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Cellphone providers around the world are rubbing their hands in glee over the prospect of a summer of unprecedented sales in smartphones. And they're counting on demand — especially demand for Apple's iPhone — to override caution when it comes to consumers trying to decide whether to buy this year's must-have gadgets.
But for consumers, it might take a mathematical wizard to calculate how much one of the new breed of third-generation cellphones will cost.
The combinations of minutes of talk time and megabytes of data are hard to estimate in advance of actually using one of the new devices. Guess too high and waste money on unused bandwidth, guess too low and pay various penalties for going over the bandwidth limits.
Moreover, the four plans Rogers announced for the Apple iPhone, due to be released July 11, are not the only plans the company is offering.
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“These are just the optimized plans we think will benefit the customer,” says Rogers spokeswoman Elizabeth Hamilton.
And, she added, customers don't have to buy the two value pack plans, features bundled for monthly fees of $15 and $20.
The plans have unleashed waves of protest about the high prices being charged to Canadian customers for data transmissions.
The same applies to the Blackberry Bold 9000, which Rogers will also carry beginning July 25. Rogers has posted plans for the Blackberry 9000, and they too are configurable according to individual requirements.
One element that Rogers will not negotiate, however, is an unlimited data plan. Data plans are critical to the adoption of the third-generation (3G) cellphones because the new phones are heavy users of Internet surfing and e-mail as well as such data-hungry applications as Google Maps.
Apple's iPhone is especially hungry for data. Apple constantly checks the iPhone for such things as software updates.
What might change the prices being asked for 3G cellphones in Canada is the arrival of the Samsung Instinct, which some online pundits have called a potential “iPhone killer.” That phone, already released in the United States, is due here “later this summer,” according to a company spokesman.
The Instinct, which resembles the iPhone in appearance and features, is a CDMA device, which means it runs on the kind of networks used by Bell Mobility and Telus. The Blackberry and the iPhone run on the GSM system.
There have been rumours online about a CDMA version of the Blackberry Bold 9000, but RIM has not made any statement to that effect.
A Bell representative said that an announcement about the Instinct would be coming out in a matter of a few days.
Canadian price plans, however, have not yet been announced for the Instinct. It is possible that they might in fact be lower than Roger's plans, even to the extent of offering unlimited data, which would increase the downward pressure on Rogers' offerings.
In fact, insiders have said that an unlimited data plan has been discussed “in a general sense” at Bell, which is very aware that Bell could put a dent Rogers' metered bandwidth packages.
One possible explanation for Rogers' high data rates is based on the company's desire to finance a long-term plan to upgrade its networks. Rogers, Canada's biggest cellphone provider, has been investing heavily upgrading its infrastructure in select markets to offer speeds up to 7.2 megabits per second, twice that of its current capacity. The upgrade is expected to cost the company billions.
Rogers president and chief operating officer Nadir Mohamed talked about the next-generation upgrade in a keynote address at the Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto a few weeks ago, during which he argued that Canadians do not pay too much for wireless service.
Mr. Mohamed did add, however, that both the BlackBerry Bold and the iPhone 3G would help increase the average revenue per user by $30 per month.
Rogers — and its Fido wireless division, which is also selling the iPhone — are offering voice and data plans from $60 to $115 a month. The plans include free WiFi access at Rogers and Fido hotspots.
Rogers new BlackBerry Bold plans offer more bandwidth than previous plans, but the plans also include metered bandwidth: a new $30 monthly plan offers 300MB of data with 50 cents per megabyte and overage protection to prevent excessive fees; new extra tiers increase the bandwidth allotment to 1GB ($60), 3GB ($80), and 6GB ($100) with the same protection rates.
