Rogers breaks out new data plans, Canadian jaws drop

by Sean Cooper posted Jan 20th 2008 at 3:35AM

Rogers' Flex Rate Plan for PC Cards seem set to offer heavy data consumers a much needed break in the sometimes staggering world of wireless data prices. Plans range from $65 a month for 1 GB -- tethering is a go, of course -- to $100 a month for 5 GB of data. The surprising part of the plan is that it is tiered, so if you sign up on a 1 GB plan but use 1.2, you'll simply be bumped up to the tier 2 $75 a month plan, and not charged overages by the KB. Pretty grand news for the data greedy, thank you Rogers, job well done. Now, how about some smaller tiers for the light users?

[Thanks, Treatz]

Filed under: Handsets, Rogers Wireless

Tags: data plans, DataPlans, Rogers, Rogers Wireless, RogersWireless, tether

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Steve @ Feb 2nd 2008 9:24PM

I am not following, can I use the 1GB data plan from Rogers and use it for my windows mobile device or do I have to use a PC card

Neutral

Lord John Whorfin @ Jan 20th 2008 4:52AM

Unbelievable... Compare with Sprint's $45/month for unlimited 3G. Even Verizon's $80 unlimited data plan seems cheap in comparison. What a rip-off.

Highest Ranked

Donald @ Jan 20th 2008 10:53AM

At least you get a decent rate for exceeding 5GB a month on Rogers, Verizon just cancels you.

Neutral

Matthew Nelson @ Jan 20th 2008 12:15PM

$45/month on Sprint? I'm paying $59.99/month. Is that available in all markets?

Neutral

trooth @ Jan 20th 2008 1:25PM

verizon is 59.99 now

Neutral

elgee02 @ Jan 20th 2008 2:02PM

Donald: VZW does not cancel customers who exceed 5GB anymore, VZW just limits their throughput.

And no Lord John, Sprint does not offer $45 a month unlimited EVDO on any PC Card, that price is on top of their $15 power vision pack, so essentially you are still paying $60 a month, just like VZW. The $80 plan is loooong gone.

Neutral

Lord John Whorfin @ Jan 20th 2008 9:16PM

@Matthew Nelson and elgee02: do yourself a favor and google "Sprint SERO". Then, weep.

Neutral

alex @ Jan 20th 2008 6:08AM

I've said it once and I'll say it again.
Screw Rogers.
They have been in a corporate relationship bouncing customers between them and bell canada for decades, giving inadequate service and hassles to the canadian consumer.
I hate rogers. Everybody does. We only use them because we have to.

Highly Ranked

Khris @ Jan 20th 2008 10:23AM

alex - "I hate rogers. Everybody does"

Speak for yourself. I'd give up my left nut before switching to Bell or Telus (who constantly drop calls).

I've got 3 lines with Rogers, and I've been using the $65/1GB data plan with my iPhone for months now. Bellus can't even come close to the service level that Rogers provides.

Neutral

alex @ Jan 20th 2008 5:39PM

You're only choosing between the lesser of two evils. I switched
from Bell to Fido because Bell sucked. Then Rogers bought fido and
fido started to suck. We only have two choices in Toronto, you gotta
step out of the matrix my friend. Take the appropriately coloured
pill and wake up to the fact that you're paying 3G prices for 2G
technology. Let's not even get into customer service issues and billing.

Highly Ranked

Khris @ Jan 20th 2008 6:56PM

I had Clearnet before Telus bought them out and ran them into the ground.

Bell.....well that's just a joke and the only people who don't know the punchline, are the people working at Bell.

Rogers has provided me consistently exceptional service, both in terms of customer service, and also actual cellular service. I would sign another 3 year contract with them tomorrow without batting an eyelash because I know 110% that I can count on them.

Telus is like dealing with a bi-polar psych ward patient. Everything will be fabulous one minute, and the next minute you might as well use tin cans and string if you're looking for reliability.

Neutral

Sam Winter @ Jan 21st 2008 6:05AM

@Khris
Sounds like you need a reality check. You are paying $65 A MONTH for an internet add-on to your phone contract FOR 1 GIGABYTE OF DATA! That is just outrageous... they are bending you over hardcore and you are taking it spread eagle and asking "gimme more! gimme more!". And this is the new "reduced rate"... just crazy...

Neutral

alex @ Jan 21st 2008 6:41AM

You're definitely right about telus, partly because they're subleasing half their services from bell and living in the 5% profit margin. The best thing that happened to Bell is when they outsourced their tech support to India.

By the way, I'm writing this message from Japan. When I signed up for 100Mbit internet access at $40/month, they sent one technician to set up my line and another (with an english translator) about two hours later to hook up the software. That's what I call service. Not mailing you a box and telling you to hook it up as if they're doing YOU a favour.

Neutral

Khris @ Jan 21st 2008 10:27AM

@ Sam

Whether you can justify (or afford) $65 a month for data is your own decision. I can justify, and afford it, so therefore I have it and use it. An iPhone can be extremely data hungry, so for me it makes sense to have a data plan that can accommodate that amount of use.

I have a choice as to whether or not I want to give Rogers that $65 a month for data. The benefits of having it are valuable enough to me to warrant the cost. Granted, not everyone may feel the same, but to say that Rogers is "bending me over hardcore" is complete and utter rubbish.

And yes, this is a new reduced rate. I was paying $65 a month for 25MB of data previously!

Neutral

engadget @ Jan 20th 2008 7:59AM

This.... isn't that good.

I'm not sure what Bell offers, but at Telus it's $15 for unlimited data on a Blackberry/PDA, and $75 for unlimited tethering/connect card.

