FIDO announces 3G service and pricing, civilized world points and laughs
FIDO kicked off its 3G services today (even though it's been about for a bit) if you happen to have an HSDPA set kicking around. With the LG TU500 leading FIDO's charge into 3G-dom -- incidentally, this is the twin to the first 3G set ever sold in North America, back in 2006 -- they're off to a fairly sad start. Services being rolled out include XM Radio services, Mobile TV, Video on Demand, Video Calling, and of course web surfing on the HSDPA network it came into when purchased by Rogers Wireless. Of course, the fun seems to end the moment you want to actually use the service as rates are pinned at $10 a month for 12 MB data and a penny for every kilobyte in overages. To put that in perspective, a 250 MB month would cost you 'round about $2500 for the data services alone. Thanks, but no thanks, FIDO.
Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, LG, HSDPA
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
leeeevy @ Nov 1st 2007 4:49PM
once again the world gets to see how much mobile data rates completely SUCK in canada with the cell phone oligarchy running the show!
but hey theres a good reason foreign investors arent allowed into canada to compete...might stifle canadian businesses and force them out of the market (ya think? of course it will with prices like these!)
ToyandMe @ Nov 1st 2007 5:58PM
While $2500 a month for 250 MB might seem expensive compared to say, Sprint's $15/month for truly unlimited high speed access, look at it this way: not long ago it would have cost $10,000 for 250 MB in Canada...
Jeff @ Nov 1st 2007 5:31PM
At least they can say they beat T-Mobile....
>:-/
Yannick Desjardins @ Nov 1st 2007 6:22PM
It's a wonder we are still buying those PDA phones.
Jota @ Nov 1st 2007 6:55PM
I wonder if my $50 all you can eat plan will work... If so, it might make replacing my N95 with an N95-3 worthwhile :-D
Vince Maling @ Nov 1st 2007 6:55PM
Wait just a minute.
Let's put this in perspective. The VAST majority of average feature phone users exhaust FAR less than 10MB / month (assuming, of course, that they don't tether). In fact, the average BlackBerry subscriber (who relies on data much more heavily than his Fido counterpart using a 12-key LG TU500) only uses around 4 MB on average.
So, all considered, $10 for a data plan is damn good price assuming it's put on a flip phone like the TU 500 with a WAP browser.
Laptop cards and tethered units are a different story, of course...
Fido-di-bund-ch-lun @ Nov 1st 2007 10:29PM
Ummm, balckberries compress data like crazy, but thanks for playing.
Vince Maling @ Nov 1st 2007 11:17PM
@Fido
Yeah, thanks for pointing out how BlackBerries work.
Now try taking a look at how LG flip phones compress data. You might learn something.
Navi Thach @ Nov 4th 2007 1:50AM
Keep in mind the BlackBerry was really a glorified 2-way pager when RIM released it back in 1999-2000. Man, and when I think Verizon gets pretty bad...
Fernando @ Nov 1st 2007 7:05PM
Poor dog just saw goatse (don't google it)
oshawapilot @ Nov 1st 2007 8:13PM
Laughable.
A customer service representative told me a few weeks back to wait for the "Great new data plans" that were coming along.
"You'll be very pleased with what's coming - I know that the 200 megabyte plan you have is really limiting given todays realities, and with the new handset options coming there will be great new plans along with them".
Wow, 12 megs. That's not great, that's craptacular!
carpel tunnel @ Nov 1st 2007 8:48PM
Ha Ha, I love our left wing protected marketplace here. Yes it is worth getting boned for data just to have that warm fuzzy feeling that our market is a government enforced oligopoly.
It makes sure that we in Canada remain marginalized from a connectivity perspective. Suck it Rogers / Fido... I wish there was a new competing GSM provider here.
Jason @ Nov 2nd 2007 11:30AM
Stop cell-phone slavery in Canada:
http://www.fon.com/en/
huh @ Nov 1st 2007 9:02PM
@Vince Mailing, it's ok assuming you use the WAP browser, but for anyone who wants to use a third party smart phone with high speed internet in an HTML browser on a constant basis it's inadequate. Of course you are off in the woods if you do that anyway, Fido will blame everything that goes wrong on your handset. The sad fact is there's no real competition in Canada, and with Rogers owning Fido, the only two GSM providers, the situation is worse since they can create simulated competition. In my case I'm getting burned because I ended up on Fido and it's clear Rogers is the business side of things (I have a big credit at Fido that is useful for a bunch of mostly "fun" phones I have no interest in).
Still, this is some sort of good news, and I hope it kicks up real competition.
Vince Maling @ Nov 1st 2007 11:15PM
Sure. I was just pointing out, to Fido's defense, that there *is* a viable market for a 12 MB plan.
Of course, only a handful of people -- and even fewer Engadget subscribers -- belong to that market. :)
Bryan @ Nov 1st 2007 9:33PM
Hey, at least they have video calling. LOL
Not that the call could be for to long, since I'd imagine a video call would eat through that 12mb in like a few minutes.
henry @ Nov 1st 2007 9:48PM
with data plans like this you'd think they'd be anxious to release an iPhone in canada... hello $$$$$!
Larry Taylor @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:02AM
When Fido was a separate company, it used to cost me $0.30/min to make long distance calls from the U.S. to other U.S. numbers, or to Canada. Since Rogers bought Fido, they have slowly jacked the rates up to $1.65/min.
Rogers 3rd quarter report came out today. From the Toronto Star online: "...third-quarter profit soared 75 per cent...". "Rogers Wireless said average revenue per user increased 7 per cent to $75.15 year-over-year thanks largely to a 53 per cent increase in data revenue as more customers continue to pay extra for wireless services such as video, music and email. Rogers said data revenue now represents nearly 14 per cent of monthly revenue and exceeded $10 per user, on average, for the first time during the third quarter."
Why stop when you have a monoply?
huh @ Nov 2nd 2007 9:21AM
Yes, and when Fido was a separate company, they offered an unlimited data plan that was years ahead of its time. Mind, it was $50/month and only GPRS, but I was happy as were many others. Shortly after they "merged" with Rogers, the plan disappeared, and now it's being trickled back to us, one kilobyte at a time.
brent @ Nov 21st 2007 11:15PM
yes fido was much better before rogers bought it out... 10cent/minute long distance anywhere in canada... I wish t-mobile would have bought fido instead of rogers then maybe we would get the awesome plans americans enjoy