: Too Hot!

@ MDN Take: Spot on!

Here's to hoping that Robbers, AKA Rogers, may just be kicked into shape by Apple.

@ 84 "it will have to be called an iPhone/iTéléphone, by Apple/Pomme, eh?" no, logo and trademarks do not apply, but your razor wit is amazing! a$$hat

@ FUDsucker "... almost $4.00 a gallon for gas ..."

With gas currently at $1.25 per liter in many places in Canada, that converts to $4.73 per U.S. gallon. Dumbass."

You fail to account for the overall increase in gas prices between the US and Canada... the fact is that in 2003 gas here in S.F. was $1.75 per/gal now it is $4.25... prices in Tornoto, Canada were at $0.91 per/litre in 2003 and now are only $1.25 per/litre.... so who is the "dumbass" Mr. FUD!

MW= blood As in the US trades blood for oil.

Apr 29, 08 - 12:14 pm Comment from: mike k.

1. Rogers is one of the most disliked companies in Canada (Air Canada might give them a run for this title)

2. Canada has a tiny population relative to the US and many part of Europe. As such there will be fewer people paying into the cell tower infrastructure. This means that the monthly cost for a cell plan is going to be higher than in the US and Europe.

Apr 29, 08 - 12:31 pm Comment from: Buster

@funny clowns....no need to be insulting to 84 Mac guy as he was just trying to be funny....not like your spelling of Toronto, home of the Toronto Maple Laughs.

Apr 29, 08 - 12:47 pm Comment from: lee

There are twice as many Latinos in the States as there are people of all ethnicities combined in all of Canada. Hopefully we will all be speaking Spanish here soon (on our iPhones, naturally) and running the French outta town on a rail.

Apr 29, 08 - 12:48 pm Comment from: lee

and the anglais, too.

Apr 29, 08 - 12:55 pm Comment from: Buster

@Lee....nice spanish sounding name.....

Apr 29, 08 - 01:10 pm Comment from: lee

heh. Former Californian, actually. Aspiring Canadian. Studying French, even ... but well over half of the rest of the immigrants in the school are Latino. That's a fact.

Well I won't be buying an iphone even though i'd like to have one. Its nice how RIM's Blackberrys work on all networks and they don't tell you what carrier you have to use, I like that.

I've been waiting for this for soooooo long!!! I even switched to rogers from bell in anticipation. I wouldn't exactly cite rogers as being a monopoly even though they own the only GSM network in Canada. I say that because Bell and Telus aren't much better in their pricing schemes. It's an industry wide problem up here, not just Rogers' fault. Would've been interesting though had telus won the bid for fido a few years back.

Rogers is pure evil. My hatred of Rogers is greater than my love of Apple. I'll try jailbreaking an iPhone instead. I've already seen a couple of Jailbroken iPhones around the UFT campus...

"2. Canada has a tiny population relative to the US and many part of Europe. As such there will be fewer people paying into the cell tower infrastructure. This means that the monthly cost for a cell plan is going to be higher than in the US and Europe."

This is definitely a point often overlooked by critics of Rogers and other Canadian cell phone companies; Canada has one of the lowest population densities in the world (230th). Australia is 235th, and from what I've heard, they have almost as bad cell phone/internet coverage and prices as Canada, if not worse. Coincidence?

This said, there are plenty of areas in Canada which are just as densely populated as areas in the US where you get significantly cheaper plans. Plus, they also have to cover less area since they only really cover in & around cities and towns, not out in the wilderness or unsettled land (which is most of Canada). So I wouldn't be surprised if someday things got reasonable, at least in & around larger cities.

Looks like Apple is foregoing subscription profits for product saturation. Their new revenue plan is to make money from the Apps Store coming in June. What does this mean? Simply that they are opening up the iPhone worldwide and carrier-free.

@Name - jail break all you want but it will only work on Rogers/Fido in Canada. Jailbroken phones on the UFT campus would still be on Rogers (who owns Fido as well). So unfortunately you won't be able to use an iPhone in Canada.

Having said that, it might be interesting if Apple modifies a version of the iPhone to work on other non-GSM networks.

Rogers does not have a monopoly.

TELUS
Bell, Virgin
Fido
are just a few others. There are more.

Apr 29, 08 - 10:26 pm Comment from: Vista Pracova

@ Gone Nuts,

We pay $8,23 per US Galon in Europe! What is your problem? Keep that in mind whenever you or our US friends talk about the price of energie.

Rogers IS a frickin monopoly.
They own Fido, and Virgin runs on Bell.

If you want a GSM network, there is ONLY the evil Rogers wankers.

I use stinking Rogers with my unlocked iPhone (really its easy even for idiots, just use iLiberty+).

Also Canada is becoming a little f**ked -up with weak governments and uptight 1950's style people back in power.

Whatever happened to adventurous Canada?
Oh yeah, that was just Trudeau.....

Oligopoly would be appropriate, Rogers does not have a monopoly. The CRTC would see to that.

"if you want a GSM network"

Wanting something that one company offers does not make that company a monopoly.

Apr 30, 08 - 12:44 am Comment from: makemineamac

Depending on when this is released, Im going to have to pay a whole lot of money to get out of my Telus contract - $340 likely if it gets released in June, but I'm going to have to do it.

Although Telus does have an option to transfer contracts to friends and family. We shall see. Exciting news though.

Apr 30, 08 - 08:59 am Comment from: Buster

@Billy the fish

Ne'er a truer word said...........eh?

Adventurous and the current gov't is like matter and anti-matter.

@84 mac guy:

"Oh, and by the way, since it is Canada, it will have to be called an iPhone/iTéléphone, by Apple/Pomme, eh?"

No actually, since it is a name. MacDonalds is called MacDonalds in French Canada, just like Ski Doo is called Ski-Doo in the english parts of the world.

@the rest who bitch and complain about the do nothing government.
cough cough Iraq.

I sure felt a great sense of pride when our Government leader at the time said no to that totally unethical immoral and terroristic invasion of the US by Iraq. We may have our faults, but we still have a moral foundation, unlike the AENUS terrorist countries.

Once again as I have said, iPhones will be popular, but it is a cold country. I prefer to be inside toasty warm on a Mac then using a cel phone. Hopefully Ma Bell and Telus will also pick up on the iphone as well. Gotta love competition.