Neutral

Dan Parmelee @ Jan 20th 2008 11:36AM

I'm still appalled at what Canadians pay for data plans. Here in the states, unlimited data is usually $20-$40/month, depending on your provider.

My Nokia E50's dataplan is $20 a month and gives me unlimited data as well as 1500 text messages.

Neutral

mik @ Jan 20th 2008 4:02PM

telus offers a $15 unlimited data plan - no tethering tho. which is good enough. unlimited data with tethering is $75-100.. with EVDO Rev A thats a pretty decent price imo - especially since i pay my ISP about that much for my interwebs access and the speeds are better with the wireless card i have with telus. rogers data transfer rate is slow as molasses.. better network stability tho.

Neutral

AW @ Jan 21st 2008 10:06AM

I'm sorry, you're saying EVDO RevA is good and HSDPA is slow? Maybe you should do some research before opening your mouth. Rev A at its theoretical maximum gives you 3.1 Mbps, whereas Rogers is already running the 3.6 Mbps flavour of of HSDPA (I don't even need to mention that we are currently prepping our 7.2 upgrade, since that's old news now). Even without all the equipment needed to get the max rates, I've been running close to 5Mbps. Don't you understand that one of the reasons why Belus is contemplating ditching their technology is because they know they've come to the end of the road - they can no longer compete with it.

Neutral

Cody @ Jan 20th 2008 4:16PM

This was talked about on Howard Forums for well over a month now. This is a big step for Rogers, but compared to the $7-15 plans Bell and Telus had, it just doesn't compare. But for me, I'm sticking to the majority of my data usage being on Wifi

Neutral

oshawapilot @ Jan 20th 2008 4:30PM

Jaw dropping?

How about providing reasonable plan for people who want on-handset data, not just PC card data.

Yes, you can use these plans on a handset (iPhone, whatever), a fact Rogers would prefer most people don't know about, but even $65 continues to be a stupid amount of money to pay for a data plan to complement a voice plan on a smartphone.

Good news for PC card users. The rest of us that still want to use our data on a handset instead of a laptop are still getting raped, however.

Neutral

alex @ Jan 20th 2008 5:11PM

@Khris

You're only choosing between the lesser of two evils. I switched from Bell to Fido because Bell sucked. Then Rogers bought fido and fido started to suck. We only have two choices in Toronto, you gotta step out of the matrix my friend. Take the appropriately coloured pill and wake up to the fact that you're paying 3G prices for 2G technology.

Neutral

pmac @ Jan 20th 2008 10:32PM

How is this so special.
Bell Mobility offers $75/month for Unlimited for their PC Cards. I have one it has been available for a couple months at least. I work for the retail outlet as a corp rep so these figures are a fact.

Neutral

pmac @ Jan 20th 2008 10:36PM

On top of it Blee Mobility offers UNLIMITED Date internet and email on the device HTC TOUCH for ..ready for this...$7 a month. No tethering tho.
Blackberry devices have unlimited email for $15 a month. Data in Canada has been coming down for months now.
I dont care who you like/hate it isnt the issue, just the fact that those pricing this topic is about is not that good.

Neutral

Himself @ Jan 21st 2008 8:51AM

This is considered special people, because it is a good step towards more reasonable data rates from Rogers. You must know what the above would have cost someone just 4 months ago (give or take) if they used more then a measly 5 or 10mb! Now we are talking in gigabytes. It's not great yet, but it is a far, far cry better then what it was! We can just hope they pump out some more decent data plans that are worthy and more affordable for the average consumer to pick up.

Neutral

i.Fido @ Jan 21st 2008 12:16PM

Actually, you cannot use the Telus/Bell $75 unlimited plans for tethering. They are for PC Cards ONLY. If you want to tether your phone on Telus/Bell you have to pay an extra $100 for 1GB of data. This means that Fido/Rogers is actually $35 cheaper for the same functionality.

Cheers.

Neutral

pmac @ Jan 23rd 2008 9:33AM

When I posted that it was based on the article saying these were PC Card plans. If the article is inaccurate and it is for tethering then my comments should not have been posted.

Neutral

Kim Siever @ Jan 21st 2008 12:43PM

I have to subscribe separately for a voice plan. What kid of deal is that? I pay nearly $50/month for a family plan. That's no data. So, I'd have to pay nearly $120/month for the lowest data plan?

Jaw dropping my foot. I'll drop my jaw when our data plans compete with European/Asian rates.

Neutral

i.Fido @ Jan 21st 2008 4:05PM

$120 per month for voice and real data including tethering is actually not very expensive compared to the rest of the world. In fact, I think $120 is on the lower end of what most phone/laptop users (mostly business users) actually pay.

Neutral

Think Mobile @ Jan 21st 2008 10:53PM

$120 is not very expencive? What the? Both Vodfone and Optus are offering 5GB for $39/mth with free USB data modem over 24 months and 3 mobile are offering 1GB for $14.95 per month. And these prices are in Australian dollars. I'm glad that we are not getting ripped off as bad you people.

Neutral

i.Fido @ Jan 22nd 2008 10:26PM

$100+ is still not expensive compared to MOST of the world, not the exceptions to the rule. Somewhere, sometime, there will always be a cheaper provider and everyone will complain. That's not the point. A few months ago it cost $210 for just 500MB of data in Canada. Now we get 1GB-5GB for roughly the same price as MANY providers charge worldwide.

Yes it can be cheaper, but it is meant for PC Cards afterall. This falls right in line with most high-speed North American providers PC Card pricing, and it's actually cheaper than some providers overseas as well. Not all...but many.